Joseph Lazzaro

Vladimir Putin ordered Russia's government to boost investment and shake up state-run industries in a flurry of decrees issued after he returned to the presidency on Monday with a call for a new economy.

Billionaire investor Carl Icahn has sold his $250 million debt holdings in Philip Falcone's telecom start-up LightSquared MOSAV.UL, while Falcone continues to negotiate with creditors to avoid a debt default, according to sources familiar with the matter.

Berkshire Hathaway Inc is adding to its shareholdings of two U.S. companies amid a market dip, billionaire investor Warren Buffett said on Monday.

U.S. stock index futures fell on Monday as elections in France and Greece stirred up new uncertainties about how the region will tackle its ongoing debt crisis.

In some U.S. presidential election years, one issue dominates, and that's likely to be the case in 2012. The issue: jobs, and so far the Obama administration's policies have not created enough. President Barack Obama needs to find ways to create more jobs, if he hopes to be re-elected.

The second largest U.S. public pension fund said on Thursday it had sued current and former executives and board members at Wal-Mart Stores Inc, alleging bribery and a cover-up in the company's expansion in Mexico.

Nonfarm productivity fell in the first quarter as companies hired more workers to maintain output, but a moderate rise in wages suggested little pressure on company profits and inflation.

General Motors reported a first-quarter profit that surpassed forecasts as it was able to boost vehicle prices, especially in North America, and cut losses in its troubled European operations.

An Oracle Corp attorney ruled out a settlement with Hewlett-Packard Co in a bitter lawsuit over the Itanium microprocessor, a day after the judge refused to resolve the case for either side before trial.

Visa Inc, the world's largest credit and debit-card network, beat analysts estimates with a 23 percent increase in adjusted earnings as people spent more with cards.

Legendary natural gas trader John Arnold is closing down his flagship Centaurus fund, a source said on Wednesday, as the former Enron wunderkind struggled to maintain outsized returns with prices near 10-year lows and regulations tightening.

Shares of Chesapeake Energy Corp., the No. 2 natural gas producer in the U.S., plunged Wednesday after a report that the CEO and co-founder secretly ran a hedge fund that traded in the same commodities that the Oklahoma City company produces.

Germany's jobless rate edged higher last month on a seasonally adjusted basis after touching a post-reunification low in March, data showed on Wednesday, reviving concerns about the resilience of the German economy to the euro zone crisis.

The U.S. private sector added just 119,000 jobs in April, ADP announced on Wednesday in its monthly report -- substantially below the Bloomberg News consensus estimate of 183,000.

U.S. authorities arrested five self-described anarchists in the Cleveland area for allegedly plotting to blow up a four-lane highway bridge over a national park, but had no ties to foreign terrorism, the U.S. Justice Department said on Tuesday.

Chesapeake Energy Corp will find an independent, non-executive chairman to replace Aubrey McClendon, who will retain his position as chief executive officer, the natural gas producer said on Tuesday.

Rupert Murdoch is unfit to run a major international company, British lawmakers said on Tuesday, finding him responsible for a culture of illegal phone hacking that has convulsed his News Corporation media empire.

BP Plc (BP.L) reported a bigger-than-expected profit drop on the back of a fall in production prompted by the need to sell oil fields to pay for the Gulf of Mexico disaster, raising concerns about the oil group's turnaround plan.

The share of privately-owned U.S. homes fell to a 15-year low in the first quarter as falling house prices and stringent lending conditions push younger Americans, in particular, into renting.

Google Inc and its board were sued on Monday by a shareholder who wants to block the company's stock split plan because it entrenches the Web search company's co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, according to court documents.

Exxon Mobil Corp has shut the 160,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) North Line crude oil pipeline in Louisiana after a leak spilled 1,900 barrels of crude oil in a rural area over the weekend, affecting a conduit that supplies the nation's third-largest refinery.

Rescue workers fought heavy wind and rain to search for survivors after at least 103 people drowned on an overloaded ferry carrying about 300 people that sank at night on one of India's largest rivers on Monday, police said.

Spain's economy tipped back into recession in the first quarter and economists said spending cuts aimed at meeting strict EU deficit limits together with troubles in the banking sector would delay any return to growth until late this year or beyond.

U.S. stock index futures pointed to a steady open on Wall Street on Monday, with futures for the Nasdaq 100, the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones staying flat.

Regarding its banking system, the United States has now experienced its third generation of heads the banks win, tails the taxpayer and the public loses.? Is there a better way? Is it possible to create a bank that serves the people of the United States?

A U.S. drone strike killed four suspected militants in Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal region near the Afghan border on Sunday, intelligence officials and witnesses said, the first strike in almost a month.

If the U.S. presidential election was held today, President Barack Obama could easily lose. Fortunately for Obama -- and, by extension, for the Democratic Party -- the election is not today: it's 7 months from now.

Saudi Arabia said on Saturday it had recalled its ambassador in Cairo for security reasons after protests in Egypt against the kingdom's arrest of an Egyptian lawyer, marking a diplomatic rupture between the long-time allies.

When Hillary Clinton made her first trip abroad as secretary of state, she baldly said the United States could not let human rights disputes get in the way of working with China on global challenges.