IBT Staff Reporter

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.

At least four bidders are set to submit plans for stricken bank Northern Rock on Friday but its future could remain uncertain for months as the British government gauges the political fallout of its options.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said on Friday Washington was following a strong dollar policy and indicated he expected it to rebound, emphasizing the U.S. economy's long-term strength should help the currency.

Rio Tinto is reportedly considering a counter-bid for BHP Billiton as a defense against a $140 billion takeover proposal from its bigger mining rival, but analysts said such a move was unlikely. Rio was considering a broad array of potential options to fight off BHP, including a so-called Pac-Man defense, selling assets and other moves that could raise shareholder value, according to reports

The impact of the U.S. mortgage market crisis on the underlying economy could be dramatic as leveraged investors may need to scale back lending by up to $2 trillion, according to investment bank Goldman Sachs.

North and South Korea on Friday agreed more massive projects to help rebuild the North's broken economy, including freight train services over their heavily armed border that had been severed since the 1950-53 Korea War.

Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton fired back at her rivals and accused John Edwards of throwing mud on Thursday in a contentious debate marked by sharp clashes with Barack Obama and Edwards.

Fannie Mae said it will hold a conference call on Friday to answer accounting questions, after Fortune magazine reported that the U.S. mortgage lender may be camouflaging credit losses.

Seattle-based Starbucks Corp. (NYSE:SBUX) late Thursday reported a 35 percent increase in fourth-quarter earnings but forecast earnings for 2008 are below many Wall Street estimates because of weak consumer spending.

Crude oil prices fell on Thursday after a government report indicated an unexpected rise in U.S. oil and gasoline stocks as winter demand approaches.

US President Bush announced steps to tackle air traffic congestion and reduce passenger delays over the Thanksgiving period starting late next week, the White House said on Thursday.

The dollar strengthened against the euro but fell against the yen on Thursday amid continuing fears in credit markets and falling stocks.

Stocks declined further in a skittish session on Thursday as investors fretted about the likelihood of more credit losses at big financial services companies. Caution also weighed on the market following an upsurge in volatility that has tended to rock stocks around the close of trading in recent days.

Copper prices fell on Thursday, a day after reaching their highest levels in two months, as mining companies resumed production following an earthquake in the Chile, the world's top copper producer.

U.S. stocks fell on Thursday for a second day, led by a drop in financial shares amid news of further credit market problems, lower retail sales at J.C. Penney, and Wells Fargo's dour assessment of the housing market.

Fifth Avenue in New York remains comfortably the world's most expensive retail location but property services firms are split on how rival shopping destinations stack up behind it, data showed this week.

The Stephen Sondheim musical Sweeney Todd tells the morally complex story of a wronged barber who takes a bloody knife to patrons of his London shop.

Stocks were set to open lower on Thursday after cautious outlooks from J.C. Penney Co. Inc. and Applied Materials Inc added to fears about the profit picture, while nervousness about the credit market persisted.

Two Hollywood directors who are part of a wave of films about the war in Iraq and the broader fallout from the September 11, 2001 attacks have said they were only doing what media failed to do -- telling the truth.

World stocks fell on Thursday while the dollar edged lower as a better-than-expected trading update by Barclays failed to wipe away broader credit concerns.