UNITED STATES

Turkey pulled its troops out of northern Iraq on Friday, ending a major offensive against Kurdish PKK rebels that Washington feared could spread conflict through the region. A statement by Turkey's armed forces General Staff denied any foreign influence on the decision, which came a day after U.S President George W. Bush urged a swift end to offensive.

Microsoft Corp said on Thursday it plans to cut prices of its Windows Vista operating system sold at retail outlets in a move aimed at pushing customers to switch to the newest version of Windows. The world's largest software maker said it plans to lower retail prices for Vista in 70 countries later this year in tandem with the shipment of the first major update to Vista, known as Service Pack 1 (SP1).

Barack Obama holds a slight lead on Hillary Clinton in Texas and has almost pulled even in Ohio before contests that could decide their Democratic presidential battle, according to a Reuters/C-SPAN/Houston Chronicle poll released on Friday.

How did Democrat Hillary Clinton tumble from all-but-certain presidential nominee to endangered candidate fighting for her political life?

A senior Israeli defense official said on Friday that Palestinians firing rockets from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip would bring upon themselves what he termed a shoah, the Hebrew word for holocaust or disaster.

Google on Thursday unveiled its plan to give San Francisco's homeless lifelong phone numbers and voice mail.

American International Group lost $5.29 billion in its fourth-quarter late Thursday as the insurance company took a charge related to credit derivatives.

American International Group Inc on Thursday posted its biggest-ever quarterly loss, missing Wall Street expectations after being hurt by a write-down of derivatives exposed to bad mortgage investments. The world's largest insurer said its fourth-quarter loss was $5.29 billion, or $2.08 a share, compared with a profit of $3.44 billion, or $1.31 a share, in the year-ago quarter.

The U.N. Security Council is expected to vote this weekend on a resolution imposing a third round of sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program, Western ambassadors said on Thursday. We thought it was perfectly reasonable to (finalize the resolution) tomorrow and to vote on this important issue on Saturday, said U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad.

Two US doctors are being investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration over the prescribing of the powerful painkillers Oxycontin and Vicodin to Australian actor Heath Ledger, according to news reports.

Oil futures surged to a new record on Thursday as reports showed more signals of an economic slowdown in the U.S., the dollar fell against the euro and Nigeria reported a partial shutdown in production.

Treasuries rose on Thursday after a U.S. government showed the economy grew at a slower rate in the fourth quarter of 2007 than forecast and jobless claims rose more than expected.

Coffee in London posted gains on Thursday for a second day after funds tried to diversify their investments from stocks.

Oil surged more than 3 percent to an all-time high on Thursday after news that a fire struck a major European natural gas terminal.

Nintendo software titles continue to dominate video-game sales in Japan according to new data released today, while its Wii game-console outpaced rivals Sony and Microsoft.

Gold futures surged on Thursday, nearing a record high of $970 an ounce causing the dollar to continue its fall against the euro and boosted the precious metal's appeal as an inflation hedge.

Fidel Castro's withdrawal from power in Cuba could have sparked a crisis for its communist leaders, but detailed planning and water-tight secrecy ensured a stable succession. When Raul Castro was installed as Cuba's first new leader in half a century on Sunday, taking over from his ailing brother, hardly a ripple was felt in the country of 11 million people, and nobody was cheering in the streets of the anti-Castro exile stronghold of Miami.

Prince Harry, third in line to British throne,has been serving on the front line in Afghanistan with the British Army, the Ministry of Defense confirmed on Thursday.

Freddie Mac, the second-biggest provider of U.S. residential mortgage funding, said on Thursday its loss widened to a record $2.5 billion in the fourth quarter as the housing crisis worsened.

The chief executive of US Airways Group Inc warned on Thursday that the U.S. airline industry is heading into a downturn as it grapples with record high oil prices and a weakening economy.

Web search company Google Inc is testing in the United States an online storage bank where individuals can store and access their medical records, the company said on Thursday. Just last week, Google said it was teaming up with the Cleveland Clinic, a leading academic medical center, to test an exchange of medical data that Google says will put the patient in charge of his own records.