IBT Staff Reporter

Stocks tumbled on Wednesday as a gloomy retail sales report revived recent anxiety about the economy's struggle and caused a broad sell-off that accelerated late in the session.

The Obama administration plans to regulate most financial derivatives linked to last year's market turmoil, two congressional staff sources told Reuters on Wednesday.

In a reversal, President Barack Obama objected on Wednesday to the release of dozens of photographs showing the abuse of terrorism suspects, fearing the pictures could trigger a backlash against U.S. troops.

General Motors Corp and Chrysler aim to drop as many as 3,000 U.S. dealers and are expected to begin sending notifications as early as Thursday, three people briefed on the still developing plans said.

The world's richest nations will put recession behind them later this year, but when growth returns it will be sluggish, according to Reuters polls that pose a challenge to the vigorous rally in world stock markets.

Sales at U.S. retailers fell for a second straight month in April as cash-strapped consumers held back on purchases, government data showed on Wednesday, denting hopes the economy would soon emerge from recession.

Stocks tumbled on Wednesday as a gloomy retail sales report revived recent anxiety about the economy's struggle and caused a broad sell-off that accelerated late in the session.

Today, Sony introduced its new X-Series Walkman's full features with a portable audio/video and Wi-Fi enabled.

General Motors Corp and Chrysler plan to shed as many as 3,000 U.S. dealers, Reuters reported.

Militants and hate groups increasingly use social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace and YouTube as propaganda tools to recruit new members, according to a report by the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

America is more than a country; it is the ideal of liberty. In economic terms, liberty translates into the entrepreneurial spirit of hard work, risk taking and self-reliance.

EU regulators on Wednesday slapped a record 1.06 billion euro ($1.45 billion) fine on Intel Corp for antitrust violations and ordered it to halt illegal efforts to squeeze out arch-foe AMD.

A global energy overseer urged governments around the world today to implement strong public policies to make electronic devices more energy efficient in order to avoid hefty amounts of energy consumption by 2022 and on.

If one follows the price of GM stock, one may be confused by just what the perspectives for GM ar

Oil prices dropped 1.4 percent on Wednesday as gloom on Wall Street outweighed the impact of a government report showing a surprise drop in U.S. crude and gasoline stockpiles.

U.S. Bancorp Chief Executive Richard Davis said the bank expects in a few weeks to be eligible to repay a $6.6 billion taxpayer-funded infusion, becoming one of the first big lenders to exit the much-maligned Troubled Asset Relief Program.

Shelling killed a Red Cross worker inside Sri Lanka's war zone on Wednesday, the aid agency said, while troops and the Tamil Tigers battled in an intensifying fight to the finish of Asia's longest modern war.

Apple on Wednesday said Steve Jobs would host its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) but instead, the keynote will be hosted by senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing, Philip Schiller.

Pope Benedict on Wednesday said the fortified Israeli wall dividing Bethlehem from Jerusalem could be taken down, if Israel and the Palestinians could remove the walls around their hearts.

IBM is confident about its earnings outlook for this year and 2010, saying its focus on high-margin software and its geographic diversity would help buffer the impact of a slower economy.

AT&T Inc said on Wednesday it had given its best and final offer for a labor agreement covering about 9 percent of its employees whose contract has expired.

Honda Motor Co (7267.T) is taking steps to raise output in Japan in preparation for a likely uptick in demand if a bill to offer consumers cash to replace old cars becomes law, its chief financial officer said on Wednesday.

Stocks tumbled on Wednesday as worse-than-expected retail sales hurt shares in the sector, including Wal-Mart Stores Inc, and dampened recent enthusiasm over the economic outlook.

Fiat (FIA.MI) is discussing closing one of its plants in Italy and reducing operations at another, German unions have told their Italian counterparts, an official of Italy's FIM-CISL union told Reuters on Wednesday.

Auto dealers lobbied Congress on Wednesday to try to slow plans by General Motors Corp and Chrysler LLC to cut their ranks.

Now that European, South Korean and Japanese authorities have moved against chip giant Intel Corp for breaking antitrust laws, the question is: Are U.S. officials feeling pressure to take action, too?

With General Motors Corp planning to end production of Saturns and Pontiacs at its Delaware plant which employs more than 1,000 people, state leaders are scrambling to win new work at the facility or persuade the company to move other operations to the region.

U.S. mortgage application demand slid to the lowest level since mid-March, driven by a drop in requests to refinance loans even as borrowing costs dipped toward record lows last week, the Mortgage Bankers Association said on Wednesday.

Microsoft is developing a video camera for the Xbox 360 games console that will allow players to control games through the movement of their bodies according to a report Tuesday from The Wall Street Journal.