NEW YORK - US STOCKS edged up on Wednesday after a heavy sell-off in the previous session as concerns eased about the financial condition of European banks.
A day after the S&P 500 hit an eight-month low, Wall Street opened slightly lower on a weak private sector jobs report, but sentiment was helped by data showing Midwest business activity grew slightly more than expected this month.
GRAND ISLE (Louisiana) - ROUGH seas generated by Hurricane Alex pushed more oil from the massive spill onto Gulf coast beaches as cleanup vessels were sidelined by the far-away storm's ripple effects.
The hurricane was churning coastal waters across the oil-affected region on the Gulf of Mexico. Waves as high as 6 feet (1.8 metres) and winds over 25 mph (40 kph) were forecast through Thursday just offshore from the Mississippi Delta in Louisiana to north-western Florida.
LONDON - ANNA Kournikova packed out Wimbledon's Court 2 as she played her first competitive tennis match in seven years, but the Russian star insisted she could never return to the tour.
The 29-year-old - still one of the most searched-for players on the Internet despite retiring in 2003 - and Swiss former world number one Martina Hingis reformed their Grand Slam-winning doubles partnership to appear at the All England Club.
TOKYO - JAPAN'S Sony on Wednesday issued a warning to customers worldwide that a system glitch affecting more than half a million of its VAIO laptop computers may cause overheating and possible burns.
The electronics giant said a heat-monitoring chip in some of its VAIO F and C series models that were launched in January this year could be defective, leading to possible overheating, a company statement said.
