IBT Staff Reporter

Panasonic Corp's president said on Friday that he sees the current financial year as an extremely tough one for the electronics giant, with the effects of the devastating March earthquake and tsunami continuing to hamper sales through September.

Protesters in Madrid have camped out in the central square for the fourth consecutive night.

It's been more than two months since 8.9 magnitude earthquakes struck Japan and took a toll on Japanese people and crippled the economy. Various relief measures are underway at various stages to restore normalcy in the ravaged island nation with aid flowing in from various quarters and volunteers pledging their support to restore the lives.

The increased use of the Chinese yuan in trade and investment settlement will pave the way for the currency to become fully convertible, although the process will be gradual, central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan said on Friday, without offering any time frame.

Tyler Hamilton, ex-team mate of seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong, has claimed that Armstrong used the performance-enhancing drug EPO during his career.

The dollar looked set to post its first weekly loss in three weeks as investors increased bets on risky assets like equities on expectations the United States would take a long time to raise interest rates after weak economic data this week.

Ford Motor Company (F) announced today it is building its first transmission plant in China to support its growth plan there, in the world's largest auto market, the carmaker said in a statement.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed Obama’s speech on Thursday saying, Those borders are not defensible, the Palestinian state must not come at Israel’s expense.

In a much-anticipated address, President Barack Obama’s speech outlined the U.S. policy in the Middle East and North Africa in the middle of the Arab uprisings in the world.

Tokyo Electric Power Co is set to reveal a net loss of as much as $18 billion on Friday to account for the disaster at its Fukushima nuclear power plant, media say, the biggest corporate loss in Japan outside of the financial sector.

As Annie Jacobsen's new book, AREA 51: An Uncensored History of America's Top Secret Military Base, is to hit shelves in few days, various media reports are suggesting the major hot spots for UFOs around the world.

Kareem Abdul Jabbar, one of NBA's all-time stars, is not happy with the Los Angeles Lakers, according to tweets new and old.

The dollar struggled to regain ground on Friday as tepid U.S. economic data prompted investors to favor higher yielding currencies like the euro while a sluggish Wall Street session weighed on stocks.

A 7-years-old student Matteo Lopez from Monte Verde Elementary School San Francisco won the 2011 Doodle 4 Google competition with his imaginative work Space Life, outstanding from more than 107,000 submissions from the entire nation.

The Bank of Japan kept monetary policy steady on Friday in a sign that a first-quarter economic slump did not change the central bank's view that growth will pick up late this year when the wounds from the devastating earthquake begin to heal.

The dollar looked set to post its first weekly loss in three weeks as investors increased bets on risky assets like equities on expectations the United States would take a long time to raise interest rates after posting weak economic data.

One fringe group has received national notoriety with their predictions that the end of the world will be this coming Saturday, May 21.

Tokyo Electric Power Co will promote a company insider to be its next president when the stricken Japanese utility reveals a net loss of as much as $18 billion, media say, the biggest corporate loss in the country outside the financial sector.

Amazon.com, the largest online retailer in the United States, says it has been selling more ebooks than printed books since April 1.

Moving further in to the digital age, Playboy Enterprises is archiving its entire magazine online by launching the web-based subscription i.Playboy.com, the company announced today.

Lance Armstrong, seven-time Tour de France winner, vehemently denied bold accusations by former Olympic champion and former teammate Tyler Hamilton regarding usage of performance enhancing drugs.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn was granted bail Thursday afternoon after spending over four days in Riker's New York jail for allegations on sexually assaulting a hotel maid. Judge Michael Obus offered to remove Strauss-Kahn from the prison cell after a if it was agreed that he post a $1 million bail.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is planning to make his second visit to China as the world's No. 1 social networking company looks for the best way to expand into that country.

The Manhattan Borough President Scott M. Stringer unveiled an online tax calculator for New York City residents, announced Thursday.

John Malone's Liberty Media Corp has proposed to buy Barnes & Noble Inc for $1.02 billion, nine months after the largest U.S. bookstore chain put itself up for sale.

Japanese automaker Honda Motor Co has adequate inventory of most models for the U.S. market but is running short of its high-volume compact Civic just as the summer sales season begins, the company told Honda and Acura dealers in a letter on Thursday.

The U.S. national debt hit $14.3 trillion, reaching its legal borrowing limit on Monday.

LinkedIn Corp's shares more than doubled in their public trading debut on Thursday, evoking memories of the investor love affair with Internet stocks during the dot-com boom of the late 1990s.

Tokyo Electric Power Co is set to book a record annual net loss on Friday due to the accident at its Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant and its top executive will resign to take responsibility for the handling of the crisis, Japanese media reported.