CALIFORNIA

Regulators are ordering some of the largest U.S. banks to find tens of billions of dollars of capital to cushion themselves in the event of a deep economic downturn.

Cisco Systems Inc., world's largest maker of computer networking gear, says earnings fell 21 percent in its latest quarter, but results managed to surpass analyst' estimates.

Wind and solar energy projects currently proposed for lands owned by the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management will be ready for construction by the end of 2010, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar said.

Home values in the United States extended their fall in the first quarter, with more than one in five homeowners now owing more on their mortgages than their homes are worth, real estate website Zillow.com said on Wednesday.

The Dow and S&P 500 gained on Wednesday on economic optimism spurred by a jump in bank shares as investors bet that capital shortfalls will be manageable, plus reassuring labor market data and Walt Disney's better-than-expected profit.

China's booming hydropower sector is facing mounting criticism for generating subprime carbon credits from projects that don't need extra earnings to succeed, raising the risk of tougher rules and putting billions of dollars of clean energy investments at risk.

Home values in the United States extended their fall in the first quarter, with almost three in ten homeowners now owing more on their mortgages than their homes are worth, real estate website Zillow.com said on Wednesday.

Zillow issued a correction to its report, and following that this corrects headline and 1st paragraph to say more than one in five homeowners, not almost 3 in 10 homeowners. Corrects paragraph 4 to declining home values left 21.9 percent, not 28.9 percent

The United States recession could end in the second half of this year but will likely not give way to a robust rebound in growth, Janet Yellen, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, said.

Amazon.com Inc's Kindle electronic reader was supposed to revolutionize publishing by freeing people from having to carry books around. Now the Web retailer may super-size it for newspaper readers.

A California judge on Monday threw out a $45 million false advertising lawsuit against online advertising company ValueClick Inc, in a decision that defense attorneys said could blunt the most aggressive state law regulating commercial email.

Hewlett-Packard Co. revealed on Monday that it has signed a new partnership deal with Blackberry maker, Research In Motion.

Hewlett-Packard Co's plans to hire a top executive away from rival EMC Corp hit a legal snag on Monday when a Massachusetts court issued an order temporarily barring him from starting his new job.

Recently, Facebook is suffering from rampant phishing attacks, pushing the online social website to bolstering its security.

U.S. consumers felt much more upbeat about the economy in April, a month when the country's battered manufacturing sector also appeared to be crawling out of a deep recessionary hole, reports showed on Friday.

In recent months the availability of jumbo loans has decreased while the interest rate spread between jumbo rates and ten-year treasuries has widened. These developments are having a negative effect on the housing market.

U.S. consumers felt much more upbeat about the economy in April, a month when the nation's manufacturing sector also appeared to be crawling out of a deep recessionary hole, reports showed on Friday.

The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly voted on Thursday in favor of legislation to protect credit card users from hidden fees, sudden interest rate hikes and questionable billing practices.

The Dow and S&P 500 fell on Thursday after Chrysler's bankruptcy filing undercut optimism about upbeat corporate profits and reassuring job market data.

The World Health Organization warned on Wednesday that a global flu pandemic was imminent, raising its threat level as the swine flu virus spread and killed the first person outside of Mexico, a toddler in Texas.

U.S. stocks climbed on Wednesday after grim growth data offered hints of future expansion, a prospect reinforced by the Federal Reserve's hopeful comments.