Latest Business Wires

Former French intelligence officer Herve Jaubert believed he was essentially being held captive in Dubai when his passport was confiscated by authorities amid a dispute with his employer, a powerful government-run conglomerate. He claimed he was threatened with torture and worried each day he would be arrested.

Nokia Corp. said Tuesday it is axing 220 jobs at research and development units in Japan as the world's largest mobile phone maker continues to cut costs.

Denmark's prime minister says the country's climate minister will leave her Cabinet post to head next month's Copenhagen climate summit.

European Union antitrust regulators on Tuesday dropped a two-year monopoly abuse probe into wireless chip maker Qualcomm Inc., saying they have to focus their priorities elsewhere.

Big banks are roaring back. At crisis' edge last year, they are repaying billions of dollars dumped into their vaults to rescue them. Dividend checks are accumulating at the Treasury. Taxpayers won't recoup the full sum of the government's unprecedented infusion to the financial sector, but the returns are ahead of schedule.

South Korea pledged Tuesday to double aid to African nations over the next three years in an effort to better reach out to the continent rich in energy resources, growth potential and business opportunities.

More than 2.1 million drop-side cribs by Stork Craft Manufacturing are being recalled, the biggest crib recall in U.S history, following reports of four infant suffocations.

Republicans love to get their hands on the Democrats' health care legislation. They show it to the cameras at every opportunity, even piling one version on top of another to make a big pile look even bigger.

South Korea's trade chief urged Washington on Tuesday to implement a stalled free trade deal, warning the U.S. could lose several hundred thousand jobs if it fails to act and Seoul's agreement with the European Union takes effect.

Singapore's tourist arrivals fell slightly in October from a year earlier as global travel slowly recovered.

China Eastern Airlines is teaming up with Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, hoping to cash in on an online shopping frenzy to boost ticket sales.

China's economic planning agency has formally approved a plan to build a Disney theme park in Shanghai, ensuring the city will have a new showcase attraction after next year's World Expo has wound down.

Most Americans don't expect a health care overhaul to affect their lives directly, but those who worry about the fallout outnumber those expecting to come out ahead, a poll out Tuesday has found.

After showing signs of improvement in early fall, sales of clothing and luxury goods weakened a bit the first half of November, compared with a year ago, when stores pulled shoppers in with massive discounts, figures released Tuesday show.

Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP said Monday that it expects to pay out an annual cash dividend of $4.40 per unit in 2010, up from $4.20 in 2009.

A federal judge has sentenced a suburban Detroit man described as one of the world's most prolific senders of spam e-mail to more than four years in prison for his role in a 2005 stock fraud scheme that netted him $2.7 million.

Billionaire investor Carl Icahn has offered a higher sum than Penn National Gaming Inc. to open bidding at a bankruptcy auction for the unfinished Fontainebleau Las Vegas casino-resort on the Las Vegas Strip.

Insurer Max Capital Group Ltd. said Monday that David Kalainoff has been appointed president of reinsurance operations.

Paint and coatings maker Valspar Corp. said Monday its fiscal fourth-quarter profit climbed as the company trimmed the cost of sales and research and development expenses.

Chipmaker Analog Devices Inc. said Monday its net income fell 27 percent in the fiscal fourth quarter, as demand declined for semiconductors in its industrial and communications business.