UNITED STATES

Oil prices slid toward $72 a barrel on Friday, as investors locked in gains from a near eight-month high settlement a day ago, but stronger-than-expected China factory output and retail sales data lent support.

The U.S. state of Mississippi settled an antitrust suit with Microsoft Corp for $100 million on Thursday and said businesses, individuals, schools and local government were eligible for a share of the money.

Oil prices fell toward $72 a barrel on Friday, as investors locked in gains from a near eight-month high settlement a day ago, but stronger-than-expected China factory output and retail sales data lent support.

BlackRock Inc. , the giant U.S. money manager, said on Thursday that it will buy Barclays Global Investors in a cash and share deal that will turn it into the world's biggest asset manager.

North Korea may be preparing for its third nuclear test as the United Nations considers new sanctions on the regime, according to a U.S. government official.

Microsoft has confirmed the news about the report that Windows 7 will debut in European countries without its Internet Explorer 8 web browser, causing a stir of questions and uproar from prospective buyers.

BlackRock Inc. , the giant U.S. money manager, said on Thursday it will buy Barclays Global Investors for $13.5 billion in a deal that will make it the world's biggest asset manager.

The Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency has formally ended Northrop Grumman Corp's Kinetic Energy Interceptor program, once valued at $6.3 billion, despite the company's push to carry out what would have been a key test in September of the missile-defense technology.

AIG, days before a high-profile legal fight with a company controlled by former CEO Maurice Greenberg heads to court, promised to use any funds won at trial to repay U.S. taxpayers.

The U.S. Senate passed legislation that would allow the the Food and Drug Administration to regulate the sale and distribution of tobacco products and prohibit misleading tobacco ads.

IBM may be approaching a breakthrough in battery technologies the auto industry is looking forward to.

The U.S. government spent $287 million to purchase a total 17,205 fuel efficient vehicles from Ford, Chrysler and General Motors as of June 1 and aims to order $15 million more worth of advanced technology buses and electric vehicles, the General Services Administration said this week.

U.S. intelligence Chief Leon Panetta said on Thursday he believes that al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden is still hiding in Pakistan and the CIA hopes to find him through joint operations with Pakistani forces.

Ford Motor Co Chief Executive Alan Mulally said on Thursday that the U.S. economy was on the right track to begin improving in the second half of the year.

Two Japanese citizens carrying $134 billion worth of U.S. bonds were detained last week by Italy's financial police at Chiasso (40km from Milan) on the border between Italy and Switzerland, an Italian daily said Wednesday.

Two major U.S. airlines, Delta Air Lines Inc and American Airlines , will slash capacity this year as the recession erodes travel demand, the carriers said on Thursday.

(Corrects figure in third to last paragraph to 29,000 from 20,000)

General Electric, 3M and DuPont and twenty one firms more were given the green light by the U.S. government for up to $22 million worth in investments for projects with the potential to impact the photovoltaic (PV) solar industry within 2 to 6 years, the Department of Energy announced Thursday.

The U.S. government's new technology czar said on Thursday that new mobile phone applications could spur private investment in high-speed Internet connections, but Washington would also play a leadership role.

New York City could become the grounds for a new kind of urban wind farm if a Cleveland-based mechanical engineer has his way.

U.S. stocks racked up gains across a wide array of sectors on Thursday, aided by rising commodity prices and improving labor market conditions, along with a sharp drop in interest rates.