IBT Staff Reporter

A suicide attack on an Air Force bus killed eight people on Thursday as security forces said they wiped out up to 70 militants in northwest Pakistan, fuelling talk President Pervez Musharraf would invoke emergency powers to put off elections.

International Business Machines Corp is launching a major initiative to drive sales in the data security market, including $1.5 billion in spending next year on marketing and product development, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday in its online edition.

VMware Inc, a global leader in virtualization software, said on Thursday it hopes to expand rapidly in China, a market where it has only recently established a toehold.

Nine privacy and consumer organizations asked the Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday to create a do not track list for Internet users who don't want their online activities tracked, stored and used by advertising networks.

Microsoft Corp's Windows Vista is starting to see mass adoption from businesses nearly a year after it was released, the company said while predicting a strong first holiday season for the product.

Stocks sank on Thursday after a confidence-shaking downgrade of Citigroup by a brokerage that put the No. 1 U.S. bank's dividend in question and added to concern the mortgage crisis may claim more casualties. Adding to pressure, Exxon Mobil reported earnings that fell short of expectations.

Citigroup shares dropped 7.6 percent on Thursday morning, reaching their lowest level in over four years, after an analyst said the largest U.S. bank may have to raise $30 billion of capital.

Hyundai Motor KS, South Korea's top auto maker, plans to boost struggling China and U.S. sales with another factory and new models but investors reacted with skepticism, sending its shares down almost 5 percent.

When U.S. banks JPMorgan and Merrill Lynch were hired to handle Kirin Holdings' purchase of a local drugs firm, it was a slap in the face for Japanese banks used to winning most domestic takeovers.

Lenovo, battling Acer Inc for the mantle of world's No. 3 PC maker, smashed expectations with a near-tripling in quarterly earnings thanks to robust PC demand and market share gains.

Singapore Airlines, the world's second-biggest carrier by market value, posted on Wednesday a 73 percent surge in quarterly net profit on strong passenger sales but warned it could be hit by a slowing world economy and rising fuel costs.

NYMEX Holdings Inc, parent of the New York Mercantile Exchange, posted a better-than-expected quarterly profit on Thursday helped by stronger electronic trading volume and cost cuts.

Exxon Mobil Corp. said on Thursday its third-quarter earnings declined 10 percent, missing expectations on sharply dropping profits from the production of gasoline and lower natural gas prices. Margins to produce gasoline and other refined products fell sharply during the quarter, dragging down earnings at most integrated oil companies that both drill for and refine the fuel.

Hong Kong banks on Thursday said they would cut their prime lending rates in line with a reduction in U.S. borrowing costs, while the Hong Kong dollar eased away from the ceiling of its trading band with the U.S. dollar.

Dutch bank ABN AMRO's new owners voted Royal Bank of Scotland executive Mark Fisher as the Dutch bank's chief executive at a shareholder's meeting on Thursday, the lender said.

Credit Suisse said third-quarter profit at its investment bank was all but wiped out by writedowns, leading to a 31 percent fall in group net earnings to 1.3 billion Swiss francs ($1.12 billion).

World stocks dropped from earlier all-time highs on Thursday while the dollar rebounded from a record low after the Federal Reserve made a widely-expected U.S. interest rate cut and moderated expectations of further easing.

Oil on Thursday above $96 for the first time, extending the previous day's 5 percent jump after an unexpected sharp fall in U.S. crude stocks and data showing strong economic growth. Crude oil's inflation adjusted prices is approaching an all-time of $101.70 seen in 1980. The price also includes reaction to a weak U.S. dollar, a Federal Reserve interest rate cut, and andOPEC statement saying prices were out of its control.

Three days of fighting in the Somali capital Mogadishu displaced 88,000 people from their homes, adding to hundreds of thousands who fled violence earlier this year, the United Nations said on Thursday.

Japan ordered its naval ships on Thursday to withdraw from a refueling mission in support of U.S.-led operations in Afghanistan as a political deadlock kept the government from meeting a deadline to extend the activities.

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday that economic sanctions agreed against groups backing Kurdish rebels were not yet in force, denying a report that Turkey had closed its airspace to flights to northern Iraq.

A senior U.S. official said on Thursday Russia and China had been blocking tough U.N. sanctions against Iran for months but there would be a push to impose them if Tehran had not suspended nuclear activity within two weeks.

AvalonBay Communities Inc.'s third-quarter net income rose sharply to $128.8 million, or $1.58 a share, from $42.1 million, or 53 cents a share, a year earlier.

Indexes tracking mining and metals shares rallied on Wednesday. The Philadelphia Gold and Silver Index surged 4.1% at 188.09 points. The CBOE Gold Index rose 3.5% at 190.18 points and the Amex Gold Bugs Index rallied 3.8% at 435.08 points.

Nokia, the world's leading mobile phone supplier revealed today its newest headset, the Nokia Bluetooth Headset BH-101.

Microsoft Corp. and International Trade Union signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) at the Connect Africa summit in Kigali, Rwanda on Tuesday, so as to be able to expand the development of information and communication technologies (ICT) infrastructure.

The Bank of Japan today lowered its forecasts for growth and inflation this year, and held interest rates steady, but maintained its view that the country's economy was likely to continue its sustained expansion.

The sale of Olympic tickets was suspended on October 30th, the first day of the second tranche sale. The official ticketing website has been paralyzed since 9:30AM.and has not been resumed so far. Besides, phone lines were jammed and serpentine queues formed at banks.

On October 30th, Nokia Siemens Communications Corporation (Nokia Siemens) declared that they will fire 350 people in China before year 2008, which is the part of their global restructuring plan.