IBT Staff Reporter

China's Foreign Ministry on Thursday accused Google's English language search engine of spreading vulgar content that violated the nation's law.

Internet users in China were unable to open the main site of Google, the world's biggest search engine, late on Wednesday evening, and the company said it was investigating.

Asian stocks rallied for a second day on Thursday after the Federal Reserve reinforced that interest rates will be kept at a record low for a while, but Treasuries extended losses as the Fed shied away from boosting debt purchases.

Oil rose toward $69 on Thursday, after Nigeria's main militant group raided a Royal Dutch Shell pipeline and disrupted a major export terminal, recouping losses caused by hefty builds in U.S. fuel stocks.

The United States appears to have won a victory against Chinese barriers to imported films, books and recorded music in a preliminary World Trade Organization ruling not yet made public.

President Barack Obama stepped up pressure on Congress on Wednesday to pass healthcare reform this year, staging a daylong media blitz that ended with a televised town hall-style meeting at the White House to rally public support.

President Barack Obama on Wednesday renewed sanctions against North Korea, declaring that its nuclear program posed a national security risk to the United States and a danger to the Korean Peninsula.

Ordinary web users in China will be banned from surfing sex-related medical and research websites from next month, amid an Internet crackdown on pornographic online content, according to new regulations.

Iran's reformist opposition leaders vowed to press on with legal challenges to an election they say was rigged, even as the hardline government appeared on Thursday to have largely crushed mass street protests.

The Federal Reserve sought to hide its involvement in Bank of America Corp's acquisition of Merrill Lynch as Merrill's financial condition worsened, the top Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee said on Wednesday.

Asian stocks rallied for a second day on Thursday after the Federal Reserve reinforced that interest rates will be kept at a record low for a while, but Treasuries extended losses as the Fed shied away from boosting its debt purchases.

Woolworths, the 100-year-old sweets-to-DVD retailer that collapsed earlier this year, will on Thursday be revived as an online business by Britain's biggest home shopping retailer, Shop Direct, which bought the brand name in February.

Time Warner Inc and Comcast Corp have banded together to test ways to allow people to watch more TV shows over the Web, while making sure they keep paying for their traditional cable or satellite TV services.

The world's leading provider of open source solutions, Red Hat Inc on Wednesday said its continues rising first quarter drove by its open source products amid the economic downturn has bought back $47 million of its common stock in the quarter.

Global flash memory cards leader, SanDisk Corporation on Wednesday introduced the world’s claiming fastest 32GB SDHC card on the market design for DLSR, HD video and Apple’s new SD slot laptop.

Federal Reserve chairman, Ben Bernanke is expected to testify on Thursday about allegations made by Bank of America CEO that the government put pressure on him to go forward with the Merril Lynch acquisition.

Chinese equities rose 1.02% on Wednesday to close at one-year high after the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said the country's economy has bottomed out, said Xinhua news agency.

Nike Inc reported a worse-than-expected global decline in forward orders, especially in its European region, sending shares of the world's largest athletic shoe and clothing company down nearly 5 percent in extended trading on Wednesday.

Microsoft Corp, the world's largest software group, is still open to a partnership with search engine giant Yahoo Inc, Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said on Wednesday.

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday stuck to its huge program of buying government and mortgage debt, which is designed to keep borrowing costs low and boost recovery, and said it saw signs that the deep U.S. recession was easing.

Celebrity blogger Perez Hilton on Wednesday sued the road manager of the chart-topping hip-hop band the Black Eyed Peas for allegedly punching him in the face outside a Toronto nightclub at the weekend.

Social networking Internet service LinkedIn said on Wednesday that interim President Jeff Weiner will take over as chief executive officer, six months after the company's co-founder stepped into the role.

Three of China's “big four” banks ranked in the top five in terms of profits among all banks around the world last year, the UK magazine The Banker released on Wednesday.

US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi condemned China on Wednesday of arresting the leading pro-democracy advocate Liu Xiaobo.

A combination of two drugs from Novartis AG cut the size of pancreatic neuroendocrine tumours in more than 80 percent of patients in a mid-stage study, the Swiss group said on Wednesday. Patients who received a once-daily pill Afinitor in combination with Sandostatin LAR had no progression in their disease for a median of 16.7 months, according to results from the so-called RADIANT-1 study of 160 patients.

Chrysler's dash through bankruptcy has cost $12.7 million in legal costs in its first month, according to a court filing.

The new overseer of the U.S. government's $700 billion bank bailout fund said on Wednesday an intently awaited program to cleanse toxic assets from banks' balance sheets should soon be ready to roll out.

China's Wuhan Iron & Steel Inc (WISCO) made a nonbinding offer of $400 million for a minority stake in Brazilian miner MMX and its subsidiary MMX Sudeste Mineracao, MMX said on Tuesday in its website.

One of the lessons that the global financial crisis has taught the world is that the top reserve currencies should be kept stable, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said on Wednesday.