UNITED STATES

Nomura Asset Management said on Friday it will suspend new subscriptions of a popular U.S. REIT investment trust fund as heavy inflows from retail investors boosted its size beyond the appropriate level to manage the fund.

A Florida jury on Thursday ordered cigarette maker Philip Morris USA to pay $300 million in damages to a 61-year-old ex-smoker named Cindy Naugle who is wheelchair-bound by emphysema.

Despite the worst U.S. recession in decades, sales of organic and sustainable products have continued to grow, experts say, with shoppers willing to spend a few more dollars in a bid to become more green.

J.M. Smucker Co , best known for its peanut butter and jelly, posted higher-than-expected quarterly results, driven by strong margins at its Folgers coffee business, and raised its full-year profit outlook, sending its shares up 5 percent.

The one-way bet in the U.S. dollar that has lasted several months may be over for now despite distress over its malaise that has stretched from Washington to Paris.

Colombia will not be provoked into armed conflict with Venezuela despite the neighboring country's aggressive rhetoric and its dynamiting of two cross-border pedestrian bridges, Colombia's defense minister said on Friday.

Deutsche Telekom is keeping its options open for its U.S. business and is not close to making a decision on the unit's mid-tem future, two people familiar with the matter said on Friday.

European Union leaders named Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy, who is little known outside his own country, as the bloc's first president on Thursday to lead efforts to make it more influential on the world stage.

Ford Motor Co plans to invest 2 billion reais ($1.15 billion) in Brazil through 2015, most of it on a plant in the northeastern Bahia state, to expand production and benefit from expected growth in Latin America's largest economy, the state governor said on BandNews radio on Friday.

U.S. stocks fell on Friday after worse-than-expected quarterly results from computer maker Dell Inc and homebuilder D.R. Horton Inc underscored that the road to recovery would not be smooth.

Barack Obama's first presidential trip to Asia was also his first big step in recasting U.S. ties with a region in flux, and showed this will demand patience and compromise from a superpower used to pushing its weight around.

New electronic record systems installed in thousands of U.S. hospitals have done little to rein in skyrocketing healthcare costs, Harvard University researchers said in a study released on Friday.

Budget shortfalls pose a direct threat to millions of U.S. jobs, many in the private sector, as state and local governments lay off workers and cut spending on contracts and other business services, a think tank said on Thursday.

Some big Goldman Sachs Group Inc shareholders have asked the U.S. bank to cut what could be the biggest bonuses in its history to pass more profit onto investors, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

Women in the United States should start cervical cancer screening at age 21 and most do not need an annual Pap smear, according to new guidelines issued on Friday that aim to reduce the risk of unnecessary treatment.

A week after abruptly quitting his longtime job as a CNN television news host and commentator, Lou Dobbs said on Thursday he is considering career options including possible runs for the White House or U.S. Senate.

Scottish singer Susan Boyle, one of the biggest stars of the Internet age, seeks to turn global celebrity into record sales next week with the release of her debut album I Dreamed a Dream.

U.S. Senator John Kerry's elder daughter, Alexandra, who made a red-carpet splash at the Cannes film festival five years ago in a see-through dress, was arrested in Hollywood on Thursday on suspicion of drunken driving.

Vaccine makers praised the U.S. response to the swine flupandemic on Wednesday but said regulatory delays and public suspicion have held up innovative ways to speed and stretch the U.S. influenza vaccine supply.

The U.N. nuclear watchdog chief urged Iran on Friday to accept an offer to process its enriched uranium abroad by the end of 2009, and advised Western powers not to impose further sanctions on Tehran.

J.M. Smucker Co , best known for its peanut butter and jelly, posted higher-than-expected quarterly results, driven by strong margins at its Folgers coffee business, and raised its full-year profit outlook.