IBT Staff Reporter

A Pew Research Center survey released Friday asked individuals Did you go online yesterday for no particular reason, just for fun or to pass the time? Thirty-four percent of adults answered yes.

The U.S. unemployment rate tumbled to a 2-1/2 year low in November, even though the pace of hiring remained too slow to suggest a significant acceleration in the labor market recovery.

Facebook, the social networking giant that is preparing to go public, said it plans to hire thousands of employees over the next year to keep up with what it expects to be rapid growth.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will travel to Europe next week to lobby key leaders and officials ahead of a make-or-break summit aimed at halting contagion from Europe's growing debt crisis.

An Olympic boycott will not be on the agenda when the Indian Olympic Association meets next week, despite continuing outrage over Dow Chemical's high-profile sponsorship of the London 2012 Games, the IOA's acting president told Reuters on Monday.

The off-balance-sheet accounting methods that Enron and Lehman Brothers made famous in their epic failures years ago have a modern-day poster child: MF Global .

- Zynga Inc is seeking a more modest valuation than Wall Street expected for its initial public offering, hoping to attract investors after a series of Internet stocks fell below their IPO price in recent weeks.

European governments have a long way to go in improving their fiscal positions and solving a spreading sovereign debt crisis, said Boston Federal Reserve Bank President Eric Rosengren.

The United States and Canada are scheduled to announce a new security agreement next Wednesday designed to lower obstacles between the two nations while ensuring the perimeter around them is secure.

Research in Motion booked a huge charge to write down inventories of its unloved PlayBook tablet on Friday, capping a dismal year with a steep profit warning that sent its shares tumbling almost 10 percent.

December 2 - General Motors Co is exploring design changes to the Chevrolet Volt battery to address issues raised after federal safety officials opened a probe into the plug-in electric car, a top executive said on Friday.

The Canadian dollar ended weaker against the U.S. currency on Friday, following the euro lower, as worries about Europe's debt crisis and disappointing domestic employment data ended a four-day winning streak.

Canada is reviewing a policy that restricts foreign ownership of uranium mines, but there has been no decision on revising those rules at this time, Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver said on Friday.

Washington coach Dale Hunter suffered his second successive loss since taking the reins at the struggling Capitals as Pittsburgh moved to the top of the Eastern Conference with a 2-1 win at the Verizon Center on Thursday.

Production of Lockheed Martin Corp's F-35 joint strike fighter, the costliest arms purchase in history, should be slowed because of the potential number of cracks and hot spots turning up in fatigue testing and analysis, the Pentagon F-35 program director said.

Lady Gaga made her music video directorial debut with a 14-minute production which was met on Friday with a mix of weariness and adulation by fans and pop culture watchers.

Toronto's main stock index was higher on Friday morning, on track to post its biggest weekly gain in more than two years, pushed up by strong bank earnings, encouraging U.S. jobs data and talk of more action to ease Europe's debt.

The U.S. Federal Reserve and other central banks must not succumb to calls for additional help from monetary authorities in the face of high budget deficits, two top Fed officials said on Friday.

The Gitxsan First Nation said on Friday it has agreed to become the first aboriginal partner for Enbridge Inc's C$5.5 billion ($5.42 billion) Northern Gateway oil pipeline, one day after other native groups in British Columbia pledged to block the project.

Canada believes the United States will ultimately approve TransCanada's proposed Keystone XL pipeline, which Washington put on hold last month for more than a year, Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver said on Friday.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York took another step in its campaign to become more transparent on Friday, announcing it will publish one of the regular queries it puts to market participants.

Goldman Sachs Group's co-head of investment management, Edward Forst, will retire at the end of the year after 16 years with the company, according to a memo sent to employees on Friday.

Stocks ended flat on Friday but capped the best week for Wall Street bulls in almost three years after data showed the U.S. unemployment rate dropped to a 2-1/2 year low.

An urgent solution to the euro zone debt crisis needs to be found otherwise there will be widespread macroeconomic and financial disaster, one of the European Central Bank's top policymakers Juergen Stark warned on Friday.

Cisco Systems Inc is stepping up its push to sell its Cius tablet computers to corporate customers, defying skeptics who say the product is short of the sex appeal and brand recognition it would need to win over the workforce.

Verizon Wireless will pay top U.S. cable providers $3.6 billion for wireless airwaves and let them resell its mobile service, heating up competition with the wireless company's chief rivals.

British Prime Minister David Cameron threatened on Friday to obstruct a Franco-German drive for swift change to the European Union's treaty, a sign of the difficulty leaders will face transforming Europe to save the euro.

Goldman Sachs Group co-head of investment management, Edward Forst, will retire at the end of the year after 16 years with the firm, according to a bank memo sent Friday.

Bank of America Chief Executive Officer Brian Moynihan will have his work cut out for him next week when he speaks at an investor conference in New York, despite a recent uptick in his bank's stock price.