IBT Staff Reporter

Space shuttle Atlantis thundered off its seaside launch pad Friday, rising atop a tower of smoke and flames as it left Earth on the final flight of the U.S. space shuttle program.

Mike Trout, the top prospect in baseball, will make his Major League Baseball debut tonight for the Los Angeles Angels when they host the Seattle Mariners.

U.S. employment growth ground to a halt in June, with employers hiring the fewest number of workers in nine months, dampening hopes the economy was on the cusp of regaining momentum after stumbling in recent months.

U.S. job growth in June essentially ground to a halt for a second month running, suggesting a sharp first half slowdown is not merely a blip, as Wall Street economists and Federal Reserve officials had hoped.

U.S. wholesale inventories rose more than expected in May, the U.S. Commerce Department said on Friday, creating a potential drag on growth in the second half of the year as the job market slows further.

The space shuttle Atlantis has launched into space and thus marking the beginning of the end of the space shuttle era.

Stocks dropped on Friday after weak jobs growth in June dented hopes the economy was emerging from a soft patch, but the start of earnings season next week kept investors engaged.

Garrido was sentenced to 431 years in jail and his wife, Nancy was sentenced for 36 to life as reported by the Sunday Times of London. A local radio station spoke to Garrido from his jail cell and reported that hopes people will acknowledge what a wonderful warm-hearted story the last 18 years have been.

He has faced criticism over threats to impose a U.S.-style healthcare system, plans to reduce sentences for rapists, and proposed cuts to pensions and benefits.

U.S. jobs growth ground to a near halt in June, with employers hiring the fewest workers in nine months, frustrating hopes the economy would bounce back quickly from a slowdown in the first half of the year.

Google Inc will cooperate fully with U.S. antitrust regulators but will not let the formal probe launched last month distract or disrupt its strategy, executive chairman Eric Schmidt said.

A Texas Rangers fan fell to his death after catching a ball tossed to him by Rangers outfielder Josh Hamilton at Rangers Ballpark on Thursday.

See pictures of the shuttle launch!

Large Wall Street banks are starting to scale back compensation on trading desks as shareholders grow increasingly restless over weak returns.

In a Rose Garden statement, President Barack Obama Friday said the poor June jobs report was primarily due to the debate in Washington, which has been dominated by issues of debt limit.

Surgeons at Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm, Sweden have carried out the world's first synthetic organ transplant. Scientists in London created an artificial windpipe which was then coated in stem cells from the patient. The unidentified male patient was implanted with a new lab-made windpipe seeded with his own stem cells.

Now you can watch the last space shuttle launch on your Android phone. The app can be downloaded at Android Market.

The world's largest association of economists is considering ethics guidelines after outrage about undisclosed conflicts of interest, but only a handful of its 18,000 members have bothered to offer any input.

Police arrested David Cameron's former spokesman on Friday over the scandal that has shut down Rupert Murdoch's News of the World, forcing the prime minister to defend his judgment while promising sweeping new rules for the British press.

New global financial rules could boost Japanese banks' competitive standing against Western rivals, as they will curb high-risk trading by Wall Street powerhouses, the new head of Japan's banking lobby said in an interview.

LONDON, July 8 - Opposition leader Ed Miliband dismissed Britain's press watchdog as a toothless poodle on Friday, and said the closure of the News of the World should not let Rupert Murdoch's most senior newspaper executive off the hook.

He has faced criticism over threats to impose a U.S.-style healthcare system, plans to reduce sentences for rapists, and proposed cuts to pensions and benefits.

Google+ is only testing with a small number of people. Want to get invited and join the circle? Us, too. And Richi Jennings of Computerworld has offered a solution.

Stocks dropped on Friday after weak jobs growth in June dented hopes the economy was emerging from a temporary soft patch, casting doubt on a recent strong run in equity markets.

Emma Watson has starred in the Harry Potter films for over 10 years now, but there is more to the actress than a little wand trickery.

A look back at the space shuttle era.

New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman is investigating whether the National Football League violated antitrust laws with its current labor lockout.

The U.S. economy is not facing a double-dip recession, but weak job growth is a call to arms for policymakers to take steps to reinvigorate the private sector, a top White House adviser said on Friday.

Morgan Stanley downgraded Google Inc a notch to equal-weight, saying the search giant's margins will shrink as it undertakes aggressive hiring and ramps up advertising for new products.