NEW YORK - STOCKS surged on Thursday to their highest levels in two months after banking giant Wells Fargo surprised the market with an early profit report that blew past analysts' expectations thanks to a strong pickup in its lending business.
The Dow rose 246.27, or 3.1 percent, to 8,083.38. It was the blue chips' first close above the 8,000 mark in nearly a week and the highest finish since Feb. 9.
LONDON - BRITISH police acted to stop a 'major terrorist plot' by arresting 12 mostly Pakistani suspects across northwest England, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Thursday.
His comments came after Britain's top anti-terror chief, Bob Quick, resigned following a security blunder that almost torpedoed a surveillance operation. which had homed in on the suspects, seized in hastily-organised raids on Wednesday.
MOMBASA (Kenya) - THE US navy rushed in FBI negotiators and a destroyer on Thursday as Somali pirates holding an American hostage on a lifeboat were drifting on the Indian Ocean with no fuel.
A day after pirates hijacked the Maersk Alabama aid ship before being overpowered by the unarmed US crew, the high-seas drama unfolded unabated, with both the pirates and the US navy sending reinforcements.
JAKARTA - INDONESIAN President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's party won most seats on Thursday in elections seen as a key test for the country's youthful democracy, according to a leading polling institute.
Projections by the independent Indonesian Survey Institute have the centrist Democrats winning 20.4 per cent of the votes, based on a near-complete unofficial count of ballots from 2,100 polling stations.
