Merck & Co Inc (MRK.N) on Monday said it would buy worldwide commercial rights to NewLink Genetics Corp's (NLNK.O) experimental vaccine against the Ebola virus.

The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on Wednesday ordered air bag supplier Takata Corp to expand its regional recall of driver-side air bags to cover the entire United States.

U.S. stocks rose on Wednesday boosted by tech shares, with the S&P 500 and Dow industrials closing at records, while the energy sector was once more the largest weight on the market as crude prices continued to flirt with multi-year lows.

Internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom, one of the world's most wanted cyber fugitives, says his nearly three-year fight against extradition to the United States to face online piracy charges has left him broke.

European privacy regulators want Internet search engines such as Google (GOOGL.O) and Microsoft's Bing (MSFT.O) to scrub results globally, not just in Europe, when people invoke their "right to be forgotten" as ruled by an EU court.

South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (005930.KS) on Wednesday announced a $2 billion share buyback plan, its first since 2007, following investor calls for higher returns against a backdrop of rapidly declining profits.

Hedge fund mogul William Ackman told investors they could see a $6 billion payday when he closes the chapter on Allergan Inc., his firm's biggest bet of 2014.

EE's German and French owners confirmed on Wednesday they were in talks to sell Britain's biggest mobile network operator to BT (BT.L) as part of a wider review of its options. Fixed-line operator BT said on Monday it was in talks with both Telefonica's (TEF.MC) O2 and a rival operator about buying a mobile business.

Carlyle Group (CG.O) has agreed to buy South African tyre retailer Tiger Automotive from Ethos Private Equity, Ethos said on Wednesday, the U.S. buyout firm's first deal in Africa's most developed economy.

China’s barriers to imports of some U.S. genetically modified crops are disrupting seed companies' plans for new product launches and keeping at least one variety out of the U.S. market altogether.

Impromptu talks between Saudi Arabia, fellow OPEC member Venezuela and oil powers Russia and Mexico yielded no agreement on Tuesday on how to address a growing oil glut, ending without any plan to cut output despite a collapse in prices.

The global economy will gradually improve over the next two years but Japan will grow less than previously expected while the euro zone struggles with stagnation and an increased deflation risk, the OECD said on Tuesday.

The United States is in the midst of renewing its 35-year-old commitment to supply Israel with oil in emergency situations after the pact expired on Tuesday, a U.S. State Department official said.

South Korea's Samsung Group said on Wednesday it is selling stakes in four chemical and defense firms for 1.9 trillion won($1.72 billion) to Hanwha Group, the latest move in the massive task of restructuring the country's largest conglomerate.

A coal mine fire in China's northern Liaoning province has killed 24 workers and left 52 injured, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Wednesday, underscoring the poor safety record of the world's biggest coal producing country.

A House of Representatives panel will hold a hearing on Dec. 11 to explore whether a decades-old law that prohibits the export of crude oil makes sense in an era of domestic energy abundance.

Activist investor Carl Icahn raised his stake in U.S. car rental company Hertz Global Holdings Inc to 10.77 percent from 8.48 percent. The billionaire was already Hertz's largest shareholder and in the past few months had successfully pushed for management changes and won board seats on the company.

The U.S. economy grew at a much faster pace than initially thought in the third quarter, pointing to strengthening fundamentals that should help it weather slowing global demand.

You might need two carts to walk away with what may be this year's biggest Black Friday bargain (at least by size): a 65" Vizio television at Walmart for $648.

Crimeans should pay off their debts to Ukrainian banks despite now living under Russian law, a Russian central bank official was quoted as saying, marking a change in position by Moscow which had suggested ignoring any payment demands.

President Barack Obama pledged on Tuesday to veto a deal still under negotiation in Congress that would make several expiring business tax breaks permanent.

Asian stocks edged up on Wednesday after data showing the U.S. economy growing at a relatively solid pace calmed investor anxiety over slowing global growth, while the Australian dollar languished near four-year lows against the dollar.

Hewlett-Packard Co said its quarterly revenue fell in almost every business segment over the year, highlighting weaknesses ahead of the company's planned 2015 separation of its enterprise services from its traditional computer and printing units.

Microsoft sued the Internal Revenue Service on Monday, seeking information about a law firm hired by U.S. tax authorities in a review of how the software company books sales between subsidiaries.

China showed governments and the planet's biggest tech firms last week its vision for global Internet governance - clean, controlled and choreographed.

Japan's loss-making Sony Corp plans to slash its TV and mobile phone product line-ups to cut costs, counting on multi-billion dollar revenue surges for its buoyant PlayStation 4 and image sensor businesses over the next three years.

Macy's Inc, which traditionally kicks off the U.S. holiday shopping season with a nationally televised parade in Manhattan, also will join a handful of other companies this year parading their ads on Facebook's fledgling video feeds.

U.S. sportswear company Nike will continue to sponsor the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) and its athletes until the end of 2020, the USOC said on Monday.

China, the world's biggest tobacco market, is considering a draft regulation that would ban indoor smoking, limit outdoor smoking and end tobacco advertising, the state-run Xinhua news agency has reported.

Puerto Rico's planned bond deal of up to $2.9 billion will not happen before early 2015, two finance industry sources briefed on the matter said on Monday.