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Stock index futures rose on Friday, indicating the S&P 500 may snap a 2-day decline, after quarterly results from Microsoft and General Electric Co propelled a solid earnings season.

Stock index futures rose on Friday, indicating the S&P 500 may snap a 2-day decline, after quarterly results from Microsoft and General Electric Co propelled a solid earnings season.

Futures on major US indices point to a higher opening Friday as investors awaited the earnings from major firms including General Electric Co. and McDonald's.

General Electric Co reported first-quarter profit that topped analysts' expectations, helped by strong sales of jet engines and energy equipment, as well as profit growth at its finance arm.

Anders Behring Breivik, the right-wing extremist accused of massacring 77 people in Norway, has claimed that he polished his shooting skills by playing video games for over a year, before setting out slaughtering dozens of people in Norway's worst peacetime massacre.

German business sentiment unexpectedly rose for the sixth month in a row in April in a sign that Europe's largest economy continues to outpace peers and shrug off persistent worries about the euro zone debt crisis.

Shareholders of Olympus Corp <7733.T> approved a new board on Friday, hoping for a fresh start at the camera and medical device maker that hid $1.7 billion of investment losses in Japan's biggest corporate scandal in decades.

Asian stock markets declined Friday as batch of disappointing economic readings from the US signaled that the recovery was slowing in the world's biggest economy.

Pakistani Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani's plan for resolution of Siachen issue, which includes bilateral withdrawal of troops from the disputed zone, was met with a cautious welcome from India due to the concern on whether Islamabad would authenticate the ground position line at the world's highest battlefield.

Major emerging powers stood ready on Friday to pledge money to bolster the International Monetary Fund's crisis-fighting war chest, though Brazil was holding out for promises that their voting power at the global lender would increase.

German 10-year bond yields hit record lows on Friday and riskier assets came under pressure on growing fears about the euro zone debt crisis and uncertainty over global growth.

US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner pressed India’s Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday for reassurance that New Delhi welcomes foreign capital and remains committed to boosting bilateral trade and investment, following concerns connected to India's newly proposed retrospective tax measures.

Nestle , the world's biggest food group, reported forecast-beating first-quarter organic sales growth of 7.2 percent on Friday as emerging market demand and price rises helped offset sluggish growth in the developed world.

Asian shares slipped Friday as disappointing U.S. economic data stirred doubts about the strength of recovery, while the yen weakened after the Bank of Japan flagged the prospect of further monetary easing to support the struggling economy.

As Earth Day approaches on April 22, organizers view 2012 as a pivotal year to bring the environmental issues facing the planet to the forefront of the global political agenda.

The International Monetary Fund's bid to win a big boost in funding to handle the euro-zone debt crisis hit a speed bump on Thursday when Brazil demanded more power at the IMF for emerging economies as a condition for lending it extra cash.

Verizon Wireless plans to put its marketing weight behind Microsoft Corp's next mobile phone software to help develop a strong competitor to Apple Inc and Google Inc, according to the chief financial officer of Verizon Communications.

A federal judge has narrowed Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc's $8.6 billion lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase & Co , potentially reducing how much creditors of what was once the fourth-largest U.S. investment bank may ultimately recover.

Photos of the Colombian escort caught up in a scandal that has caused three Secret Service agents to lose their jobs hit the Web Thursday. According to the New York Daily News, the woman, a 24-year-old single mother is known as Dania.

Two of the Secret Service agents being ousted over a prostitution scandal in Cartagena, Colombia, were identified Thursday.

Two years after the Deepwater Horizon disaster, a deep-sea biodiversity study suggests residual oil from the BP blowout threatens the stability of the entire Gulf of Mexico ecosystem.