(Reuters) - Rupert Murdoch withdrew his bid for British broadcaster BSkyB on Wednesday in the face of cross-party hostility in parliament following allegations of widespread criminality at one of his tabloid newspapers. The move pre-empted by a couple of hours a planned vote in parliament that had all-party support for a non-binding motion urging the Australian-born media magnate to drop a buyout offer which was a major part of his global expansion in television

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(Reuters) - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Wednesday the central bank is ready to ease monetary policy further if the economy weakens and inflation moves lower, suggesting policymakers are actively mulling further stimulus. "The possibility remains that the recent economic weakness may prove more persistent than expected and that deflationary risks might reemerge, implying a need for additional policy support," Bernanke said in testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee.

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(Reuters) - Pay-TV operator BSkyB (BSY.L) said it remained confident in its future as a standalone company after major shareholder News Corp (NWSA.O) dropped its bid for the 61 percent of the company it did not already own. "We are delivering on our clear, consistent strategy and are building a larger, more profitable business for the long term," Chief Executive Jeremy Darroch said in a statement. "We remain very confident in the broadly based growth opportunity for BSkyB."

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(Reuters) - Euro zone plans for a leaders' summit on a second Greek rescue were thrown into doubt by Germany on Wednesday, raising fears markets may exploit a policy vacuum with a new onslaught on the bloc's high debtors. Berlin stuck to its line that Greece was funded until September so there was no rush to finalize the details of a second package. "There are no concrete plans for a special summit," a German government spokeswoman said.

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(Reuters) - China's economy grew faster than expected in the second quarter, easing fears of a hard landing and strengthening Beijing's resolve to fight persistently high inflation. China's statistics office said on Wednesday that stabilizing prices remained the top priority, even though a "complex and volatile" global economy posed a threat to growth, complicating the policy choices. Second-quarter gross domestic product rose 9.5 percent from a year earlier, exceeding economists' forecasts for 9.4 percent growth, helped by solid domestic consumption and investment.

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(Reuters) - The law overhauling the financial system should continue to protect the economy in the future despite any challenges it's faced in its first year of existence, a top Treasury official said on Wednesday. "Scaling back or repealing major parts of the Dodd-Frank Act or not providing regulators with the funds they need to implement the Act will leave our economy exposed to a cycle of collapses and crises," Treasury Assistant Secretary for Financial Markets Mary Miller said in prepared remarks for delivery to a securities trade organization.

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(Reuters) - Import prices fell in June for the first time in a year as petroleum and food costs tumbled, according to a government report on Wednesday that suggested the commodity-driven spike in inflation was abating. Overall import prices dropped 0.5 percent, breaking eight straight months of increases, the Labor Department said, after gaining 0.1 percent in May. Economists polled by Reuters had expected prices to drop 0.6 percent last month. Import prices were up 13.6 percent in the 12 months through June.

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(Reuters) - Wall Street stocks fell on Tuesday, led lower by Nasdaq, as the euro zone's continuing debt crisis kept nervous investors on edge. Trading was likely to be volatile, reflecting a market driven by sentiment, after equities around the world slid. Tuesday's decline came a day after shares posted their worst day in a month. European officials for the first time refused to rule out default by Greece and investors feared the crisis could overtake the bigger European economies of Spain and Italy.

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(Reuters) - The U.S. trade gap widened sharply in May to its highest level in 31 months as surging oil prices helped push imports to a near record and exports fell slightly from April's record high. The trade deficit totaled $50.2 billion, the highest since October 2008, and well above the consensus estimate of $44.0 billion from Wall Street analysts surveyed before the report, a Commerce Department report showed on Tuesday. Imports rose 2.6 percent to $225.1 billion, the highest since the record of $231.6 billion set in July 2008 just before the global financial crisis took a huge toll on global trade.

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(Reuters) - European Union leaders are poised to hold an emergency summit after finance ministers acknowledged for the first time that some form of Greek default may be needed to cut Athens' debts and stop contagion to Italy and Spain. "There will be an extra summit this Friday," a senior euro zone diplomat told Reuters, suggesting policymakers have been seized with a new sense of urgency after markets started targeting Italian assets. A French government source said Paris was in favor, although the timing was not yet fixed, and in Spain, European Council President Herman Van Rompuy said he had not ruled out a meeting.

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