IBT Staff Reporter

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged China, one of the world's top two emitters of greenhouse gases, to become a global leader in the battle against global warming, the Associated Press reported on Friday.

The White House said Friday President Barack Obama regrets the controversy his comments about the arrest of Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. have caused in the media.

Russia's most powerful business lobby moved to clamp down on Skype and its peers this week, telling lawmakers that the Internet phone services are a threat to Russian businesses and to national security.

Most people are expecting less business opportunities in the third quarter due to the financial downturn, however, they are generally optimistic about the job situation, Hong Kong officials said on Friday.

CIT Group Inc amended its debt restructuring plan on Friday to encourage more bondholders to tender their notes early, and said it intended to keep restructuring out-of-court if the offer succeeded.

Loblaw Co, Canada's biggest grocery store chain, warned of a tough second half of the year on Friday, even as it reported above-forecast profits and a plan to buy the country's largest Asian food retailer.

Stocks fell on Friday, pressured by disappointing quarterly results in the tech sector and weak consumer sentiment data.

KKR Private Equity Investors LP on Friday launched a consent solicitation, seeking approval of its unitholders to proceed with the planned combination with private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co (KKR).

Qu Jianguo, unable to borrow from banks to fund his small water treatment business, is hoping a Nasdaq-style second board in China, due for launch this fall, will help fill a hole in his country's financial system.

Three private equity firms have agreed to buy a combined about 10 percent stake of a flagship unit of China UnionPay, as the country's monopoly card payments service provider aims to go public next year, sources with direct knowledge of the deal said on Friday.

Vitamin Shoppe's parent company has filed to raise as much as $143.8 million in an initial public offering.

Citigroup Inc said it has appointed three new directors and installed a new chief to oversee its retail banking unit, addressing criticism that it lacks enough leaders with commercial banking experience.

Twitter plans a marketing campaign starting in the next few days to educate users, individual and corporate, about ways to make money off the popular microblogging site.

Oil rose on Friday on optimism a turnaround in the global economy would lift battered fuel demand.

Final bids are due by the end of Friday for the National Hockey League's Phoenix Coyotes in federal bankruptcy court in Arizona, even as the team disclosed it continued to lose money last season.

Consumer sentiment down, Microsoft slides, Amazon dips

Italian automaker Fiat won unconditional approval from the European Commission on Friday to acquire bankrupt U.S. automaker Chrysler CBS.UL as the EU executive said the deal would not hurt competition.

U.S. consumer confidence waned in late July to its lowest ebb since April on growing pessimism about the long-term economic outlook, especially about income and jobs, a survey showed on Friday, even as some economists reckon the longest recession in decades may be easing.

Warren Buffett said he has no plans to soon exercise Berkshire Hathaway Inc's warrants to buy $5 billion of Goldman Sachs Group Inc stock, although he could make a big profit by doing so.

Amazon's chief executive officer Jeff Bezos posted an apology message to customers over last week's remote-deletion of illegally sold books.

Stocks fell on Friday as bellwether Microsoft declined on disappointing results, a day after a rally took the Dow industrials above the key 9,000 mark.

On Thursday, Microsoft Corp. released poor fourth-quarter earnings blaming the global economic downturn and a slumping PC market.

General Electric Co is lobbying senators for incentives in the climate bill for everything from nuclear power plants to appliances, company officials said on Thursday.

Exelon Corporation, the largest operator of nuclear power plants in the U.S., reported on Friday that its earnings declined 12 percent in the second quarter due to a low demand for electricity and more expensive nuclear fuel.

Welcoming the coming 2009 East Asian Games (EAG) in Hong Kong, the Hong Kong 2009 EAG 100-day Countdown-cum-Torch Relay will be held on August 29 to build up the atmosphere, official said on Thursday.

U.S. consumer confidence waned in late July to the lowest reading since April on growing pessimism about the long-term economic outlook, a survey showed on Friday, even as some economists reckon the longest recession in decades may be easing.

Senior U.S. financial regulators defended their turf in remarks to be delivered on Friday at a congressional hearing on the Obama administration's sweeping regulatory reform agenda.

U.S. stocks fell on Friday as bellwethers Microsoft and American Express declined on disappointing results, a day after a rally took the Dow industrials above the key 9,000 mark.