UNITED STATES

Oil prices slipped on Friday, hovering above $52 a barrel as a report that unemployment in March soared to a 25-year high weighed on prices.

Credit rating firm Standard & Poor's cut its outlook on Sprint Nextel Corp to negative from stable, saying the wireless carrier's financial health could deteriorate further this year as it loses more subscribers.

The Dow industrials declined on Friday, as bleak jobs data and a sharper contraction in the services sector overshadowed reassuring results from BlackBerry maker Research in Motion .

Oil dipped near $52 on Friday, having surged nearly 9 percent the previous day as a result of the G20 summit, as U.S. data showing the highest unemployment rate since 1983 dampened thoughts of a quick economic upturn.

Oil dipped near $52 on Friday, having surged nearly 9 percent the previous day as a result of the G20 summit, as U.S. data showing the highest unemployment rate since 1983 dampened thoughts of a quick economic upturn.

U.S. credit markets are not showing the same optimism on the economy as U.S. equities, suggesting that the recession will run far longer than most expect, Mohamed El-Erian, the chief executive of bond giant Pacific Investment Management Co., said on Friday.

France is ready to take a detainee from Guantanamo Bay when the prison camp is shut down, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Friday after a meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama.

NATO marks its 60th anniversary with a summit late on Friday at which U.S. President Barack Obama hopes to secure NATO backing for a new strategy in Afghanistan.

The international community will take steps if North Korea goes ahead with a planned missile launch to show Pyongyang it cannot act with impunity, U.S. President Barack Obama said on Friday.

U.S. President Barack Obama called on Friday for a world without atomic weapons and urged allies to stand firm against Iran's nuclear ambitions and a planned missile launch by North Korea.

The U.S. unemployment rate soared to 8.5 percent last month, a 25-year high, as employers slashed 663,000 jobs and cut workers' hours to the lowest level on record, the government said on Friday.

The U.S. unemployment rate soared to 8.5 percent in March, the highest since 1983, as employers slashed 663,000 jobs and cut workers' hours to the lowest on record, government data showed on Friday.

Rupert Murdoch, whose media company News Corp owns one of the few U.S. newspapers that makes people pay to read its news on the Web, said more papers will have to start doing the same to survive.

The U.S. unemployment rate soared to 8.5 percent in March, the highest since 1983, as employers slashed 663,000 jobs and cut workers' hours to the lowest on record, government data showed on Friday.

Business activity in European countries fell in March, but the pace slowed as efforts to revive economies took hold and pessimism ebbed after a plan by world leaders to kick start a global recovery.

Stocks faltered on Friday after data showed further deterioration in the labor market as the unemployment rate hit its highest since 1983, underscoring the severity of the recession.

G20 leaders have kickstarted stalling world trade with a substantial infusion of funds to finance export credits, but promises to agree a new Doha trade deal and battle protectionism remain vague.

IBM cut its offer for Sun Microsystems Inc to $9.55 a share after a thorough vetting and may soon unveil details of its largest- ever takeover, a source with knowledge of the matter said on Thursday.

Oil slipped under $52 a barrel on Friday after surging by nearly 9 percent the day before, as global markets viewed the outcome of the G20 summit as paving the way for some risk appetite to return.

The Dow and S&P 500 stock indexes opened flat on Friday as data showed the labor market deteriorating further while the unemployment rate hit its highest since 1983, underscoring the severity of the recession.

U.S. banks that have received government aid, including Citigroup Inc, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase & Co, are considering buying toxic assets to be sold by rivals under the Treasury's $1,000 billion plan to revive the financial system, the Financial Times said.