IBT Staff Reporter

Think of a retail boutique with a very, very limited range of products and bargain basement prices. Now, put that on the Internet and you have the next big thing in online shopping.

People using CIA and FBI computers have edited entries in the online encyclopedia Wikipedia on topics including the Iraq war and the Guantanamo prison, according to a new tracing program.

IBM has agreed to sell Sun Microsystems's Solaris Operating System software to IBM's customers in a deal that pits the competing computer hardware makers against shared rival Hewlett-Packard.

The dollar fell against the euro and high-yielding currencies on Friday after the Federal Reserve cut the discount rate and said downside risks to the U.S. economy have increased.

Oil jumped $1 a barrel on Friday after the U.S. Federal Reserve cut its discount rate by 50 basis points to restore order in financial markets that have been hammered by credit worries.

The Nikkei plunged more than 5 percent in its biggest one-day loss since the September 11 attacks on Friday as sharp gains in the yen triggered concern about Japan's economic outlook and companies' profits, hammering shares of exporters such as Toyota Motor Corp.

Jose Padilla, a U.S. convert to Islam once accused by the Bush administration of plotting a radiological dirty bomb attack, was found guilty on Thursday of unrelated charges he offered his services to terrorists.

St. Louis Federal Reserve President William Poole said on Friday rising protectionism in the United States was a worry, but avoided any mention of the current economic or policy outlook in a speech.

On the same December day Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. paid $1.3 billion for a subprime lender, the world's largest brokerage got a rude introduction to risky mortgages.

Nokia said on Friday it had asked the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) to bar the import of some Qualcomm Inc chipsets to the United States, alleging they are infringing five Nokia patents.

Many Chinese toy workers have lost their jobs following Mattel Inc.'s global recall of toys, an industry body said on Friday, but insisted overall confidence in their products was high ahead of the key Christmas season.

Midwest Air Group Inc., which had been fending off hostile suitor AirTran Holdings Inc., on Friday said it accepted a raised bid of about $450 million from private equity firm TPG Capital and Northwest Airlines Corp.

Sprint Nextel Corp is keeping an eye on the U.S. economy as stock markets take a rollercoaster ride and credit tightens, but its chief executive said on Thursday telecommunications companies have some insulation against a downturn.

A bid by Pfizer Inc. to win reissuance of a U.S. patent protecting its blockbuster Lipitor cholesterol medicine has been rejected on a preliminary basis, the company said on Friday.

The U.S. Federal Reserve on Friday cut the discount rate governing direct Fed loans to banks by a half-percentage point in a surprise move aimed at keeping credit flowing and calming jittery global markets.

Japanese department stores Isetan Co. Ltd. and Mitsukoshi Ltd. have agreed to merge under a holding company in spring 2008, creating the sector's largest player, the Nikkei business daily reported on Friday.

Borse Dubai launched a $4 billion cash offer for Nordic exchange owner OMX on Friday, trumping an agreed deal with U.S. exchange Nasdaq, in a bid to create a group with global reach.

North American makers of equipment to produce semiconductors saw orders fall 17 percent from a year ago to $1.44 billion in July, a U.S. trade group said on Thursday.

Rescue teams battled through the night to find survivors after a powerful quake ravaged Peru's central coast, killing some 500 people in one of the country's worst natural disasters in the last 100 years.

A cave-in killed three rescue workers at a Utah mine while they looked for six trapped miners, and the U.S. state's governor demanded on Friday that the underground search stop until safety could be ensured.

The White House on Thursday said it expects to see continued U.S. economic growth, but would not comment on the recent financial market declines.

Conductor Zubin Mehta hopes to have an Arab-Israeli in his Israel Philharmonic within 10 years, but he's in no hurry to program Wagner again in Israel.

Singapore can seem like one big shopping center, where everything is neatly arranged and price tagged in air-conditioned comfort, and local film director Li Lin Wee knows it all too well.

Nearly 15 percent of Chinese food products failed a recent quality check, the government said on Friday in a report that nonetheless sought to reassure rattled consumers that tainted products are disappearing from shelves.

Widely used blood thinner warfarin will come with new instructions explaining that people with certain genes may need a lower dose to take the drug safely, U.S. health officials said on Thursday.

World stocks took another dive on Friday despite early attempts at a rebound in Europe while currency dealers drove the Japanese yen to a 14-month high against the dollar, throwing out risky leverage. Wall Street looked set for a weak opening.

Stocks surged on Friday to end a turbulent week after the Federal Reserve cut the discount rate it charges banks in an emergency move to stabilize credit markets and keep the economy on track. World stock markets have fallen sharply, with investors fleeing riskier assets as problems in U.S. subprime mortgage lending spread rapidly in other credit markets .

A remarkable end-of-day rally pushed the benchmark S&P 500 higher on Thursday after investors snatched up financial stocks that looked cheap after weeks of pummeling by global credit market turmoil.

A U.S. judge on Thursday denied a bid by federal antitrust authorities to temporarily block organic grocer Whole Foods Market Inc.'s acquisition of rival Wild Oats Markets Inc.