IBT Staff Reporter

Allianz and Generali followed rivals in aggressively writing down holdings of Greek government bonds on Friday, fuelling investor concerns about the possible impact on insurers of a worsening sovereign debt crisis.

European leaders faced a chorus of calls for more decisive action to stem an escalating debt crisis on Friday while robust U.S. jobs data brought limited relief to battered world markets.

U.S. job growth accelerated more than expected in July, tamping down fears the economy was sliding into a fresh recession and giving the Federal Reserve some breathing room.

U.S. job growth accelerated more than expected in July as private employers stepped up hiring, a development that could ease fears the economy was sliding into a fresh recession.

With Kim Kardashian's latest search for wedding cakes, it is clear that her obsession with Will and Kate's wedding has overflowed into her own planning. Kim Kardashian and New Jersey Nets basketball player Kris Humphries will be tying the knot on August 20, 2011.

Procter & Gamble Co is likely to miss Wall Street earnings estimates this quarter as it has not yet pushed through all its price increases that are meant to help deal with higher commodity costs.

A polar bear attacked and killed a 17-year-old British boy in the Arctic and injured four others early Friday. Two individuals were severely injured and flown to Tromsoe in Norway.

Royal Bank of Scotland slid to a pretax loss of 678 million pounds ($1.1 billion) in the second quarter, bruised by writedowns on Greek government bonds and Irish customers struggling to repay loans.

Amidst union stalemates and subsidy negotiations, Congress passed a temporary bi-partisan reauthorization bill on Thursday that would allow the Federal Aviation Administration to collect taxes and return thousands of employees back to work after the shutdown.

Watch as NASA launches Juno into space.

A little over a year after spinning off from Citigroup , Primerica is considering a first share buy-back program, as one of the biggest U.S. term life insurers wants to put its excess capital to use, executives said.

U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) continues to investigate the outbreak of Salmonella poisoning that spread across 26 states linked to ground turkey, as meat manufacturer Cargill pulls 36 million pounds of meat in the second-biggest recall in U.S. history.

Justin Bieber's MC name is Shawn Mane and he makes an appearance on Chris Brown's mix tape, "Boy In Detention." He dropped a couple of verses in the track "Ladies Love Me," for the singer.

Wells Fargo cut its rating on the U.S. bank sector to marketweight on weaker-than-expected economic growth and persistently low interest rates.

Big-name hedge funds such as Brevan Howard, Man Group's AHL and Winton are making money for investors despite Europe's deepening debt crisis which has plunged global financial markets into turmoil.

Chinese electric motor maker Harbin Electric on Friday denied any Securities and Exchange commission investigation against it, while responding to an allegation made by Citron Research in a recent blog post.

Viacom Inc. , parent of MTV and Comedy Central, on Friday reported a bigger-than-expected increase in quarterly profit on strong growth in cable advertising and licensing of TV shows to online sites like Netflix and Hulu.

U.S. job growth accelerated more than expected in July as private employers stepped up hiring, a development that could ease fears the economy was sliding into a fresh recession.

Boeing selects United Launch Alliance's Atlas V rocket for its spacecraft.

Luxury goods maker Pierre Cardin took a plunge into the tablet landscape with a 7-inch Android tablet under the moniker PC-7006.

Hiring increased slightly in July and the unemployment rate dropped to 9.1 percent, calming jitters after the worst day on Wall Street in almost three years. The Dow fell nearly 513 points Thursday, its biggest decline since Oct. 22, 2008.

Three children reported a man walking outside on Virginia Tech's campus at 9:09 a.m. Thursday. The children said that he was holding a gun covered in a cloth.

U.S. stocks seesawed, trading little changed on Friday as a better-than-expected payrolls report did little to alleviate fears of a double-dip recession.

The message from this week's market rout is crystal-clear: investors have lost confidence in their politicians, who urgently need to do something dramatic to reduce risks to the global economy.

The crumbling of mega-merger talks between Japanese industrial behemoths Hitachi <6501.T> and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries <7011.T> threatens a rare opportunity for Japan to improve its global competitiveness by consolidating century-old companies.

"I am running for President of the United States," Roseanne Barr announced during her appearance on the Tonight Show, Thursday. It was reported that she initially made this claim in May 2010, but now she is also considering being the prime minister of Israel.

Marvel Comics on Wednesday unveiled a new Spider-Man for the Obama-age -- a half-black, half-Latino nerd named Miles Morales.

Mortgage finance giant Fannie Mae said it would ask for an additional $5.1 billion from taxpayers as a weaker housing market causes continued losses on loans made prior to 2009.

Widespread reports have touted Chelsea to make a third bid for Tottenham's Luka Modric, believed to be around the region of £30 million.