IBT Staff Reporter

Indian mobile phone giant Bharti Airtel may increase its offer for a stake in South African peer MTN by between 5 and 10 percent, a source familiar with the negotiations told Reuters.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton encouraged South Africa Friday to press for reform in Zimbabwe and said Washington would build closer ties with Pretoria after strains under the Bush administration.

As information poured in on Friday that Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud was killed two days ago by a U.S. missile strike, a whole series of questions arise over what it would mean for Pakistan, Afghanistan and U.S. policy and Western military forces in the region.

Pakistan believes Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud, who has a $5 million U.S. bounty on his head, was probably killed with his wife and bodyguards in a missile attack two days ago, the interior minister said on Friday.

The distributed denial of service attack on Thursday that targeted Twitter, Facebook, LiveJournal, and several Google sites may have been politically motivated.

Royal Bank of Scotland reported more losses on Friday as investment banking profits failed to offset bad debts, and the state-controlled lender warned of more poor results to come before a lasting recovery.

President Barack Obama delivered a pep talk to a bipartisan group of senators negotiating a healthcare overhaul on Thursday as the U.S. Senate headed on vacation without a deal on his top domestic priority.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's top official vowed on Thursday to warn companies more quickly about problems found during inspections and act more aggressively in serious cases that could directly harm consumers and patients.

In elderly men and women, certain medications can increase the risk of falling, new research shows.

U.S. employers cut 247,000 jobs in July, far less than expected and the least in any month since last August, according to a government report on Friday that provided the clearest evidence yet that the economy was turning around.

U.S. stocks advanced on Friday after the government reported fewer workers lost jobs in July than expected, fueling hopes of an economic recovery and providing solid footing for a recent market run-up.

U.S. employers cut 247,000 jobs in July, far less than expected and the least in any month since last August, according to a government report on Friday that provided the clearest evidence yet that the economy was turning around.

Nearly one in three children and adolescents with

Hispanic whites seeking emergency treatment for gastrointestinal (GI) illnesses wait twice as long to see a doctor compared to non-Hispanic whites, new research shows.

Children on the high-fat ketogenic, or

Current quick tests for flu miss many cases of the new pandemic H1N1 strain, researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Thursday.

Denmark's DONG Energy will build and run an up to 33-megawatt wind farm in the northern Norway municipality of Narvik in cooperation with its local affiliate Nordkraft, DONG said on Friday.

LG Chem Ltd will have the capacity to build battery cells that could support up to 250,000 electric vehicles in the United States when its first U.S. plant becomes fully operational in 2013, the chief of the U.S. unit said on Thursday.

The fate of a U.S. climate change bill will send signals to the rest of the world as to whether upcoming global climate talks will be serious or not, one of the bill's co-authors said on Thursday.

No final out-of-court settlement has yet been been reached in a tax-evasion dispute pitting the U.S. government against Swiss bank UBS AG , a U.S. Justice Department attorney said on Friday.

The U.S. Senate approved and sent to the White House on Thursday a $2 billion extension of the cash for clunkers autos sales incentive program.

Wall Street opened higher on Friday after the government reported fewer workers were laid off in July, providing fresh evidence of an economic recovery and the sustainability of a recent market run-up.

Recovery more certain, AIG soars, No final tax deal

American International Group Inc , the insurer that received about $180 billion of federal bailouts, posted its first profit in seven quarters and shares rose 9 percent.

Wall Street opened higher on Friday after the government reported fewer workers were laid off in July, providing fresh evidence of an economic recovery and the sustainability of a recent market run-up.

Wall Street was set for a higher open on Friday after the government reported fewer workers were laid off in July, providing fresh evidence of an economic recovery and the sustainability of a recent market run-up.

American International Group Inc , the insurer that received $180 billion of federal bailouts, posted its first profit in seven quarters on Friday, helped by investment gains, sending its shares up 20 percent in premarket trade.

U.S. employers cut 247,000 jobs in July, far less than expected and the least in any month since last August, according to data on Friday that provided the clearest evidence yet that the economy was turning around.

On Thursday evening, the Microsoft Xbox Live service was unreachable, joining the likes of Twitter and Facebook which also went down this week, crippling millions of its users around the world.