IBT Staff Reporter

France's Total said on Friday it would spend C$1.75 billion ($1.8 billion) to forge a partnership with Suncor Energy in Canada's oil sands, the latest foreign push into a booming new source of oil wealth.

Yan Qin is a freelance consultant and do-it-yourself stock trader who works out of her apartment in Queens, New York. From the comfort of her living room, she keeps one eye on the business TV network CNBC, the other on a laptop computer, where her E*Trade account shows the best prices down to the penny, flickering moment to moment.

Stock index futures were little changed on Friday as wary investors kept their eyes on the euro zone debt crisis after Ireland's credit rating was slashed.

China will be able to keep a grip on inflation next year, but will have a harder time in coping with hot money inflows fanned by loose polices in the West, chief banking regulator Liu Mingkang said on Friday.

The new export control policies proposed by the Obama administration may address some previously identified weaknesses but leave many more open, a report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said on Thursday

Ratings agency Moody's gave a resounding thumbs-down on Friday to Europe's efforts to resolve a rolling debt crisis, slashing Ireland's credit rating by five notches despite an EU/IMF bailout.

LOS ANGELES - Keith Olbermann suspended his Twitter account on Thursday after receiving a barrage of angry tweets in the wake of an interview with Michael Moore two days earlier.

Taiwan's economics ministry approved on Friday a plan by AU Optronics Corp to build a new LCD plant in China, paving the way for the world's No.4 LCD maker to tap future growth potential on the mainland.

Moody's Investors Service slashed Ireland's credit rating by five notches to Baa1 with a negative outlook from Aa2 on Friday and warned further downgrades could follow if Ireland was unable to stabilize its debt situation.

World stocks advanced on Friday, partly lifted by firmer commodities as the dollar fell, while Irish and Portuguese bond yields rose after Moody's cut Ireland's rating by five notches.

Level 3 Communications Inc asked U.S. antitrust officials to set conditions on Comcast Corp's planned acquisition of NBC Universal that would assure unfettered access to all internet content.

Mergers and acquisitions rose for the first year since 2007, potentially marking the start of a new, multiyear M&A cycle in which emerging economies account for a bigger share of global dealmaking.

The U.S. dollar fell on Friday, struggling for support as a rapid rise in U.S. bond yields ebbed, while Asian stocks clawed higher after two days of declines.

U.S. banks face deep cuts in the debit card fees they charge retailers under a Federal Reserve proposal that also exposes card networks Visa and MasterCard to more competition.

The U.S. government's main code-making and code-cracking agency now works on the assumption that foes may have pierced even the most sensitive national security computer networks under its guard.

Insider trading charges buffeting the technology industry have laid bare what people who work in Silicon Valley already know: leaks happen, and a morsel of information can turn into treasured commodity.

The International Monetary Fund said on Thursday that its board of governors had approved reforms that will shift more voting power to emerging-market countries like China.

The U.S. Congress gave final approval late on Thursday to the deal President Barack Obama and Republicans made to extend expiring tax cuts -- a high-stakes gamble to create jobs at a cost of deepening the U.S. debt.

The Congress gave final approval late on Thursday to the deal President Barack Obama and Republicans made to extend expiring tax cuts -- a high-stakes gamble to create jobs at a cost of deepening the U.S. debt.

Spain will ward off the worst of a European debt crisis without needing a rescue and there is no threat to the euro currency's existence, the head of the International Monetary Fund said on Thursday.

Japan's Sharp Corp is considering expanding capacity at a factory for small to mid-sized liquid-crystal display panels, two industry sources told Reuters on Friday.

Spain will ward off the worst of a European debt crisis without needing a rescue and there is no threat to the euro currency's existence, the head of the International Monetary Fund said on Thursday.

FedEx Corp raised its fiscal full-year outlook on record holiday shipments, sending shares higher even as its second-quarter profit missed analyst estimates.

Following are comments by European leaders and senior officials at a summit in Brussels on Thursday and Friday focusing on ways to tackle the euro zone debt crisis.

The Commerce Department should have its own privacy office and develop voluntary, enforceable codes of conduct for data companies and advertisers that track people on the Internet, said a report by the department's Internet Policy Task Force.

Research In Motion's Torch, a touchscreen challenger to Apple's iPhone, lifted the BlackBerry maker's quarterly profit above analyst expectations on Thursday and the company forecast strong results from the current holiday season quarter.

The $858 billion tax-cut package brokered by President Barack Obama and Republicans survived a key test vote in the House of Representatives on Thursday and headed toward passage, likely within hours.

Research In Motion reported results that mostly beat expectations on Thursday and the BlackBerry maker forecast strong profits for the current quarter, pushing its shares higher in after-hours trade.

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion's net profit jumped 45 percent in its fiscal third quarter, boosted by strong sales of its flagship Torch smartphone.