UNITED STATES

Retailers J.C. Penney Co Inc and Abercrombie & Fitch Co posted results that showed further evidence U.S. consumers were still cutting back on non-essential items, with Penney also warning profit for the year would be worse than analysts expected.

U.S.-born journalist Roxana Saberi arrived in Austria on Friday from Iran after authorities there freed her from a Tehran prison and quashed her eight-year sentence for spying in a diplomatically fraught case.

Western critics slammed Myanmar's ruling generals on Friday for pressing trumped-up new charges against detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, but the move drew only a mild rebuke from Asian neighbors.

The fate of the war in Afghanistan could be decided in the next few months in sweltering villages like this one alongside a highway that cuts through Helmand province, the heartland of the Taliban.

Dr. Thomas Frieden, the newly nominated director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is likely to take on a few public health fights.

Europe sank to what may be the recession's low point in the first quarter of the year as tumbling German exports and investment plus further sharp drops in output elsewhere sped up the pace of a year-old contraction.

The World Health Organization warned on Friday against a false sense of security from waning and apparently mild outbreaks of H1N1 flu, saying the worst may not be over.

U.S. officials have urged Bank of America Corp to revamp its board and bring in directors with more banking experience, the Wall Street Journal said.

General Motors Corp is expected to announce details of its U.S. dealer consolidation plans on Friday, just over two weeks before the automaker's deadline to complete a sweeping restructuring that could include bankruptcy.

General Corp. dealerships are waiting to hear if they are among the 1,100 shops the company plans to shed.

Honda Motor Co's earnings will hit bottom this year and improve beyond that as demand in the United States returns in the second half, the Japanese automaker's chief executive said on Friday.

U.S. consumer prices were unchanged in April from March as expected, but recorded their largest 12-month drop since 1955, government data showed on Friday, as sluggish consumer demand limited companies' pricing power.

U.S. stock index futures pointed to a lower open on Friday as better-than-expected manufacturing data in the United States was offset by weak European gross domestic product reading, clouding the economic outlook.

U.S. consumer prices were unchanged in April as expected, but recorded their largest 12-month drop since 1955, government data showed on Friday, as sluggish consumer demand limited companies' pricing power.

General Motors Corp on Thursday said that if it files for bankruptcy it would most likely pursue a quick sale of its best assets out of court protection similar to the process now reshaping Chrysler LLC.

Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday said they were working out final details of a climate change bill, as they announced new breaks for industry that they said would also minimize the potential impact on consumers' energy bills.

Singapore's Temasek sold its 3 percent stake in Bank of America in the first quarter of this year, taking a loss of around $3 billion in the process, as the state investor refocuses on emerging markets.

For the few sane people who have been watching and recoiling with horror as Bernanke, Geithner and Bair implement their insidious rich get richer PPIP/TALF plan by relying exclusively on the AAA ratings of the very same rating agencies that were the primary cause of the current economic catastrophe

Carbon dioxide emissions from heavy industry participating in the European Union's Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) fell 3.1 percent last year compared with 2007, the EU executive Commission said on Friday.

A pair of spacewalking astronauts on Thursday outfitted the Hubble Space Telescope with a new camera that will allow astronomers to turn their gaze closer to the birth of the universe.

No. 1 U.S. trucking company YRC Worldwide Inc plans to seek $1 billion in federal bailout money to help it cover its pension obligations, a spokeswoman said on Friday.