IBT Staff Reporter

More than 25 NATO and Afghan troops were wounded during a search Friday for two missing U.S. paratroopers in western Afghanistan, the NATO-led force said.

Singer Beyonce scooped three prizes at the MTV Europe Music Awards on Thursday at a ceremony in Berlin marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the wall that once divided the city.

Seven black-and-white photographs of the Beatles sitting on a grassy field, taken by a teenage girl on the last day of filming for their movie Help!, will be sold next week, the auctioneer said.

U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday listed a range of fresh options being considered by the White House to spur growth after sobering news that unemployment spiked to a 26 1/2-year peak last month.

Puerto-Rican hip-hop duo Calle 13 won five Latin Grammy awards on Thursday, including the coveted Album of the Year, helping cement their reputation as being among the vanguard of alternative reggaeton music.

U.S. stocks ended slightly higher on Friday, shrugging off government data showing the unemployment rate rose to more than 10 percent.

Wireless LAN vendor Aruba Networks Inc said it will pay Motorola Inc $19.8 million to settle certain long-drawn patent disputes that were a drag on Aruba's earnings.

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission on Thursday gave final approval to AT&T Inc's $944 million bid to buy Centennial Communications Corp.

Beauty pageant winner Miss England gave up her title on Friday after reports she had been involved in a nightclub brawl with another beauty queen.

Home goods retailer A.C. Moore Arts & Crafts Inc posted a wider-than-expected third-quarter loss as same-store sales fell and increased promotional activities hurt margins, sending its shares down as much as 18 percent.

U.S. network equipment maker Cisco Systems Inc faces a touch choice as the Monday deadline approaches for its $3 billion tender offer for Norwegian video conferencing company Tandberg ASA.

General Motors Co said on Friday the head of its European operations, Carl-Peter Forster, is leaving, three days after the automaker's decision to scrap a planned sale of its Opel unit.

President Barack Obama said on Friday the jump in the unemployment rate to 10.2 percent in October was a sobering figure that underscored the economic challenges ahead.

Harvard Business School is sending 28 percent of its 2009 graduating class onto careers in finance, a mildly bullish sign for the economy, said Ray Soifer, an independent bank consultant.

he U.S. unemployment rate, which rose more than expected in October to 10.2 percent, confirms a deeper and more protracted problem in the labor market, Mohamed El-Erian, chief executive of bond giant Pacific Investment Management Co (PIMCO), said in an interview on Friday.

U.S. stocks barely budged in a choppy trading session on Friday, lifted by several broker upgrades that offset disappointing data showing the unemployment rate rose to its highest in more than 26 years.

French nuclear reactor builder Areva is to decide the buyer for its transmission and distribution (T&D) business mid-November, with bidders sending in final offers this Monday.

Canada's Gold Wheaton Gold Corp said its Barbados unit agreed with First Uranium Corp to buy gold from its South African unit for an initial payment of $50 million.

Air Canada reported a quarterly net profit on Friday and said it sees signs the bottom of the recession is behind it although it does not expect a full recovery for another 12 to 18 months.

Third quarter sales at French public works group Eiffage slipped 1.1 percent as construction of new offices in France remained weak.

Globaltrans Investment, Russia's largest private rail freight operator, will ask shareholders to approve a doubling of the company's share capital to finance growth opportunities, the company said on Friday.

South Korea must do more to open its market to U.S. cars before President Barack Obama will send a free trade agreement signed in June 2007 to Congress for a vote, the chief U.S. trade negotiator said on Thursday.

About 40 world leaders plan to go to Copenhagen next month to boost the chances of clinching a U.N. climate deal, the United Nations said Friday as preparatory talks wound down with scant progress.

A U.N. climate deal due to be agreed in Copenhagen at talks from December 7-18 may fall short of a legally binding treaty, according to the United Nations.

Two Iranian businessmen working at a Dubai-based firm were linked to video surveillance devices sold to Sudan and used in unmanned drones in Darfur in violation of a U.N. arms embargo, a U.N. report said.

H1N1 swine flu is on the rise in China and Japan after triggering an unusually early start to the winter influenza season in Europe, Central Asia and North America, the World Health Organization said on Friday.

The HTC Droid Eris began selling available alongside the Motorola Droid today in Verizon stores nationwide and its appears to be ahead of its Droid competitor in three key aspects.

Renewable energy firm Ocean Power Technologies has won a A$66.5 million ($61 million) grant from the Australian government for a project set to be one of the first to generate power from waves on a utility scale.

Private equity firm Blackstone Group LP posted a forecast-beating quarterly profit and said it is gearing up for more deals and IPOs as the lending and equity markets recover.