UNITED STATES

The U.S. economy likely grew at its fastest pace in nearly four years in the fourth quarter as businesses made less-aggressive cutbacks on inventories, a government report is expected to show on Friday.

U.N. climate talks will probably not agree an ambitious deal this year unless the economy improves and voters press for action, said India's top climate official Shyam Saran.

The Afghan government on Thursday invited the Taliban to a peace council as its Western allies worked out plans to try to end the war in Afghanistan.

President Barack Obama vowed on Thursday he would not rest until U.S. businesses were hiring again, as he took his recast agenda on the road and sought to dig out of his deepest political rut since taking office.

The U.S. economy likely grew at its fastest pace in nearly four years in the fourth quarter as businesses made less-aggressive cutbacks on inventories, a government report is expected to show on Friday.

McDonald's Corp. , the world's largest hamburger chain, said on Friday that it expects to boost its capital investment in China by about 25 percent in 2010.

Investor concern about tightening lending conditions in China and deteriorating finances in Greece and Japan led them to pull cash out of developed market equity funds for debt funds in the week ended January 27, fund tracker EPFR Global said late on Thursday.

Samsung Electronics, the world's top maker of memory chips and LCD screens, expects rapidly recovering demand for its premium computer memory chips and flat TVs to drive growth this year, in an ominous sign for its Japanese rivals.

Congressional investigators on Thursday sought documents on Thursday from Toyota Motor Corp and U.S. safety regulators about a pair of safety recalls the automaker was racing to address.

Oracle Corp has filed a suit against a little known rival that provides low-cost software maintenance services, in a case similar to one that Oracle is fighting against rival SAP AG.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc is consolidating some U.S. operations and dividing the country into three regions under separate presidents to increase efficiency at more than 3,700 domestic stores.

Toyota Motor Corp is consulting with U.S. safety regulators on a fix that would allow it to avoid the more costly option of shipping brand new accelerators for over 2 million Americans with vehicles under recall, two people briefed on the talks said.

U.S. stocks dropped on Thursday as poor outlooks from Motorola and Qualcomm dented optimism in the technology sector while worries about Greece's fiscal health dragged on sentiment.

(Corrects paragraph 6 to read Fears that Athens ... and not News that Athens ... regarding ability to service debt)

Ford Motor Co posted its first full-year profit since 2005 on Thursday and said it expects to stay profitable in 2010 despite a still-fragile economy and a debt-heavy balance sheet.

The Australian Dollar opens at 0.8940 after a volatile 24-hour session which saw it trade between a low of 0.8910 during early Sydney trade yesterday and a high of 0.9044 in early Europe.

Cable giant Comcast and NBC Universal said on Thursday they would continue reporting news, keep broadcast television free and offer more children's programming if the U.S. government approves Comcast's plan to take control of the TV and movie company.

U.S. consumers' obsession with using smartphones to find restaurants, surf the web and navigate city streets helped propel a 26 percent rise in AT&T's quarterly profit -- but at a cost for the operator.

New orders for long-lasting U.S. manufactured goods edged higher in December and the number of workers filing applications for jobless aid fell last week, indicating the economy remains on a recovery path.

California and Florida high-speed rail projects were the biggest beneficiaries of more than $8 billion dollars in federal grants announced on Thursday.

A majority of U.S. senators on Thursday voted to confirm Ben Bernanke for a second four-year term at the head of the Federal Reserve, suggesting he would win the Senate's needed approval.