UNITED STATES

Mattel Inc expects its top toys to be popular for the holidays and said it sees some hope among its retail partners for improved sales, sending its shares up nearly 5 percent.

Merrill Lynch & Co's brokerage, the crown jewel that lured Bank of America Corp's chief executive into a takeover that ultimately cost him his job, is showing signs of a revival.

Tata Consultancy Services beat forecasts with a 29 percent rise in quarterly net profit helped by demand from recession-hit financial customers, but said a sharp growth rebound in the near term was unlikely.

Wall Street fell on Friday after disappointing quarterly results from Dow components General Electric Co and Bank of America Corp threatened a weak end to an otherwise strong, earnings-fueled week.

Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village, a huge Manhattan apartment complex that became the largest residential deal in New York's history, could be headed for default as early as December, according to Trepp, a firm that tracks commercial mortgage securities.

China Real Estate Information Corp about $216 million on Thursday with an initial public offering of American Depositary Receipts that priced within expectations.

U.S. homebuilders' bonds have surged on hopes the housing downturn has reached a bottom, however the debt's prices may reflect too much optimism over what is likely to be a long, slow recovery.

Oil retreated from a year-high above $78 touched early on Friday after a renewed focus on brimming inventories, disappointing corporate earnings and a slip in consumer confidence chipped away at bullishness across financial markets.

The new pandemic H1N1 flu may cause blood clots and other unusual damage in the lungs and doctors need to be on the lookout, U.S. researchers reported on Thursday.

North Korea has renewed an invitation to U.S. special envoy Stephen Bosworth to visit Pyongyang, Japan's Kyodo news agency reported, in a signal that it wants to return to nuclear talks, albeit on Pyongyang's terms.

World powers will seek to finalize an agreement with Iran next week on processing its uranium abroad to help allay Western fears it is developing nuclear weapons.

General Electric Co is considering several scenarios for the future of NBC Universal, to be ready for the possibility that its minority partner Vivendi SA chooses to sell its 20 percent stake.

The U.N. Human Rights Council endorsed on Friday a Gaza report that accused both Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas of committing war crimes.

Using arguments about the social benefits of healthcare reform may galvanize Democrats but they leave Republicans cold, U.S. researchers reported on Thursday.

Pakistani forces attacked a Taliban stronghold with aircraft and artillery on Friday, as a suicide bomber killed 12 people in the city of Peshawar in the latest in a wave of militant attacks.

The sudden death of star dealmaker Bruce Wasserstein on Wednesday has sparked questions about whether the magazines he nurtured will survive in their current form without him.

Indoor smoking bans lower the risk of heart attack, even among nonsmokers, by reducing exposure to secondhand smoke, a panel of U.S. health experts confirmed in a report on Thursday.

A U.N.-backed fraud watchdog said Friday it was close to a verdict in its probe of Afghanistan's presidential election, which could force incumbent Hamid Karzai into a run-off against his main rival.

U.S. President Barack Obama hit back at the health insurance industry on Thursday, accusing it of trying to deceive Americans about healthcare reform and vowing to overhaul the industry in Congress.

U.S. consumer sentiment fell unexpectedly this month on persistent worries that the dismal state of personal finances would not recover quickly from the worst recession in decades, a report showed on Friday.

Garth Brooks, the best-selling solo musician in U.S. history, ended his semi-retirement on Thursday and announced 15 concert dates at Wynn Resorts Ltd's Encore theater in Las Vegas.