IBT Staff Reporter

The euro's rally against the dollar faltered on Friday and stocks opened weaker ahead of U.S. fourth-quarter GDP numbers on profit taking, although both look set to end the week in the black.

Will MTV's controversial teen-age based drama Skins be taken off air amid advertiser and ratings woes as well as ire from media watchdog group?

Stock index futures were little changed on Friday, a day after equities hit a new 29-month high, as investors awaited a key reading on economic growth.

The U.S. economy probably gathered speed in the fourth quarter, with the biggest gain in consumer spending in four years offering the clearest signal yet that a sustainable recovery is under way.

Hedge fund manager John Paulson personally made more than $5 billion in profit in 2010, which may likely be the largest one-year earnings in investment history, the Wall Street Journal said.

Verizon Communications announced its plan to acquire Terremark, an Infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) provider for $1.4 billion in cash to bulwark its everything-as-a-service cloud strategy. The acquisition of Terremark confirms that Verizon has more on its mind than just telecommunications.

Egypt appears to have blocked all access to internet in the midst of anti-government demonstrations. US-based Web site Renesys said it has observed virtually simultaneous withdrawal of all routes to Egyptian networks in the Internet's global routing table, just after mid night, local time.

He cannot believe that they do not want to be featured on the show

Despite the blockade imposed on internet and mobile communication, photos, videos of and responses to the Egypt unrest flood social media sites like Flickr, YouTube and Twitter.

Stock index futures fell on Friday ahead of the release of fourth-quarter U.S. growth data, with futures for the S&P 500, Dow Jones and Nasdaq all down by around 0.2 percent by 4:35 a.m. ET.

Booming demand for smartphones and tablets will help Samsung Electronics Co post better results this year after the world's No.2 mobile phone maker reported its weakest profit in six quarters.

Average annual base pay for the Class of 2010 in the US fell by just 0.7% from 2009, compared to a 3.6% fall in Canada and a 5.2% rise in Australia.

British police arrested five young men on Thursday as they and U.S. authorities conducted searches as part of a probe into Internet activists who carried out cyber attacks against groups they viewed as enemies of the WikiLeaks website.

Egypt's web activists have been brazen critics of the President Hosni Mubarak 30-year rule online. This week's unprecedented protests across Egypt showed they are becoming formidable opponents offline too.

The White House will support legislation ensuring a block of airwaves are used for public safety rather than going to commercial wireless providers, a senior administration official said on Thursday.

Bank of America Corp may give some investment bankers a greater share of their bonus payments in cash for 2010 compared to the previous year, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the situation.

A study from DNS-resolution service OpenDNS, 2010 Report on Web Content Filtering and Phishing details the sites companies were most likely to be blocked last year, be it social networking websites or sites that have a reputation for fostering procrastination.

Lady GaGa does it again with her request for a bodily fluid scent

Japanese leaders vowed on Friday to push ahead with tax reforms needed to rein in bulging public debt, but doubts persisted over whether the government could succeed in the face of a divided parliament.

Automobile major General Motors Thursday said that it plans to bring iconic budget friendly sports car Camaro to India.

Escalating tensions and persistent protests have now prompted the government of Egypt to completely block all access to internet as well as SMS services.

Japan and the United States faced new pressure to confront their swollen budget deficits as the IMF and rating agencies demanded more evidence they can bring their public debts under control.

Ford Motor Co is expected to post its biggest annual profit in a decade on Friday, after lowering operating costs and increasing sales to make it No. 2 in the U.S. market.

The United States and Japan received sharp warnings from the IMF and ratings agencies on Thursday that they must tackle their huge budget deficits to avoid investors dumping their bonds, which would create a sovereign debt crisis and push up their borrowing costs.

Asian stocks fell on Friday in a broad wave of profit-taking, giving up much of this week's gains, while a ratings cut gave investors an excuse to reduce their Japanese share holdings.

Global cellphone sales surged 18 percent from a year ago in October-December, boosted by strong growth of North American smartphone vendors Apple and RIM.

Booming demand for smartphones and tablets will help Samsung Electronics Co post better results this year after the world's No.2 mobile phone maker reported its weakest profit in six quarters.

Asian stocks fell by half a percent on Friday, succumbing to a broad bout of profit-taking, as concern about rising inflation outweighed robust earnings.

LinkedIn Corp announced plans to go public this year in what could be a test of investor appetite for social networking websites ahead of a highly anticipated Facebook offering.