IBT Staff Reporter

President Barack Obama said on Friday he would make a decision soon on his Afghanistan strategy and the plan would make clear the goal is for Afghans to provide for their own security.

Cataract surgery does not appear to worsen the course of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a progressive loss of vision due to deterioration of nerve tissue in the retina, a new study shows.

More than just a bad bout of stomach flu, some food-borne illnesses can cause long-term consequences, especially for young people, a report released on Thursday has found.

Singer Taylor Swift's presence at the Country Music Association Awards Wednesday, in which she was awarded Entertainer of the Year, coinciding with a record score of viewers for the show not seen since 2005.

Burger King, the world's second biggest hamburger chain, said on Friday it plans to open its first Russian restaurant in Moscow this year, lured by the potential of the country's 140 million population.

Warren Buffett's warning to Kraft over using its undervalued stock to bid for Cadbury may return to haunt Irene Rosenfeld as the Kraft CEO ponders an increased bid to win over the British confectioner.

Japan may freeze spending on supercomputers, dealing a blow to a crippled sector and threatening brain drain in a country that prides itself on technological prowess.

Arizona union workers have reached a tentative agreement with grocers Kroger Co and Safeway Inc, averting a potential strike that had been scheduled to begin on Friday.

Antiviral medicines can prevent severe H1N1 flu and should be given to pregnant women, very young children and people with underlying medical problems who fall ill, a World Health Organisation official said on Thursday.

Serbia on Friday signed a contract for the purchase of 3 million doses of new flu vaccinces from Swiss Novartis AG, two days after the authorities declared epidemics of the disease.

Swedbank has boosted the reserves of its Estonian unit to cover investments made in its branches in the struggling Baltic economies of Latvia and Lithuania, the Swedish bank said on Friday.

Ireland's 54 billion euro bad bank will start transferring the biggest commercial property loans from banks from January onwards, Finance Minister Brian Lenihan said on Friday.

Efforts to help smokers kick the habit have stalled in the United States, with hardly any recent change in smoking rates, federal researchers reported on Thursday.

U.S. President Barack Obama and Japan's new prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama, pledged on Friday to revitalize their strained security alliance as they adapt to a rising China, set to overtake Japan as the world's No.2 economy.

Wall Street was set for a higher open on Friday after solid earnings from Walt Disney Co and JC Penney Co Inc, following the first losing day in seven sessions for blue chips.

French oil major Total (TOTF.PA) has admitted safety breaches and to polluting ground water, in connection with an explosion at a fuel depot in England in 2005.

U.N. negotiators will next month put farming onto the radar of climate regulations for the first time, but governments face aggressive lobbies and gaps in the science proving the extent of agricultural emissions.

The United States and Japan said they had agreed at a summit on Friday to expand cooperation in clean energy technologies in an effort to tackle climate change.

New energy economy standards could kick in for all new public buildings in the European Union from 2018, and for all new homes and offices from 2020, a source close to the EU negotiations said on Friday.

U.N. negotiators will next month put farming onto the radar of climate regulations for the first time, but governments face aggressive lobbies and gaps in the science proving the extent of agricultural emissions. Double-click here for a related story.

The Philippines will lift a three-week long cap on fuel prices on its main island of Luzon on Monday, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said, responding to a clamour from oil firms. Subject to compliance to all agreements, we can now lift EO (Executive Order) 839, Arroyo told representatives of oil companies on Friday.

Suspected oil thieves in Nigeria have increased their attacks on Royal Dutch Shell-operated oil facilities, the company said on Friday, reporting five separate incidents already in the last three months.

Suncor Energy Inc, Canada's biggest oil company, said on Friday it is budgeting C$5.5 billion ($5.23 billion) for capital spending in 2010 and will restart construction on its Firebag Stage 3 oil sands project.

Croatia's oil group INA, in which Hungary's MOL is the largest shareholder, plans to complete the modernisation of its two refineries at the end of 2012, the company said on Friday.

U.S. stock index futures rose on Friday after solid earnings from Walt Disney Co and JC Penney Co Inc, following the first losing day in seven sessions for blue chips.

The euro zone economy jumped out of recession in the third quarter, data showed on Friday, but with slightly less spring than expected after growth in the area's top three economies fell short of market forecasts.

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General Motors reiterated on Friday it wanted state aid to help restructure European arm Opel after Germany's economics minister said the carmaker would not ask European taxpayers for help.

Department store operator J.C. Penney Co Inc reported a lower quarterly profit on Friday but raised its forecast for the full year to a level that could top Wall Street expectations, sending shares up nearly 4 percent.