IBT Staff Reporter

Portugal's president started to consult leaders of political parties on Friday as he weighs whether to call a snap election after the Socialist prime minister resigned.

BP and Rosneft , Russia's largest oil company, have been blocked by an arbitration panel from forming an alliance to explore for oil in the Russian Arctic and executing a $16 billion share swap.

Shares of Oracle Corp rose 5 percent on Friday, a day after the world's third-largest software maker forecast solid sales of new business software, signaling strength against Hewlett-Packard and IBM in data center and cloud computing businesses.

During its fourth-quarter earnings call, Research In Motion revealed that its upcoming BlackBerry Playbook tablet would be compatible with applications developed for Google's Android operating system.

BP boss Bob Dudley has come under fire after an Arctic exploration deal with Russian group Rosneft was blocked by the British oil company's partners in joint venture TNK-BP.

Stock index futures rose on Friday, supported by technology shares after Oracle gave an upbeat forecast.

China's customs authorities detained a Glencore trader as part of an investigation into the potential evasion of millions of dollars in taxes on fuel imports, sources with direct knowledge of the situation said on Friday.

The triple disaster in Japan and the ongoing turmoil in the Middle East and North Africa likely would have only a limited impact on the global economy - provided the twin shocks of higher oil prices and the supply chain disruptions from Japan do not get much worse, market research firm IHS said.

The star of CES 2011 Motorola Xoom has ushered in the age of Android 3.0 or Honeycomb and brought about super specifications like killer camera's and dual-core processors to the limelight faces but now faces stiff competition from the new slimmer Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1.

Oxford University Press has announced number of new internet-borne linguistic additions, signaling yet another way in which tradional mediums are adapting to the rapid linguistic changes caused by online communication.

Blizzard co-founder Frank Pierce said that their continued success would depend on the development of a really talented team with some of the best developers in the industry and that they were trying to see if some of it could be nurtured internally.

Stock index futures rose on Friday, supported by technology shares after Oracle gave an upbeat forecast.

JPMorgan Chase & Co boss Jamie Dimon and Coca-Cola CEO Muhtar Kent were among top global executives to visit Tokyo this week to meet with local staff coping with the devastating earthquake and radiation panic that hit the city.

In a series of postings from mid to late February on 51Jobs.com (the Monster.com of China), VanceInfo Technologies Inc. (NYSE: VIT) has advertised numerous positions for onsite assignments at Yahoo China. VanceInfo is an information technology (IT) service provider and an offshore software development company in China.

Loose monetary policies in developed economies will place more upward pressure on global commodity prices and weigh on the dollar this year, the Chinese central bank said on Friday.

Hundreds of customers formed long lines outside Apple stores on Friday for the international launch of the iPad 2, which has flown off the shelves in the United States and left the company struggling to meet demand.

The collapse of an asset bubble will not necessarily lead to higher unemployment as long as monetary policy is loose enough, a top Federal Reserve Bank official said on Friday.

Merck & Co Inc. (NYSE: MRK)'s shingles vaccine Zostavax is now approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for people aged 50 and older. Zostavax was originally approved on May 2006 to prevent herpes zoster, commonly known as shingles, in individuals 60 years of age and older.

XXL Magazine announces the launch of their first official iPhone app, which features six special functions including a hip-hop news feed,lifestyle trends, Where They At? geo-tracker for finding friends, plus special Twitter functions and the ultimate hip-hop trivia.

China's customs authorities detained a Glencore trader as part of an investigation into fuel imports and potential tax evasion, sources with direct knowledge of the situation said on Friday.

This year is set to be a blockbuster for deals, exemplified by mega acquisitions such as T-Mobile USA or Genzyme, with turmoil in the Middle East and Japan causing just a temporary slowdown.

Fourth-grade students in the College Station Independent School District (CSISD) in Texas have completed six weeks of a NASA health and fitness challenge known as Mission X: Train Like an Astronaut.

SUZAKU observatory shows evidence of million-degree gas clouds in galaxy

Japan needs to be careful about taking on new debt to fund relief and reconstruction after this month's deadly earthquake and tsunami, and may review its plan to cut the corporate tax, top economic officials said on Friday.

Fannie Mae was warned in a 2006 internal report of abuses in the way lenders and their law firms handled foreclosures, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

Rumors that Will Ferrell will Replace the outgoing Steve Carrell on 'The Office are not likely, one cast member says.

The United Auto Workers, as part of an effort to broaden support among middle class Americans as it approaches bargaining with the three major U.S. automakers, on Thursday rallied at a downtown Detroit branch of the Bank of America

Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky said on Thursday that he is considering a run to be the Republican party's presidential candidate in 2012, but it depends on whether his father Rep. Ron Paul of Texas runs.

Japan's government needs to be careful about taking on new debt to fund relief and reconstruction after this month's deadly earthquake and tsunami and may review its plan to cut the corporate tax rate, top economic officials said on Friday.