LONDON/WILMINGTON, Delaware (Reuters) - The tide of lawsuits unleashed by BP's oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico breaks into an Idaho courtroom on Thursday, just as the company's rivals are counting the cost of a ban on offshore drilling. Attorneys hoping to lead the legal fight against BP are set ...

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Initial claims for state unemployment aid dropped 11,000 to 457,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast claims slipping to 459,000 from the previously reported 464,000 the prior week, which was revised slightly up to 468,000 in Thursday's report.

While smartphone sales held no surprises, Avian Securities analyst Matthew Thornton said revenue beat his expectations at the networks unit, which Motorola is selling to Nokia Siemens, a venture of Nokia <NOK1V.HE> and Siemens AG <SIEGn.DE>. "Investors will be pleased with the ...

LONDON (Reuters) - A fleet of 6,000 bicycles for hire will hit the streets of central London on Friday when the city's mayor Boris Johnson launches a scheme intended to fuel a cycling revolution in the congested capital. The initiative, which follows similar projects in cities including Paris and ...

The new bureau was created by the financial regulatory overhaul legislation that President Barack Obama signed into law last week. It will regulate consumer financial products ranging from credit cards to mortgages. "The meeting will serve to formally begin an ongoing process of interagency ...

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency over the state's finances on Wednesday, raising pressure on lawmakers to negotiate a state budget that is more than a month overdue and will need to close a $19 billion shortfall. The deficit is 22 ...

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuters) - Shares of Research In Motion jumped on Wednesday on speculation that next week it would unveil a new touchscreen BlackBerry that could compete more effectively with Apple Inc's iPhone and other smartphones. RIM is expected to announce the launch of the ...

EDISON, New Jersey (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Wednesday kept up his push for U.S. Senate approval of a $30 billion small-business lending package he said would generate jobs, and urged Republicans to stop blocking the plan for political gain. Meeting a group of small-business owners at ...

MIAMI (Reuters) - It could be years before some Gulf of Mexico beaches recover fully from BP Plc's massive oil spill and are declared free of toxic pollutants, including heavy metals, that can make people sick, a leading environmental advocacy group said on Wednesday. "This is an ...