More than 62,000 Lloyds TSB employees are to share in a £252m share and bonus windfall payout.

Reuters - General Motors Corp. , which significantly improved its financial performance in 2006 but did not make a profit, will not pay cash bonuses to top executives for the second consecutive year, the New York Times reported.

AP - Orders to factories for big-ticket manufactured goods posted a disappointing increase in February that raised new worries about the strength of the economy.

Two former lawyers at Enron are charged by the US financial watchdog with securities fraud.

Yahoo signs a deal with US newspaper group McClatchy to access news and commentary.

An absence of major natural disasters helps insurance market Lloyd's of London record a £3.6bn profit.

The government is to decide whether plans for 17 new casinos can be rescued after defeat in the House of Lords.

Retail firm Kingfisher suffers an 11% fall in annual profits but says sales at its B&Q DIY chain are improving.

Australian airline Qantas is to buy nine Airbus planes for its low-cost carrier Jetstar.

AFP - China has made "little to no progress" in opening key market sectors, a senior US commerce official said Thursday, as he warned of a souring mood in Washington over trade issues with the Asian nation.

German car maker BMW unveils its first assembly plant in Chennai, India's fourth largest city.

The owner of Currys discovers 'significant fraud' in one of its French businesses, which could cost it up to £10m.

Japanese brewer Sapporo wins shareholder support for anti-takeover measures to fend off a buy-out attempt.

German unemployment nears a six-year low as firms hire more workers amid improving economic prospects.

A formal investigation into the level of bank charges is being launched by the Office of Fair Trading.

Burger King, the world's second largest burger chain, is to increase supplies of humanely-sourced meat and eggs.

Cuban leader Fidel Castro condemns the use of biofuels by the US, in his first article since surgery last year.

Reuters - Tribune Co. has responded to a request for additional financial information from Los Angeles billionaires Eli Broad and Ronald Burkle, whose bid for the company appeared to have been dismissed, people close to the company's auction said in The New York Times.

Reuters - Telecommunications conglomerate BCE Inc. is being eyed by one of the world's largest private equity firms for a friendly takeover bid that, if successful, would be worth more than C$24 billion ($20.7 billion), a Canadian newspaper said on Thursday.

Reuters - Stock futures rose on Thursday, with investors seen likely to shop for bargains after three straight down days by the Dow industrials.

BusinessWeek Online - An unprecedented wave of scandals and corruption involving senior public officials is shaking Israel s political establishment. Police are investigating President Moshe Katsav, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, two cabinet ministers, the police commissioner, and the Income Tax Authority director, on allegations ranging from rape and sexual harassment to breach of trust and political cronyism. (Both the tax director and police commissioner have stepped down.) The latest scandal to hit the headlines concerns Finance Minister Avraham Hirchson, who is suspected of involvement in an embezzlement case.

Reuters - Private equity firm Blackstone Group is mulling a possible counter-bid for British drugs retailer and distributor Alliance Boots Plc , the Daily Telegraph reported on Thursday, citing sources familiar with the matter.

The deal will transfer the Travel Channel, a museum audio tour business and $1.275 billion in cash to Cox in exchange for its 25 percent stake.

Oil prices hover around $64 a barrel amid lingering fears of a clash between Western forces and Iran.

PC maker Dell announces it will sell computers and laptops with operating system Linux preinstalled.

Insufficient renewable energy is being produced to meet demand for 'green fuel', a report claims.

Fuel supplies in France are under threat if a strike at the port of Marseille is not resolved quickly.

Reuters - U.S. Steel said on Thursday it would buy oilfield tube maker Lone Star Technologies Inc. for $2.1 billion in cash, making it the largest North American tubular producer.

Reuters - Economic growth was moderately stronger in the fourth quarter than previously thought, primarily because businesses added more to inventories than was estimated a month ago, the Commerce Department reported on Thursday.

Reuters - Hitachi Ltd. (6501.T), Japan's biggest electronics conglomerate, said on Thursday its parent company has shored up struggling subsidiary Hitachi America with a $1 billion injection.

AP - Late payments on certain auto and home equity loans climbed in the final quarter of last year, while delinquencies on credit card bills largely held steady, suggesting some consumers are feeling more squeezed than others.

Reuters - Discount retailer Family Dollar Stores Inc. posted higher quarterly profit on Thursday, helped by an extra week in the quarter, a 12 percent rise in sales and year-ago results that were hurt by a charge.

Google?s efforts to sell radio and TV ads are mixed, suggesting that it is far from becoming a credible player in traditional media.

US growth figures for the final three months of 2006 are revised up, mainly as a result of rising company stockpiles.

Tax rises for small firms were needed to counter East European scams, Chancellor Gordon Brown says.

Reuters - U.S. Steel expanded its reach into energy sector on Thursday with a $2.1 billion deal to buy Lone Star Technologies Inc. , whose products are used to line oil and gas wells and build pipelines.

Reuters - BCE Inc. , Canada's largest telecoms company, is not talking with any private equity investor about taking the company private or about any other similar transaction, it said on Thursday.

Reuters - Stocks trimmed early gains and the Nasdaq briefly turned negative on Thursday as lingering worries about the economy and the conflict between Iran and the West kept investors on edge.

Reuters - Shares in Warner Music Group Corp. , the fourth-largest music group, jumped nearly 8 percent on Thursday after an analyst upgraded the stock.

AFP - US economic momentum is likely to decline this year to a pace slower than the 2.9 percent forecast in September by the International Monetary Fund, the head of the IMF said Thursday.

AFP - Retail group TJX has disclosed that some 45.6 million credit and debit card numbers were stolen by hackers in 2005 and 2006, along with other potentially sensitive customer information.

Oil prices break through the $65 a barrel mark on lingering fears of a clash between Western forces and Iran.

The French unemployment rate drops to 8.4% of the working population, its lowest level in 24 years, figures show.

Reuters - U.S. Steel Corp. expanded into the lucrative oilfield sector on Thursday with a $2.1 billion deal to buy Lone Star Technologies Inc. , which makes products to line oil and gas wells and build pipelines.

Reuters - BCE Inc. , Canada's largest telecoms company, is not talking with any private equity investor about taking the company private or about any other similar transaction, it said on Thursday.

Reuters - Technology stocks traded lower on Thursday, hurt by warnings from the semiconductor sector, while blue-chip shares erased earlier gains after oil prices shot higher at midday.

Reuters - Texas regulators on Thursday proposed a six-month period to review power company sales and mergers, a move that, if enacted, would push to late in the year the closing of the $31.8 billion sale of TXU Corp. to a group of private equity firms.

Reuters - Discount retailer Family Dollar Stores Inc. posted higher quarterly profit on Thursday, helped by a 12 percent rise in sales, and year-ago results that were hurt by a charge.

The carmaker?s campaign is showing results, with some of the auto industry?s best scores on crash tests.

AT&T, Qwest Communications and Verizon today were awarded the government?s largest telecommunications contract ever, a 10-year deal worth up to $48 billion.

Oil prices break through the $66 a barrel mark on lingering fears of a clash between Western forces and Iran.

Up to 400,00 people will not be paid as expected on Friday as a result of a technical problem, an industry body warns

Reuters - U.S. stocks ended higher on Thursday, as investors scooped up large-cap, defensive stocks one day ahead of the first quarter's end while rising oil prices pushed energy shares higher.

AP - After ending 2006 lethargically, the economy is expected to remain sluggish most of this year as businesses and consumers cope with fallout from the painful housing slump.

Reuters - CarMax Inc. , the largest retailer of used cars in the United States, posted a 15 percent rise in quarterly earnings on Thursday, but missed estimates, sending shares lower by 8 percent.

Dell says an internal audit found evidence of misconduct, errors and deficiencies in its financial controls.

Telecom firms AT&T, Qwest and Verizon win a $48bn contract to supply US government telecom services.

Reuters - Dell Inc., the world's second-largest personal computer maker, said on Thursday an internal audit found evidence of misconduct, accounting errors and deficiencies in its financial controls, sending its shares lower.

Reuters - Beazer Homes USA Inc. on Thursday said it has received a grand jury subpoena from the U.S. Justice Department for documents related to the company's mortgage origination business.

Reuters - U.S. economic growth at the close of 2006 was revised up, according to a government report on Thursday that identified rising stocks of unsold goods as a key reason and cast a shadow over future prospects.

TK Maxx owner TJX says hackers have stolen information from 45 million credit and debit cards used by customers.

Reuters - Alinta Ltd. , Australia's largest energy infrastructure group recommended a A$7.4 billion ($6 billion) bid by a consortium led by Australia's Babcock & Brown on Friday, rejecting a rival bid by Macquarie Bank Ltd. .

Investor's Business Daily - The honeymoon continued. After returning to domestic equity funds in January, investors lavished even more new money on their accounts in February.

Prices are rising at the pumps again, but even as gas tops $3 a gallon, consumption has not gone down.

Dell said ?evidence of misconduct? had been uncovered in an internal investigation of its financial practices over several years.

The video game maker faced an insurrection from shareholders that claimed the jobs of the chief executive and three directors.

The racially charged symbol for Uncle Ben?s rice products is taking center stage in a new campaign that makes him chairman of the company.

Blackstone?s co-founder Stephen A. Schwarzman gets a taste of the public hot seat in a union blog focused on his private equity firm.

AT&T, Verizon and Qwest were selected to bid on portions of the government?s contract while Sprint Nextel was left out in the cold.

Jenkens & Gilchrist will pay the Internal Revenue Service a $76 million fine as part of a deal over questionable tax shelters.

The value of corporate deals reached $1.08 trillion in the first quarter, 24 percent more than the first quarter of 2006.

Investors weighed fears about mounting tension involving Iran against a report that indicated better-than-expected economic growth.

One of the largest home builders in the country said it had received a grand jury subpoena from a United States attorney?s office.

The government may not introduce evidence meant to show that Joseph P. Nacchio tried to conceal $90 million in assets in February 2002.

Christian Dior announced it had replaced Hedi Slimane, whose razor-thin suits helped revitalize the image of the house.

The gross domestic product grew at a 2.5 percent rate in the final quarter of last year, healthier than previously thought.

A Manhattan federal judge has dismissed a class-action lawsuit accusing JPMorgan Chase of helping Enron hide fraud.

About three-quarters of the cards had either expired at the time of the theft or data from their magnetic strips had been masked.

Fourth-quarter net income rose 15 percent, driven by an increase in used-vehicle sales and an income increase from its financing unit.

Leonhard Fischer resigned as the head of Credit Suisse Group in Europe a month after being passed over for chief executive.

Reuters - Retailer Home Depot Inc. , which is boosting store spending this year in a bid to win back market share, slowed its store growth in 2006, according to a federal filing on Thursday.

Reuters - Two Los Angeles billionaires have offered $34 per share for Tribune Co. , according to a source familiar with the matter, two days before the newspaper publisher and TV broadcaster plans to choose among bids that could take all or part of it private.

Ronald W. Burkle and Eli Broad made a last-minute bid, topping an offer from Sam Zell by a dollar a share.

The discounts on the Tundra may be another sign that Toyota is not cutting into the truck market as much as rivals feared.

A federal judge dismissed a bid by China to block the Bush administration from imposing tariffs on Chinese goods produced by heavily subsidized government companies.

The $2.1 billion deal to buy Lone Star Technologies will make U.S. Steel the largest producer of tubular steel in North America.

Flight attendants at Northwest Airlines are not allowed to strike, a federal appeals court ruled.

A Democratic spending plan envisions a balanced budget by 2012, but like its Senate counterpart, it implicitly requires tax increases in the years ahead.

The seller of nutritional supplements rejected a takeover offer from the private equity firm Whitney & Company.

Citigroup plans to expand its securities business and branch network in China this year after becoming one of the first banks approved to incorporate locally, its chief executive, Charles O. Prince III, said. Citigroup plans to expand its network in China from 16 offices to 30 and will aim at markets for investment and corporate banking and wealth management, Mr. Prince said. Citibank was one of four banks approved last week to incorporate a local subsidiary, a step toward entering China?s retail market. Beijing agreed to open the industry to foreign competitors as part of its World Trade Organization membership.

The Mexican wireless phone company Grupo Iusacell said it would merge with a smaller carrier, Unefon, consolidating the two companies controlled by the Mexican business magnate, Ricardo Salinas Pliego, left. The planned merger of Unefon Holdings into Iusacell will give Iusacell more than 3.4 million wireless subscribers, or about 7 percent of the Mexican market, the company said in a filing with the Mexican Stock Exchange. The dominant wireless carrier in the Mexican market, Telcel, a unit of América Móvil, ended 2006 with 43.2 million subscribers. Iusacell and Unefon began consolidating operations last year. Gustavo Guzman will remain as chief executive of Iusacell. The proposal values Iusacell at $1 billion and Unefon at $333 million.

Voestalpine, the biggest steel maker in Austria, agreed to buy a specialty-steel producer, Boehler-Uddeholm, for 3.52 billion euros ($4.69 billion), foiling a bid by a private equity company, CVC Capital Partners. Voestalpine, based in Linz, said it had agreed to pay 69 euros a share for Boehler. The acquisition will give Voestalpine a steel maker with customers worldwide including the Boeing Company and Airbus. CVC Capital, which is based in London, said last week that it planned to bid for Boehler, but Boehler, based in Vienna, said it opposed the bid.

Japanese core consumer prices declined 0.1 percent in February from a year earlier, government data showed on Friday. That matched the consensus forecast of economists. The core index, which excludes volatile fresh food prices, was flat in January after hovering slightly above zero in previous months.

The Bank of Nova Scotia said it planned to buy a 24.99 percent stake in Thanachart Bank, Thailand?s top provider of car loans, for 7.1 billion baht ($203 million). Scotiabank said it planned to raise its stake to 49 percent by the end of December if the Bank of Thailand gives its approval. Thanachart Capital, which owns 99.3 percent of Thanachart Bank, agreed to sell about 157 million shares in the Thai bank to Bank of Nova Scotia for 16.37 baht per share, a 72 percent premium to market prices, it said. The purchase would give Bank of Nova Scotia a foothold in Thailand?s retail banking business, analysts said.