The markets closed lower with the Dow plummeting 107 points to 10,340 after revelations that European banks may be holding more risky debt than originally disclosed.

The Rosen Law Firm initiated an investigation into China-Biotics Inc. (Nasdaq: CHBT) for possible federal securities law violations sending the stock price tumbling $1.40 to close at $10.65....

Casey's General Stores Inc. (Nasdaq: CASY) rejected Alimentation Couche-Tard's $38.50 per share acquistion offer to pursue a $40 per share cash offer from an unnamed suitor. The stock price soared $3.86 to close at $42.76....

GT Solar International Inc. (Nasdaq: SOLR) stockholder GT Solar Holdings will sell 10 million of its common shares sending the stock price down $1.02 to close at $7.76....

Renewed concerns about risky European bank debt sent the markets down during the midday with the Dow falling 80 points to 10,368.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Oil giant BP is open to talks about selling assets to Russian companies as part of its $30 billion fund raising programme to help pay for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, the group's Russia chief said on Wednesday.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Women's clothing retailer Talbots Inc posted a higher-than-expected quarterly profit as tighter inventory management boosted its margins, but its shares fell as sales missed Wall Street forecasts.

LONDON (Reuters) - For a bank that prides itself on smooth successions, HSBC is suddenly scrambling to pick its next chairman.

BANGALORE (Reuters) - Oracle Corp said its newly appointed president, Mark Hurd, will be paid an annual salary of $950,000 and the former Hewlett-Packard chief will be eligible for a target bonus of $5-$10 million under its executive bonus plan for fiscal 2011.

BANGALORE (Reuters) - No. 2 U.S. tax-preparer Jackson Hewitt Tax Service Inc posted a narrower-than-expected quarterly loss, as a drop in total expenses offset the decline in revenue.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Families of September 11 victims are arguing whether to call a truce on the anniversary of the 2001 attacks on the United States as debate rages over plans for a Muslim center near the World Trade Center site.

MIAMI (Reuters) - Civil and military leaders stepped up calls on Tuesday for an obscure U.S. pastor to drop his plans to burn copies of the Koran on the anniversary of the September 11 attacks, as fears grew it would fan religious hatred.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - John Lennon's killer was denied parole for the sixth time on Tuesday, three months before the 30th anniversary of the former Beatle's death.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Tropical Storm Hermine barely maintained its tropical storm status on Tuesday as 40 mile per hour winds kept lashing south Texas and the storm moved further inland about 15 miles south-southeast of San Antonio, Texas, the National Hurricane Center said.

WASHINGTON (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.

DILI (Reuters) - One of East Timor's two deputy prime ministers resigned on Wednesday after he said Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao called him a liar, posing a risk to stability of the ruling coalition of the world's youngest countries.

LONDON (Reuters) - A United Nations agency will report that opium poppy production has fallen in Afghanistan this year but there are enough stocks to keep supplying heroin production, the agency's new chief said on Wednesday.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iranian authorities have suspended the sentence of death by stoning for a woman convicted of adultery, the foreign ministry said on Wednesday.

PARIS (Reuters) - President Nicolas Sarkozy faced down French trade unions on Wednesday, refusing to back down on plans to raise the retirement age despite Tuesday's nationwide protests against pension reform.

KADUNA, Nigeria (Reuters) - Heavily armed gunmen attacked a prison in the central Nigerian city of Bauchi late on Tuesday, freeing as many as 800 inmates including suspected members of a militant Islamic sect, police said Wednesday.