IBT Staff Reporter

Eight Chinese who used high-tech communications equipment, including mobile phones and wireless earpieces, to help their children cheat at university entrance exams have been jailed on state secret charges, local media said.

Thai and Cambodian soldiers exchanged rocket and rifle fire on a disputed stretch of their border on Friday, killing two Thais in the latest flare-up of an ancient feud over a 900-year-old Hindu temple.

U.S. credit markets are not showing the same optimism on the economy as U.S. equities, suggesting that the recession will run far longer than most expect, Mohamed El-Erian, the chief executive of bond giant Pacific Investment Management Co., said on Friday.

France is ready to take a detainee from Guantanamo Bay when the prison camp is shut down, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Friday after a meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama.

South African judge Richard Goldstone urged Israeli and Palestinian authorities Friday to cooperate with a U.N. investigation he is heading to examine alleged war crimes in their recent conflict.

NATO marks its 60th anniversary with a summit late on Friday at which U.S. President Barack Obama hopes to secure NATO backing for a new strategy in Afghanistan.

The international community will take steps if North Korea goes ahead with a planned missile launch to show Pyongyang it cannot act with impunity, U.S. President Barack Obama said on Friday.

Stocks trimmed losses on Friday while the Nasdaq turned positive, lifted by results from BlackBerry maker Research In Motion that surpassed expectations.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Friday said the Fed will use all tools to stabilize markets and set the stage for an economic recovery but provided no time frame for when a recovery will occur.

U.S. President Barack Obama called on Friday for a world without atomic weapons and urged allies to stand firm against Iran's nuclear ambitions and a planned missile launch by North Korea.

Researchers who have trained a tiny virus to do their bidding said on Thursday they made it build a more efficient and powerful lithium battery.

The U.S. unemployment rate soared to 8.5 percent last month, a 25-year high, as employers slashed 663,000 jobs and cut workers' hours to the lowest level on record, the government said on Friday.

Carnival Corp, the world's largest cruise ship operator, cut its second-quarter and full-year earnings outlook, citing higher fuel costs and a falling U.S. dollar.

While G20 nations were unified in announcing $1 trillion in new financing to help the world’s economy recover, their approach to dealing with toxic assets clogging bank balance sheets will be a local effort as conditions vary by country.

Internet calling companies such as eBay unit Skype have called on European policymakers to adopt policies that let consumers access their services through smart phones on any public network.

The U.S. unemployment rate soared to 8.5 percent in March, the highest since 1983, as employers slashed 663,000 jobs and cut workers' hours to the lowest on record, government data showed on Friday.

Rupert Murdoch, whose media company News Corp owns one of the few U.S. newspapers that makes people pay to read its news on the Web, said more papers will have to start doing the same to survive.

Two prominent technology news blogs clashed on Friday morning over a report one of them issued that said Google Inc may try to buy Internet start-up Twitter.

The U.S. unemployment rate soared to 8.5 percent in March, the highest since 1983, as employers slashed 663,000 jobs and cut workers' hours to the lowest on record, government data showed on Friday.

General Motors Corp.'s electric car, the Chevrolet Volt, will have a smart charging feature that will allow communication between the vehicle's battery charges and utility companies, GM said Thusday.

Business activity in European countries fell in March, but the pace slowed as efforts to revive economies took hold and pessimism ebbed after a plan by world leaders to kick start a global recovery.

Stocks faltered on Friday after data showed further deterioration in the labor market as the unemployment rate hit its highest since 1983, underscoring the severity of the recession.

Royal Bank of Scotland will cut more jobs, Chairman Philip Hampton warned on Friday as he called for an end to the public flogging of the state-rescued bank over its past mistakes.

Shares of BlackBerry maker Research In Motion jumped more than 20 percent on Friday, a day after the company surprised investors with a strong profit report and a rosy outlook for its smartphones despite a grim economy.

The rumor mill has been working overtime on Friday over reports that major search engine; Google is in late stages to buyout micro-blogging phenomenon Twitter.

G20 leaders have kickstarted stalling world trade with a substantial infusion of funds to finance export credits, but promises to agree a new Doha trade deal and battle protectionism remain vague.

IBM cut its offer for Sun Microsystems Inc to $9.55 a share after a thorough vetting and may soon unveil details of its largest- ever takeover, a source with knowledge of the matter said on Thursday.

Oil slipped under $52 a barrel on Friday after surging by nearly 9 percent the day before, as global markets viewed the outcome of the G20 summit as paving the way for some risk appetite to return.

The Dow and S&P 500 stock indexes opened flat on Friday as data showed the labor market deteriorating further while the unemployment rate hit its highest since 1983, underscoring the severity of the recession.