AP - President Barack Obama strongly defended his opposition to extending Bush-era tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans on Wednesday and delivered a searing attack on Republicans and their House leader for advocating "the same philosophy that led to this mess in the first place."

AP - The weird world of dinosaurs has just gotten a tad more bizarre. Scientists found a nearly complete fossil of a new dinosaur that sports a noticeable hump, maybe as possible advertising.

AFP - Palaeontologists in Spain have discovered the remains of a strange dinosaur with a hump that they believe is the forerunner of flesh-eating leviathans which once ruled the planet.

AFP - Two asteroids were set to pass close to Earth on Wednesday but posed no risk, the US space agency NASA said.

AP - A water main break at NASA's spaceport put launch preparations on temporary hold Wednesday for the next-to-last shuttle flight.

AP - BP has for months asserted that it wasn't solely to blame for the Gulf oil spill. On Wednesday, a company report on the causes of the disaster supported its case, analysts said.

AP - In an internal report released Wednesday, BP blames itself, other companies' workers and a complex series of failures for the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill and the drilling rig explosion that preceded it.

AP - In an internal report released Wednesday, BP blames itself, other companies' workers and a complex series of failures for the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill and the drilling rig explosion that preceded it.

Reuters - Members of Goldman Sachs Group Inc's New York Principal Strategies team are in talks with several groups, including KKR, Perella Weinberg, BlackRock Inc and Carlyle Group, to possibly join one of the firms, a source familiar with the matter said.

Reuters - A BP Plc investigation of the Gulf of Mexico disaster played down the company's role in the world's worst offshore oil spill, seeking to share the blame with its contractors.

AFP - A string of failures by BP and other companies led to the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster, the British energy giant concluded Wednesday as it sought to head off possible multi-billion-dollar US lawsuits.

Reuters - The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose more than 1 percent in afternoon trading on Wednesday, while the Dow and Nasdaq added to gains as worries about Europe's banking system decreased, easing risk aversion.

AFP - The European Union said Wednesday it had suspended a request at the World Trade Organization for the right to impose sanctions on Washington over a controversial US anti-dumping calculation.

Reuters - Stubbornly high unemployment and signs of persistent weakness in the housing market have prompted economists to further cut their outlook for U.S. growth in the second half of the year, a Reuters poll showed on Wednesday.

Reuters - Women's clothing retailer Talbots Inc posted lower-than-expected quarterly sales and its shares fell 11.6 percent as efforts to keep inventory lean and preserve margins left it short of items to sell.

Reuters - A U.S. judge refused on Tuesday to lift a ban on federal funding of human embryonic stem cell research despite Obama administration warnings it would set back key research and cost more than a thousand jobs.

AP - Tropical Depression Hermine was expected to slowly weaken as it moved farther inland.