Reuters - The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday threw out the record $2.5 billion in punitive damages that Exxon Mobil Corp had been ordered to pay for the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill off Alaska, the nation's worst tanker spill.

Reuters - Countrywide Financial Corp was sued for alleged deceptive mortgage lending by officials in its home state of California and in Illinois on Wednesday, the same day its shareholders approved the company's takeover by Bank of America Corp .

Reuters - The Federal Reserve held interest rates steady on Wednesday and voiced greater concern about inflation, taking a small step down a road toward higher borrowing costs.

Reuters - Retailer Circuit City Stores Inc has received buyout interest from several strategic and financial bidders, including movie-rental company Blockbuster Inc , and a sales agreement could be announced over the next month, an institutional investor said on Tuesday.

Reuters - Hilton Hotels Corp wants to add 300 hotels to the 47 it operates in Asia in the next decade in a bid to match its rivals and take advantage of a business and leisure travel boom in India and China, The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.

Reuters - The network formed by a merged Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines would help them avoid cutting the number of cities they serve if oil prices force more capacity reductions, their chief executives wrote in The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday.

Reuters - Nissan Motor Co (7201.T) chief executive Carlos Ghosn said that industrywide sales in the United States could fall well below 15 million vehicles this year and that he expected steel firms to launch another round of price hike talks.

Reuters - The Illinois attorney general's office plans to sue Countrywide Financial Corp and Chief Executive Angelo Mozilo on Wednesday, claiming the troubled mortgage lender engaged in deceptive trade practices.

Reuters - The U.S. Federal Reserve on Wednesday is expected to hold interest rates steady and indicate slightly greater unease on inflation, while stopping well short of signaling higher borrowing costs are imminent.

AFP - Europe's main stock markets slid on Tuesday as oil prices shot higher toward record highs.

Reuters - Consumer sentiment slid to a 16-year low in June while house prices suffered record annual drops in April, according to data Tuesday that suggested a retrenchment in spending that will keep squelching economic growth.

Reuters - The U.S. Federal Reserve began a two-day policy meeting on Tuesday that was expected to end with benchmark interest rates on hold and little evidence the central bank is going to raise borrowing costs soon.