IBT Staff Reporter

State-owned Royal Bank of Scotland posted a 1 billion-pound ($1.7 billion) net loss in the first-half on Thursday, as bad debts soared to 7.5 billion pounds, and warned of more poor results to come as its recovery would take time.

Oil edged down on Friday from a six-week high in the previous session, as markets awaited U.S. July employment data later on Friday, a major indicator of how well the U.S. economy is doing pulling out of recession.

Asian stocks dipped on Friday as investors grew cautious before a key U.S. jobs report, while the Australian dollar got only a brief lift despite signals from the central bank that interest rates could rise over time.

Twitter and Facebook suffered service problems from hacker attacks on Thursday, raising speculation about a coordinated campaign against the world's most popular online social networks.

Judge Sonia Sotomayor won approval on Thursday to become the first Hispanic on the U.S. Supreme Court in a Senate vote that President Barack Obama said broke another social barrier.

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.

Reformists kept up pressure for leadership change in the dominant Palestinian party Fatah on Thursday, and Saudi Arabia said no Palestinian state could emerge unless such internal divisions were healed.

The new head of the Tamil Tigers, the separatist group defeated by the Sri Lankan military after 25 years of war, is being held in the capital Colombo, the military said on Friday, declining to say where he was arrested.

Bonfires were lit across Georgia overnight to mark a year since the former Soviet republic's five-day war with Russia over breakaway South Ossetia.

The Nasdaq-listed Chinese search engine Baidu Inc has topped Yahoo! to become the world's second most popular search engine in June, the US marketing research company ComScore released in its report this week.

Dutch telecoms group KPN confirmed its offer of $1.55 per share for iBasis shares it does not yet own after iBasis repeatedly objected to the bid on Thursday because it was inadequate.

Private equity firm Blackstone Group LP reported higher quarterly earnings on Thursday, topping Wall Street expectations, and said it was sitting on its biggest cash pile ever, with $29 billion to deploy.

Abu Dhabi-owned energy company TAQA Bratani Ltd plans to boost North Sea oil and gas production by buying up mature oilfields and greatly increasing their efficiency, the head of the company's UK arm said on Thursday.

Blackstone Group LP's restructuring advisory business is booming as more companies hit the wall every day and need advice, the private equity firm's COO said on Thursday.

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.

Citigroup Inc may give control of its Phibro commodities business to Andrew Hall, the energy trader making headlines for demanding a $100 million payday under his contract, The New York Times said on Thursday, citing a person with knowledge of the negotiations.

Fannie Mae, the largest provider of U.S. home mortgage funding, on Thursday reported a $14.8 billion quarterly net loss that it said would force it to go to the U.S. Treasury trough a third time for money to stay in business.

Investors overlooked weak July sales results from some U.S. apparel chains and sent the shares of battered names such as Gap Inc , Limited Brands Inc and Zumiez Inc up on hopes of improvement later this year.

The number of U.S. workers submitting new claims for jobless benefits fell sharply last week, fanning hopes the fragile labor market was on the mend and that the broader economy was stabilizing.

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.

The trip sounded like a dream; dragons and dolphins, clear blue skies stretching to a horizon broken only by an occasional uninhabited island. For four days we were to float upon the azure seas at God's mercy, with a reliance on an ancient engine and a toothless captain.

The Nasdaq Stock Market and BATS Exchange said in separate statements on Thursday they will voluntarily stop offering so-called flash orders, a controversial service that gives certain firms an advance look at market-bound trading orders.

The U.S. Department of Energy announced Thursday, $377 million in funding for research centers across the country to advance solar energy, biofuels, transportation, energy efficiency, electricity storage and transmission, clean coal and carbon capture and sequestration, and nuclear energy technologies.

Sprint Nextel will sell Samsung Electronics phones including an advanced display technology that will improve battery life and video and photo quality, according to executives for the companies.

Advanced Micro Devices free OpenCL development tool for x86 CPU is now open for download as part of its ATI Stream SDK 2.0 beta version, according to the second largest chip maker.

Is the cruise industry trying to resuscitate its image? The old adage that cruise goers are either, newlywed, nearly dead or over fed is no longer accurate with the creation of the mega liner.

A Sarah Palin signature Xbox 360 worth $1.1 million than the Xbox itself has been auction in EBay by a Canadian user, David Morrill.

U.S. retailers reported their 11th straight month of sales declines in July as shoppers continued to search for bargains and basics in the downturn.

Tech outsourcing company Affiliated Computer Services Inc posted a slightly stronger than expected quarterly profit thanks to new business signings.