IBT Staff Reporter

Japan's core consumer prices fell for the first time in four months in the year to October after a cigarette tax hike a year ago dropped out from calculations revealing persistent deflation caused by chronically weak domestic demand.

European shares fell and the euro hit a seven-week low on Friday, as a spiraling debt crisis and the lack of a comprehensive policy to contain the damage sapped investor confidence.

Olympus Corp said on Friday a Japanese investor expanded the scope of a shareholder lawsuit against former and current executives at the scandal-ridden company, whose shares have slumped 60 percent in six weeks.

France and Germany agreed on Thursday to stop arguing in public over whether the European Central Bank should do more to rescue the euro zone from a deepening sovereign debt crisis.

Bargain hunters flocked to U.S. stores late Thursday and overnight Friday, searching for deals while fretting about their own shaky economic well-being.

Asian shares and the euro fell to seven-week lows on Friday as European officials failed to soothe investor fears that the euro zone's debt crisis could trigger a damaging credit crunch if funding costs run out of control.

One of the worst cash crunches in decades is hitting Chinese companies, but for Pan Zhengqiang, borrowing money recently has been as smooth as the well-oiled machines at his widget factory in the farmlands surrounding Suzhou.

Harry Potter author JK Rowling told a public inquiry into British media standards on Thursday she was forced to move house because of tabloid harassment and had been made to feel like a hostage in her home after she gave birth.

U.S. lawmakers plan to look into the relationship between bankrupt mid-size brokerage firm MF Global Holdings Ltd's former CEO Jon Corzine and the major credit-rating agencies, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing a person familiar with the matter.

The ex-CEO of Japan's disgraced Olympus Corp arrived on Friday for a boardroom showdown with the directors who had sacked him, as the firm's share price leapt on hopes he could play a role in putting a huge accounting scandal behind it.

You don't have to endure the current onslaught of Republican presidential debates to appreciate the appeal of silence. The movies, in their first several decades of existence, had no soundtrack at all, and millions of people still flocked to see them.

Singer and rapper Nicki Minaj was named Billboard's 2011 Rising Star on Wednesday, following her international success this year with her album, Pink Friday.

Apple is well ahead of rivals in building brand loyalty among its users in a mobile market where the key brands are rushing to build as large a foothold as possible, a study by research firm GfK showed.

From Alice in Wonderland to Cars, hundreds of Disney movies are now available for rent on YouTube, the Google-owned site announced on Wednesday.

Viggo Mortensen doesn't expect to reprise his Aragorn character in the next installments of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings series, the actor revealed to Movies.com.

A multi-million-dollar class action lawsuit against Netflix and Walmart that alleged the two companies had conspired to carve up the DVD rental and sales market between them has been dismissed.

David Letterman told Justin Bieber he could smell a weasel when the pop star was accused of fathering a fan's baby.

Woody Harrelson thinks cops are cool. Well, at least, some of them.

Japan's disgraced Olympus Corp is set for a tense boardroom showdown on Friday when its former chief executive confronts the men who sacked him a month ago with his own call for their resignations over a huge accounting scandal.

Japan's disgraced Olympus Corp is set for a tense boardroom showdown on Friday when its former chief executive confronts the men who sacked him a month ago with his own call for their resignations over a huge accounting scandal.

Singer Robin Gibb of the Bee Gees Wednesday said he is on the road to recovery after being very unwell in recent days, and he thanked fans for their support in a message posted on his website.

The committee of unsecured creditors for the bankrupt Los Angeles Dodgers threw its support behind the team's effort to sell TV broadcast rights earlier than expected, riling News Corp's Fox Sports.

Australia's government approved on Friday SABMiller's A$11.5 billion ($11.2 billion) deal to acquire Foster's Group Ltd under foreign acquisitions laws, but imposed conditions requiring the company to keep brewing operations in Australia.

France has nominated Treasury Chief Economist Benoit Coeure as a candidate for the executive board of the European Central Bank, to replace outgoing board member Lorenzo Bini Smaghi, the Finance Ministry said on Thursday.

Australia's government approved on Friday SABMiller's A$11.5 billion ($11.2 billion) deal to acquire Foster's Group Ltd under the country's foreign acquisitions laws, but attached conditions requiring the company to keep brewing operations in Australia.

India threw open its $450 billion retail market to global supermarket giants on Thursday, approving its biggest reform in years that may boost sorely needed investment in Asia's third-largest economy.

The Westin St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco has kicked off the holiday season in style – by unveiling a 12-ft tall Holiday Sugar Castle made of sumptuous ingredients.

Weak demand at a German debt auction suggests investors are starting to shun even the euro zone's strongest economy, which could trigger more losses in the shared currency as many shift from euro-denominated assets to safe havens outside the region.

A Canadian consortium aiming to buy the operator of the country's largest exchanges said the C$3.8 billion deal would likely win regulatory approval, its hopes boosted by a first day of hearings on Thursday.