(Reuters) - Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc is boosting its bet on the newspaper industry, with a deal to buy the majority of Media General Inc's papers for $142 million in cash. The deal announced Thursday means Buffett will have a stable of about 25 daily newspapers across the country, turning the chairman of the ice-cream-to-insurance conglomerate into one of the country's biggest publishers as well. Berkshire will also lend Media General $400 million and provide a $45 million credit line. Media General will issue warrants for approximately 4. ...

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(Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc's quarterly profit and sales surpassed expectations on Thursday as more people shopped its established U.S. stores and spent more, pushing its shares up more than 5 percent despite ongoing probes into possible bribery. Wal-Mart's shares have recovered all of the 8.2 percent plunge suffered after an April 21 New York Times report uncovered alleged bribes paid in Mexico and an internal investigation that was squashed by Wal-Mart executives. "Generally things seem to be very much on track," said Faye Landes, managing director at Consumer Edge Research. ...

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NEW YORK (Reuters) - The euro slipped along with world stocks on Thursday as deepening turmoil in Greece and Spain kept investors wary of riskier assets, with weak U.S. economic data adding to the cautious mood. Worries about the health of Spain's banks also resurfaced after a report that customers at Bankia had withdrawn more than 1 billion euros from their accounts in the past week, though the Spanish government said there had been no exit of deposits from the lender. ...

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - New claims for jobless benefits last week held at levels suggesting sluggish growth in hiring and factory activity in the mid-Atlantic region contracted in May, worrisome signs for a still-fragile economic recovery. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits held at 370,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday. That was a little higher than analysts forecasted in a Reuters poll. "We are really not showing much momentum in the labor market at this time," said Sean Incremona, an economist at 4Cast in New York. ...

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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Groupon Inc Chief Executive Andrew Mason and the company's other founders are planning to keep their shares in the company after a trading lock-up expires on June 1. Groupon's lock-up expiration will allow some pre-initial-public-offering investors to sell their shares, and analysts say that the approach of the expiration has put Groupon's stock under additional pressure. "We have no intention to sell," Mason said during a webcast of an investor meeting on Thursday, adding that he believes in the long-term future of the online coupon company. ...

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LONDON (Reuters) - General Motors Co opted to build the next generation of its Astra compact in Britain, leaving its plant in Bochum, Germany in danger of closure as it revamps the business to counter more than a decade of losses in Europe. The U.S. carmaker said on Thursday it would invest $200 million in its Ellesmere Port plant in northwest England to build the car after workers at the site overwhelmingly agreed to a new pay deal. ... Read entire article...