IBT Staff Reporter

While difficult to upstage nearly nude supermodels strutting down a catwalk, the Spice Girls stole a share of the spotlight on Thursday as they kicked off a reunion tour with a warm-up at the Victoria's Secret fashion show.

Mergers and acquisitions by Indian firms in Europe and the United States are expected to double in three years, a survey said on Friday.

European Union Telecoms Commissioner Viviane Reding said she does not expect political wrangling over her plans this week to shake up telecom rules to derail the creation of a single EU telecoms watchdog.

Camera and office equipment maker Canon Inc expects 30 percent annual sales growth in China until 2010, the chief executive for China said on Friday.

Aeon Co Ltd, Japan's No.2 retailer, said it wants to increase its ties with drugstore operator CFS Corp as it seeks to scupper a $120 million takeover of CFS by rival Ain Pharmaciez Inc.

Gold regained strength on Friday as bargain hunters and investors resurfaced to take advantage of the metal's sharp drop the previous day.

Fears that the credit crisis could deepen rattled global stock investors on Friday and boosted demand for traditionally less risky assets.

The yen strengthened on Friday as jittery investors took cues from falling stock markets to continue a move out of relatively risky carry trades funded by cheap borrowing in the Japanese currency.

Google Inc is gearing up to make a serious run at buying wireless spectrum in a Federal Communications Commission auction in January, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday in its online edition.

Online retailer Amazon.com Inc plans to introduce its highly anticipated electronic book device at a New York event Monday, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday, citing two people familiar with the company's plans.

Stock index futures on Friday signaled a bounce-back after recent losses, while investor worries about weakening consumer spending and credit market losses could limit gains.

Oil rose above $94 a barrel on Friday, rebounding from losses the previous session after a surprise build in weekly U.S. crude stocks.

U.S. sales of Sony Corp's PlayStation 3 (PS3) more than doubled in the weeks following a price cut and the launch of a lower-priced version, the company said on Friday, in a sign of changing fortunes for the game console.

Profits from opium cultivation are fuelling the insurgency in Afghanistan, the United Nations said on Friday, in a new call on NATO to crack down on the country's burgeoning drugs trade.

British computer experts acknowledged defeat on Friday after a German amateur radio enthusiast won a challenge to crack secret messages encoded by a World War Two cipher.

Chinese lunchtime television on Friday gave ordinary people a basic tip on how to play the currency markets: sell the dollar!

The malls are full, the cars are fast, the fashions are sharp -- conspicuous consumption is king as Saudis enjoy the benefits of oil at almost $100 a barrel.

As banks work to clean up some of the subprime mortgage mess, they are finding new obstacles in unraveling the massive paper trail used to pool individual loans into mortgage-backed securities.

An unusual provision in Merck & Co Inc's settlement agreement concerning the painkiller Vioxx means many plaintiffs may have little choice but to accept the deal, the Wall Street Journal said Friday in its online edition.

Money manager BlackRock Inc's chairman Larry Fink said he intended to stay with the firm he co-founded, after news reports tipped him as a candidate to takeover the chief executive slot at Merrill Lynch.

Iran called on its Western foes on Friday to apologize to the Islamic Republic after the release of a U.N. nuclear agency report which Tehran said showed it had been telling the truth about its atomic plans, according to state media.

A new World Trade Organization (WTO) accord could improve access to clean-energy tools in poorer countries, but any deal making it easier to ship cargo internationally would also carry a heavy carbon footprint.

Tests of a new technology for capturing greenhouse gases from coal-fired power plants have achieved 95 percent cuts in a step towards new ways to fight climate change, a Norwegian company said on Friday.

Iran Oil Minister Gholamhossein Nozari said on Friday it was too early to predict what action OPEC might take when it meets in early December, leaving the door open for a possible production rise to cool prices.

Flush with cash and swaggering with world-beating valuations, firms are likely to settle for small stakes in big rivals.

Saudi Arabia is building up a special 35,000-strong rapid reaction force to protect its energy installations from attacks by militants targeting the world's largest oil exporter.

Belgian-French financial services group Dexia's third-quarter net profit took a sharp hit due to the liquidity crisis in global markets and the underlying figure was below expectations.

A severe cyclone has killed more than 500 people in Bangladesh and left thousands injured or missing, triggering an international relief effort to help the army-backed interim government to cope with the disaster.

U.S. President George W. Bush and new Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda will try on Friday to smooth over relations that are looking rockier than usual between Washington and its closest Asian ally.