(Reuters) - Economic growth showed signs of becoming more self-sustaining as the number of Americans claiming new jobless benefits fell back to a four-year low last week and manufacturing activity in the Northeast picked up this month. But the impact of higher oil prices was also starting to be seen in data on Thursday. Producer prices racked up their biggest increase in five months in February, while manufacturers in New York state reported a surge in input costs in March.

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(Reuters) - Britain has decided to cooperate with the United States in a bilateral agreement to release strategic oil stocks, two British sources said, in an effort to prevent high fuel prices derailing economic growth in a election year. A formal request from the United States to the UK to join forces in a release of oil from government-controlled reserves is expected "shortly" following a meeting on Wednesday in Washington between President Barack Obama and Prime Minister David Cameron, who discussed the issue, one source said.

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(Reuters) - The top U.S. energy regulator on Thursday warned power and natural gas traders that it would vigorously enforce anti-manipulation rules in those markets to protect consumers after last week's record fine against Constellation Energy. Chairman Jon Wellinghoff said the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission expected all companies in those markets to abide by the terms it set last week for Constellation when it settled a market manipulation probe with a unit of the Baltimore-based power company for a total of $245 million.

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(Reuters) - Apple Inc's new iPad went on sale in Australia early on Friday, greeted by throngs of fans hungry to get hold of the U.S. consumer giant's latest 4G-ready tablet computer. While numbers were down compared with launches of earlier iPads, the still-solid turnout reflects demand for Apple products, even though analysts say the new version is a collection of incremental improvements rather than a major technological innovation.

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(Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund on Thursday approved a 28 billion euro ($36.7 billion) bailout for Greece, part of a broader international rescue package for the debt-strapped euro zone member. The IMF said in a brief statement it would immediately disburse 1.65 billion euros to Athens, in a deal to help keep Greece funded until 2014.

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(Reuters) - Stocks fell the most in nearly three months on Tuesday with the Dow tumbling more than 200 points as recent government data rekindled concerns about global growth and a deadline loomed for private holders of Greek debt to agree to hefty losses. Volatility soared, with the CBOE Volatility Index or VIX .VIX on track to close above its 50-day average for the first time since November. More than a dozen stocks fell for every rising issue on the New York Stock Exchange, with bank and miner shares among the top decliners.

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(Reuters) - Allen Stanford was convicted on Tuesday of running a $7 billion Ponzi scheme, a verdict that caps a riches-to-rags trajectory for the former Texas financier and Caribbean playboy. It was a vindication for the U.S. government, which closed down Stanford's financial empire in February 2009 but had failed for years to address signs that the empire was built on air. The Stanford case was the biggest financial fraud since Bernard Madoff's.

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(Reuters) - A disorderly Greek default would cause more than a trillion euros ($1.3 trillion) of damage to the euro zone and could leave Italy and Spain dependent on outside help to stop contagion spreading, the main bondholders' group has said. Greek private creditors have until Thursday night to say whether they will participate in a bond swap that is part of a bailout and restructuring deal to help it manage its finances and meet a debt repayment on March 20.

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(Reuters) - Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc's record $639 billion bankruptcy ended on Tuesday, clearing the way for it to start distributing about $65 billion to creditors starting on April 17, court documents show. Lehman has said that it expects that first group of payments to creditors to be at least $10 billion. Lehman, now a small fraction of its former size, collapsed on September 15, 2008 with $639 billion in assets, rocking the foundations of the global financial markets and catalyzing the Great Recession.

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(Reuters) - Apple Inc is betting a 4G-equipped iPad will tempt more U.S. consumers to pay extra to watch high-quality video on the go, and in turn, give Verizon Wireless and AT&T Inc a revenue boost. Until now, Apple's fan legion has been reluctant to shell out extra money even for iPads with 3G connections. The cheaper Wi-Fi-only model -- with more limited Web access -- is by far the top-selling one today.

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