UNITED KINGDOM

The finance ministers of France and Singapore are among the names being floated to succeed Dominique Strauss-Kahn as early as June 30 as the head of the International Monetary Fund, a bank of last resort for the world's nations.

The United States is still lagging behind other industrialized countries in terms of broadband adoption and download speed, according to a report released by the Federal Communications Commission on Friday.

NASA's Cassini spacecraft and a European Southern Observatory ground-based telescope tracked the growth of a giant early-spring storm in Saturn's northern hemisphere that is said to be so powerful that it stretches around the entire planet.

The United States continues to lag behind other countries in broadband adoption and download speeds, according to a report released by the Federal Communications Commission on Friday.

The gently sloping beaches of Normandy lend themselves well to invasions. From here, William the Conqueror set out to invade England in 1066 and in World War II they were the landing site for the allied assault on Nazi-occupied France.

The service determines a social networker's worth by tracking social media activity and measuring how much interest it generates amongs friends and colleagues.

If you give any credence to Harold Camping’s prediction – that the end of the world will be May 21, 2011 – tune in at 6 p.m. New Zealand local time just to make sure. Camping himself plans to do just that by watching it unfold on TV.

Christine Lagarde, French Finance Minister emerged as the next IMF head on Thursday after Dominique Strauss-Kahn resigned and vowed to fight charges of sexually assaulting a hotel maid.

The French Open draws are out and world number one Rafael Nadal has a tricky first round encounter against John Isner, while the irrepressible Novak Djokovic opens against Dutchman Thiemo de Bakker.

MOEX, a unit of Japanese trading house Mitsui & Co , and partner in BP Plc's doomed Macondo well has agreed to pay the UK oil major $1.1 billion toward the cost of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Stock index futures pointed to a flat opening on Wall Street on Friday, with futures for the S&P 500 up 0.03 percent, Dow Jones futures up 0.02 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures down 0.01 percent at 4 a.m. EDT.

Mobile phones have nudged away the wallets in UK to buy food, books and other stuff up to a value of £15 by pre-loading their cell phones with up to £100.

Jefferies & Co. views Kofax Plc acquiring Atalasoft as a classic strategic bolt-on deal. The brokerage retained its buy rating on shares of Kofax with a price target of 598 pence.

The million-dollar question surrounding the killing of terror master mind Osama Bin Laden seems to have been answered. According to reports, the U.S. government will not pay out the $25 million reward the Department of State had announced years ago for anyone giving clues leading to his capture.

As Annie Jacobsen's new book, AREA 51: An Uncensored History of America's Top Secret Military Base, is to hit shelves in few days, various media reports are suggesting the major hot spots for UFOs around the world.

The French Open is right around the corner.

The zany hat Princess Beatrice wore to Britain’s royal wedding last month, is up for sale for £20,200, or more than $30,000 on eBay.

The German city-state of Bremen has just lowered the voting age to 16. Austria, Nicaragua, Brazil, Eduardo, Hungary, Slovenia, and Norway already allow 16-year-olds to vote in certain circumstances.

Intel Corp could suffer due to slowing processor shipments, rising competition and record capital expenditure levels this year, warned Goldman Sachs analysts, who in a rare downgrade, cut their rating on the stock to sell, sending its shares down nearly 3 percent.

Commodities trader Glencore made a lukewarm market debut on Thursday that handed it currency for future acquisitions, with its shares struggling to break much above its widely expected launch price of 530 pence.

John Lipsky—Acting Managing Director, International Monetary Fund delivered the following speech at Annual Meeting of the Bretton Woods Committee on May 19, 2011.