IBT Staff Reporter

Aerospace firm Smiths posted a 22 percent rise in annual underlying profit before tax on Wednesday, slightly topping brokerage forecasts

Viridian Group said on Wednesday that half year trading was in line with its expectations and that it still planned to raise its yearly dividend over the next four years.

Foreign media will be free to travel around China and enjoy uncensored access to the Internet during the 2008 Beijing Olympics, organizers said on Wednesday. Non-Chinese journalists currently need permission to move around the country, while websites containing material considered sensitive by the Chinese government are frequently blocked.

Canadian mining company Bema Gold Corp. on Tuesday acknowledged mounting debt in a South African gold mine and said it was pursuing a joint venture there.

Africa's biggest media company Naspers has sold a 15 percent stake in its core newspaper and magazine business to black investors for 730 million rand, it said on Wednesday.

Kesa Electricals, owner of retailers Comet and France's Darty, posted a 61.7 percent rise in its first half pre tax profit on Wednesday

Mortgage approvals rose by just three percent in August from a year ago to 71,278, British Bankers' Association data shows

Listings by big European and emerging markets companies are helping equity capital markets activity pick up steam again after the market correction in May and June

Microsoft Corp. on Tuesday released a security patch to fix a critical hole in its Internet Explorer Web browser that the world's biggest software maker said could allow an attacker to take control of a user's computer.

Honda Motor Co. launched its top-line sedan Acura in China on Wednesday, joining BMW and other foreign luxury car brands to compete in the world's second-largest auto market.

The FTSE 100 index opened higher on Wednesday, led by miners and after an unexpectedly big jump in consumer confidence in the U.S. on Tuesday

General Motors Corp. is prepared to tell Nissan and Renault that its price for a three-way alliance is a multi billion dollar payment from Nissan and Renault, The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.

Ford Motor Co said on Wednesday that none of its European premium brand car businesses was for sale at this stage except Aston Martin, but added it would continue to examine all its options.

GlaxoSmithKline won a partial victory on Wednesday in its bid to stop Spanish drug wholesalers from re-exporting its medicines at high premiums.

Ford Motor Co said on Wednesday that none of its European premium brand car businesses was for sale at this stage except Aston Martin, but added it would continue to examine all its options.

Insurer Standard Life posted a first half operating profit below analyst forecasts on Wednesday, hit by an increase in provisions for customers cashing in policies

Chief Executive Donald Tsang has concluded his three-day Hunan visit, which has helped Hong Kong entrepreneurs......

Hong Kong continues to be the preferred base for international companies to oversee their regional operations, a Census & Statistics Department survey suggests. The number of regional operations and local offices in Hong Kong operated by overseas and Mainland companies reached its highest-ever level this year, topping 6,350.

Hang Seng Index closed at 17.308 pct yestoday, down 237 pcts or 1.3％，a HK$34.74 billion turnover achieved, dragged by the news of allotment of shares by China Life Insurance and China Mobile......

Hong Kong tycoon Richard Li took another step to promote the sale of his controled-shareholder interest in the fixed-line phone operator PCCW......

Most Americans read food labels to help them decide what to buy but few people actually understand what they're reading or consuming, according to two U.S. studies published on Tuesday.

Barbie in Midnight Red, dating from 1965, sold for a world record 9,000 pounds ($17,000) on Tuesday as collectors from around the world gathered to bid for a piece of a unique private collection of 4,000 Barbie family dolls.

Johnson & Johnson has sued Boston Scientific Corp. and Abbott Laboratories Inc., seeking at least $5.5 billion in damages related to J&J's failed bid for medical device maker Guidant Corp.

Microsoft Corp., the worlds largest software vendor, issued an emergency patch for its flawed Internet Explorer on Tuesday, patching a serious hole that could allow for remote access to a compromised computer.

At Intel's Developer Conference on Tuesday, the world's largest chip maker outlined plans to produce processors capable one trillion operations per second (teraFLOPs) and terabytes of bandwidth.

Cisco Systems announced an online publishing solution for business on Tuesday, allowing customers to manage and deliver live and on-demand digital media through the internet.

The use of Ebay's Internet-based telephone, Skype, has been banned from California State University in San Jose, following claims that the technology used is capable of corrupting and crowding Internet networks.

Globalization was noted as a major factor in the recent decline in long-term rates in spite of short-term rate increases, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas' Economic Letter.

As the television market continues to grow, consumers will continually switch away from cathode-ray tube (CRT) sets to newer technologies, with liquid-crystal displays overtaking CRT's by 2009.