IBT Staff Reporter

Top U.S. officials on Saturday offered reassurances that the worst of the economic downturn is likely over, helped by unprecedented efforts to keep credit flowing, though the recovery will be slow.

President Barack Obama said on Saturday he would soon announce the elimination of dozens of wasteful or ineffective government programs as part of a broad effort to restore fiscal accountability to the federal budget.

The Federal Reserve will not allow its unorthodox policies to trigger a surge in inflation, but may still need to do more to ease credit if the economy remains weak, the Fed's No. 2 official said on Saturday.

Four men behind The Pirate Bay, one of the world's biggest free file-sharing websites, were each sentenced to a year in jail on Friday for breaching copyright, and ordered to pay $3.6 million in compensation.

Japan's Toshiba Corp plans to raise about 500 billion yen ($5 billion) in capital as early as June to prop up its finances, battered by loss-making chip operations and tax credit costs, a newspaper said.

Bernd Pischetsrieder, ex-CEO of Volkswagen, could be a suitable head of a new Opel company independent of troubled U.S. parent General Motors Corp, an Opel dealer group in Germany was quoted on Saturday as saying.

A fund run by China Guangdong Nuclear Power Group, one of China's two leading nuclear power developers, has signed a deal raising 7 billion yuan ($1.03 billion) for nuclear and other energy projects, the Xinhua news agency said on Saturday.

U.S. President Barack Obama sat down with South American leaders on Saturday, saying he was ready to listen and learn after promising an era of more regional cooperation and a new start with communist Cuba.

Paul Volcker, senior economic adviser to President Barack Obama, said on Saturday that the U.S. economic recovery will be a long slog but that the rate of decline is going to slow.

Paul Volcker, senior economic adviser to President Barack Obama, said on Saturday that the U.S. economic recovery will be a long slog but that the rate of decline is going to slow.

Paul Volcker, senior economic adviser to President Barack Obama, said on Saturday that the U.S. economic recovery will be a long slog but that the rate of decline should slow.

A torrent of earnings threatens to swamp Wall Street's impressive rally next week, as results so far have shown the corporate outlook remains murky and investors worry that better-than-expected results from banks still don't prove the sector is stable.

China's Premier Wen Jiabao said on Saturday that economic polices of countries which issue global reserve currencies require closer supervision as part of building a diversified international monetary system.

Venture capital investment into start-ups dropped to its lowest level since 1997 in the U.S., with clean technology hit the worst, new figures showed on Friday.

Regulators closed banks on Friday in Missouri and Nevada, bringing the total of U.S. bank failures this year to 25 and matching the number that failed throughout all of 2008, as the struggling economy and falling home prices take their toll on financial institutions.

A plan for the restructuring of MGM Mirage , suggested by investor Carl Icahn, would involve swapping debt for equity and be done in concert with Kirk Kerkorian, MGM's majority shareholder, a source familiar with the situation said on Friday.

Four men from The Pirate Bay were sentenced to a year jail and ordered to pay 2.5 million pounds in a landmark case.

The Environmental Protection Agency on Friday unveiled a finding that greenhouse gases endanger human health and welfare, opening the door to federal regulation of carbon dioxide as a pollutant.

The two companies are talking again, with less contention

President Barack Obama said on Friday the United States wants a new beginning with communist Cuba and was willing to work with its government on issues ranging from human rights to migration and the economy.

Herb Allison, who has been chief executive of Fannie Mae since it was seized by the government last September, has been tapped to oversee the $700 billion financial rescue fund aimed at restoring rattled markets, the White House said on Friday.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy was under fire Friday for allegedly saying U.S. President Barak Obama was not up to standard and Spain's Premier not very clever.

U.S. President Barack Obama stood by his auto task force head on Friday, saying Steven Rattner had not been accused of any wrongdoing related to an alleged pension kickback scheme in New York.

The U.S. tech sector's road to recovery may take a bit longer than expected, if mixed results reports from two of the largest players are a guide.

A week of Twitter mania culminated on Friday with actor Ashton Kutcher winning a popularity contest against cable news giant CNN on the Web platform and Oprah Winfrey sending her first tweet.

Prominent Wall Street economist, Henry Kaufman, said on Friday that the Federal Reserve allowed the global credit crisis to happen and must be redrawn as a tough regulator to stop big financial institutions from taking excessive risks.

Stocks rose on Friday, with the Dow scoring its biggest six-week gain since July 1938, helped by a reassuring report on the mood of consumers and stabilization in General Electric and Citigroup's quarterly results.

Herb Allison, who has been chief executive of Fannie Mae since it was seized by the government last September, has been tapped to oversee the $700 billion financial rescue fund conceived to restore rattled markets, the White House said on Friday.

The U.S. tech sector's road to recovery may take a bit longer than expected, if mixed results reports from two of the largest players are a guide.