Jijo Jacob

India and Japan, two of Asia's largest economies, signed the landmark free trade agreement (FTA) on Wednesday, paving way for the elimination of tariffs on more than 90 percent of goods traded between the two countries over the next decade.

A gauge of manufacturing in New York State climbed in February to its highest level in eight months, helped by a rise in inventories, the New York Federal Reserve said in a report on Tuesday.

Though the budget makes a start in the deficit reduction front, it avoids addressing some really big questions, according to Nigel Gault, chief U.S. economist at IHS Global Insight.

The bank of Japan (BoJ) upgraded its economic outlook, taking cues from a strong recovery in exports and industrial output, but refrained from making any change to the monetary policy.

Gross domestic product in the 16-member eurozone rose 0.3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2010, the European Union's statistics office said on Tuesday.

German investor confidence remained buoyant in February, according to a report released by the ZEW Center for European Economic Research.

Obviously in Iran, what is sauce for the goose is not sauce for the gander. Both Egypt and Iran, the masses were raising the same demands - freedom, democracy, free and fair elections.

Japanese scientists have spotted two huge holes on the sun's magnetic field, and it has been observed that the holes look darker than other parts of the sun.

Israel has closed its embassy in Cairo as a friendly regime in Egypt bit the dust on Friday, the Muslim Brotherhood announced on its website on Saturday.

HP could launch its fancied TouchPad, which was recently unveiled, by the end of June, tech websites have reported.

Potential Republican candidates in 2012 presidential election who gathered in Washington for the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) have launched an attack on major policies of the Obama administration as they pitched their respective cases. Here's a snapshot of the possible Republican challengers in 2012:

Arizona governor Gov. Jan Brewer is suing the U.S. Federal Government, saying it has failed to protect the state's citizens from the hazards of illegal immigration.

Switzerland has frozen the funds of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak and 20 other officials, the Muslim Brotherhood said on its website on Friday.

Factory gate inflation rose twice as fast as expected last month, and the cost of raw materials soared, heaping pressure on the Bank of England to raise interest rates sooner rather than later.

Researchers at NASA have drawn up a plan to make the greatest adventure in the history of the human race possible - sending a human mission to the red planet and, hold your breath, colonize it! And the daring act of selling and carving up the red planet will be made possible with the help of corporate bigwigs who will paint the space ships in their logo colors.

While on medical leave, the Apple co-founder is crafting next generation iPhones which will be cheaper and smaller, according to media reports.

A costly mistake by the CIA chief caused more embarrassment to the U.S. foreign policy establishment, which is already in a double bind over the escalating Egyptian situation, and worsened confusion over the timing of the purported exit of Hosni Mubarak.

Caught between calls to rein in inflation and prop up the fragile economic recovery, BoE's Monetary Policy Committee decided to support the government's fiscal tightening efforts without bumping off the shoots of economic recovery.

Pakistani Taliban movement, a part of the al-Qaeda terror network, killed at least 30 soldiers and army recruits in a daring suicide bombing in north western Pakistan.

Boston could soon deploy a new mobile app to make its roads smoother and safer for traffic. The app, called Street Bump, will spot potholes on the road and transmit their location to the Department of Public Works through an accelerometer and the Global Positioning System receiver embedded in it.

Though the official version, and most of the media, paints a rosy picture, the reality on the ground is vastly different, with people finding it ever harder to find jobs, according to many observers. Some even say the BLS unemployment figures are an eyewash.

Japan should work on its huge public sector debt and budget deficit and Japanese banks should secure more capital, a senior International Monetary Fund (IMF) official has said.

With Italian prosecutors formally asking Silvio Berlusconi to stand trial in the prostitution case, the prime minister's defiant refutations of wrong doings have seemingly come to naught.

If Fine Gael party emerges as a key partner in a coalition government, the senior debt holders will have to make sacrifices as the new government goes ahead with a bank debt restructuring.

UK's goods trade deficit surged to record high of 9.247 billion pounds in December from 8.460 billion in the previous month, the Office for National Statistics announced on Wednesday. The widening of the deficit was larger than economists' consensus forecast of 8.6 billion pounds.

Earth will have another brush with the celestial throw of dice today, with an asteroid the size of a car passing close by the planet, but astronomers have ruled out jitters.

A mind-numbing total of 739 children died in conflict-related security incidents in Afghanistan in 2010, rights watchdog Afghanistan Rights Monitor (ARM) said in its annual report on Wednesday.

Facebook drama The Social Network won the Writers Guild honors for the best adapted screenplay while Inception upstaged favorites Black Swan and The Fighter to earn spoils for the best original screenplay.

NASA will on Sunday release online the first complete view of the sun's entire surface and atmosphere. The all-new visuals set to be released today at 11 am EST have been generated by NASA’s two Solar TErrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) spacecraft.