BUSINESS

The contemplated union of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain forms only one part of a potentially much wider alliance -- the political, military and economic integration of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which comprise Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Oman.

It?s a showdown between the government and the private owners of Domodedovo Airport, with the former trying by many accounts to pry control of Russia's most lucrative airport away from the shadowy company that runs it.

Fearing a political backlash, the Indian government has postponed the decision to hike the diesel prices for the time being. However, economists feel that it is time the government deregulated the prices of diesel and stopped subsidizing them.

Lorenzo Thione believes in fate and approaches the world with a somewhat self-confident naivete. This outward optimism comes across most clearly when he talks about his new business: He wants to be an artist among the artists, unchaining fine art from wealthy collectors and setting it free among the hoi polloi.

Asian markets declined this week on increasing concerns about China's economic slowdown and Greece possibly exiting the euro zone.

Spain's Bankia S.A. requested the country's government provide it with a bailout worth ?19 billion ($24 billion) on Friday, the same day Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said it lowered its ratings on five financial institutions based in the Iberian nation.

You can't blame investors for feeling a bit squeamish regarding deploying new money in the U.S. stock market these days, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average?s (DJIA) recent slide from 13,300 to 12,450 unnerving even the most experienced institutional investors. Where?s the market headed in the next six months?

Sam Zell, the Chicago real-estate mogul, has become so well-known for feasting on distressed assets that he's been called the grave dancer. This week, Zell took the nickname to the next level: He's about to receive $70 million from a ghost.

Investing in Brazil's booming economy has turned another page as foreign companies, especially Japanese firms, move from putting money into the nation's financial industry to putting it into the real economy of South America's largest nation.

The Toyota Motor Corp. (NYSE: TM) wants to make itself king of the hill once more and reclaim the No. 1 global sales position from the General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) by adding eight compact cars for emerging markets, Reuters said Friday.

Renesas Electronics (Tokyo: 6723), one of Japan's biggest chip-makers, could fire as many as 30 percent of those on its payroll, or 14,000 workers.

It seemed like a move in the right direction for Yahoo back in November, when the company announced a family of new mobile products that would enrich the way users see and understand their news and entertainment content. But just shy of seven months after outburst of mobile and social applications and tools, Yahoo has decided to call it quits on arguably the biggest piece of that mobile package, a personalized magazine app called Livestand.

U.S. equities closed a moderately green week with a moderately red day on Friday, as the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 74.92 points, or 0.60 percent, to 12,454.83, the S&P 500 index dropped 2.86 points, or 0.22 percent, to 1,317.82, and the Nasdaq Composite index dipped 1.85 points, or 0.07 percent, to 2,837.53.

The Brazilian real, the currency of Latin America's largest economy, mounted a minor rally after weeks losses brought on by an uncertain economic climate.

The Cisco Cius, we hardly knew ye. Less than a year after the Cius hit shelves on July 31, Cisco announced on Friday (via company blog) that it will discontinue all investments being poured into its tablet designed for business and enterprise professionals. The price may have been the Cius' ultimate killer, but the lack of entertaining features made this tablet all work, and no play.

The hard reality is that companies involved in global trade are almost always exposed to exchange rate risk. Using very simple tools, uncertainty can be effectively stripped out of a transaction.

Private-sector initiatives in space made history Friday when SpaceX?s Dragon space capsule was grappled by and attached to the International Space Station.

The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement will be conducting a series of possibly unannounced equipment inspections and on-water drills to test the oil spill responsiveness of companies planning to operate off the coast of Alaska in the Arctic Ocean.

French and German consumer confidence showed unexpected strength, reports showed Friday. While the market is cheering about the good news, some economists view this as a warning sign of a euro zone crisis fatigue - something that is as dangerous, if not more so than the crisis itself.

Vatican police arrested Pope Benedict XVI's personal butler on Friday following an investigation into the Vatileaks scandal in which confidential church documents, including personal letters to the pope, were made public.

Louisiana residents are set to vote on a constitutional amendment that would roll back the state's ability to regulate the carrying of concealed weapons.

Space Exploration Technologies Corp. has become the first non-governmental agency to fly to the International Space Station and dock with orbiting laboratory.

However, it remains far from certain that the Scottish public even wants independence.

The story had to wait three decades to be finally told, but now a child-disappearance case that gripped America way back when Jimmy Carter was president may have found a solution -- and, sadly, the name of a murderer. Pedro Hernandez, who was 19 in 1979, allegedly killed 6-year-old Etan Patz in a grocery store's basement in Manhattan, bagged the body and trashed it.

Brett Kimberlin, also known as the Speedway Bomber, is the infamous male who set an Indiana town ablaze with a series of coordinated bombings in 1978. The man behind the madness was also convicted of thirty three additional crimes, including illegal use of a Department of Defense insignia, and the Presidential Seal, both of which were used to procure the hard-to-come-by explosives used in the bombings.

Three months after Rush Limbaugh characterized a Georgetown Law School student Sandra Fluke as a ?slut? and a ?prostitute,? a liberal-backed boycott of the right-winger?s radio show has been effective.

U.S. government data says that one American in three is obese -- and a European plane maker sees it as a sales opportunity.

Apple quietly tweaked its App Store platform for Mac computers and iOS devices, rebranding a few categories and adding new features. But while most users may not notice these subtle changes, it's possible that these moves are in fact a precursor to a larger, more wholesale redesign of the App Stores.

The cost of natural gas, which has languished for two years and last month hit lows not seen in a decade, is rebounding despite a 5.5 percent price drop earlier this week.