IBT Staff Reporter

The U.S. trade deficit widened in May as rising oil prices pushed imports to an all-time high, outstripping record exports, a government report showed on Thursday.

Germany's biggest Apple retailer is getting 1,000 enquiries every day about buying the new iPhone, which is expected to go on sale towards the end of the year, the retailer's head told a newspaper.

M&T Bank Corp., the first large U.S. bank to report quarterly results, on Thursday said easing mortgage pressure contributed to higher-than-expected profit.

Retailers reported modest June sales results on Thursday as industry leader Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and teen favorite Abercrombie & Fitch Co. topped Wall Street's conservative expectations while a number of department stores and women's specialty retailers foundered.

Thieves have stolen nearly $300 million from a bank in Baghdad, police and a bank official said Thursday, in what is probably one of the biggest thefts in Iraq since the 2003 war to topple Saddam Hussein.

Shares in Capgemini rose on Thursday on market talk that India's Infosys would make a bid for Europe's largest IT services group at 70 euros a share, traders said.

Refugees forced into crowded camps by northern Uganda's two-decade civil war need many things: food, doctors, toilets, bore holes for drinking water, schools -- and computers?

Cooperation, not mutual destruction, is a major theme at this year's summer gathering of the media and technology elite in Sun Valley. And the Scandinavian founders of new online video service Joost -- Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom -- perhaps embody this new spirit best.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. on Thursday reported a higher-than-expected 2.4 percent June rise in sales at its U.S. stores open at least a year, and the world's largest retailer said its second-quarter earnings forecast is attainable.

A fat tax on salty, sugary and fatty foods could save thousands of lives each year, according to a study published on Thursday.

U.S. home foreclosures fell in June after jumping to a 30-month peak in May, but default rates will escalate as a horde of mortgages resets at higher loan rates, real estate data firm RealtyTrac said on Thursday.

Gold edged higher on Thursday to trade below one-month highs, helped by a record low dollar, but the market was disappointed with the metal's slow upward move.

Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto Ltd/Plc has agreed to buy Canada's Alcan Inc. for $38.1 billion to create the world's biggest aluminum producer, the two firms said on Thursday.

Japan's Nikkei average lost 0.36 percent on Thursday to log its lowest close in two weeks, weighed down by Tokyo Electron Ltd. and similar stocks after the company reported weak chip orders data a day earlier.

Stocks rose on Wednesday as a scarcity of profit warnings fueled optimism over the corporate reporting season, enabling the market to regain its footing after a sharp drop the previous session.

Embattled CBS news anchor Katie Couric said she sometimes wonders if she should have left NBC's morning show Today to join the CBS Evening News, where she succeeded male broadcasting legends.

Despite lukewarm reviews, millions are expected to catch the latest film about the boy wizard.

The video game industry's new champion-in-chief said on Tuesday he will fight a perception that games are a menace to society by playing up their creative and technical achievements.

Google Inc. will introduce on Wednesday a new feature that lets users create personalized maps which plot the locations of everything from cheap gas locally to the latest earthquakes worldwide.

Two black shoppers have sued Toys R Us saying they were subjected to racial discrimination and unjustified scrutiny at a store in New York.

Oil eased from an 11-month high on Wednesday ahead of U.S. data that will give a snapshot of fuel and crude supplies in the world's top consumer.

Fujitsu-Siemens Computers will start selling laptops with flash memory instead of hard drives this summer, bringing faster, lighter and more energy-efficient computers to the European mass market.

After years of arguing whose video game machine has the best bells and whistles, Sony Corp. and Microsoft Corp. agree the battle boils down to which has the best games.

The leading realty trade group on Wednesday cut its 2007 forecast for U.S. home sales and prices, saying both would slide this year with sales hitting a five-year low. The National Association of Realtors trimmed its sales forecast for the fifth straight month and also widened its predicted drop in existing home values.

Asian stocks tumbled on Wednesday and the dollar plumbed a record low against the euro as investors fretted that growing problems in the U.S. subprime mortgage sector will spread to the wider economy.

Billionaire Carl Icahn's sweetened $3 billion buyout offer for auto parts maker Lear Corp. has gained little traction among top advisory firms or shareholders ahead of a scheduled vote next week.

When native designer Valentino packed his bags for the catwalks of Paris 17 years ago, Rome's fall from the pinnacle of fashion glory appeared complete.

Japan's Nikkei average slipped 1.11 percent on Wednesday to its lowest finish in nearly two weeks, hurt by a tumble in U.S. stocks and a stronger yen.

U.S. apparel company Liz Claiborne Inc. said on Wednesday that it will cut up to 800 jobs and consider its options for 16 apparel brands under a plan to cut costs.