BUSINESS

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda said on Saturday Asia needs to consider further steps to avoid a financial crisis as the euro zone's debt problems could spill into the region.

Switzerland could see a deal within the next three to six months to end a long-simmering dispute over how it will hand over data to the United States on wealthy Americans suspected of dodging taxes, Julius Baer Chief Executive Boris Collardi said on Saturday.

China will make the yuan more flexible in either direction and its recent reforms to make the currency more market-oriented have begun to achieve some results, Premier Wen Jiabao said on Saturday.

By Thanksgiving, the number of young people on Long Island charged with cheating on their college board exams is expected to reach 13, with at least five more arrests on tap, Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice said.

A brutal year for global investors may get even worse next week if Congress proves yet again it is too bitterly divided to deliver on its promise to reduce the gaping U.S. budget deficit.

Wall Street is in for a volatile week as escalating problems in Europe's debt crisis continue to keep investors on their toes.

Seven banks that helped MF Global Holdings Ltd sell bonds were sued by pension funds who said the bonds' offering prospectuses concealed problems that led to the futures brokerage's collapse.

When he walked into the jury room to start deliberating in Rambus Inc's $4 billion antitrust lawsuit against two rivals, one juror felt confident that the small microchip designer should prevail.

The International Monetary Fund is inserting itself more forcefully into Europe's efforts to resolve its debt crisis, hoping to stem a contagion that is spreading worldwide and threatening global growth.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc promoted 261 employees to managing directors this week, according to an internal memo sent this week, as the bank seeks to retain top talent amid a wave of layoffs across Wall Street.

United Parcel Service , the world's largest package delivery company, announced higher rates for most shipping services for 2012.

Shares of Clearwire Corp plunged as much as 31 percent after a Wall Street Journal report quoted its CEO as saying the company was considering skipping a $237 million interest payment due December 1.

Synacor Inc, partly owned by Intel Corp, filed with U.S. regulators on Friday to raise up to $75 million in an initial public offering, reviving its plans to tap the public markets after three years.

It was a telling moment at the height of the Occupy Wall Street protests.

The worst week for U.S. stocks in two months ended with traders mostly sitting it out on Friday as they waited for politicians in Europe and the United States to tackle festering debt problems.

A federal investigation into last year's cyber attack on Nasdaq OMX Group found surprisingly lax security practices that made the exchange operator an easy target for hackers, people with knowledge of the probe said. The sources did not want to be identified because the matter is classified.

Chip McBreen, who leads fraud prevention and security at Members 1st Credit Union in Pennsylvania, has become a believer in facial recognition tools to stop bank fraud. He says the emerging technology has already delivered results for the institution many times.

The Dow and S&P 500 gauges rose on Friday as falling European sovereign debt yields eased investors' fears the region's debt crisis, helping to keep the S&P 500 above a key technical level.

Former FrontPoint Partners hedge fund manager Dr. Joseph Chip Skowron was sentenced to five years in prison on Friday for his role in an insider trading scheme.

Standard & Poor's plans to update its credit ratings for the world's 30 biggest banks within three weeks and may well mete out a few downgrades in the process, possibly surprising battered global bond markets.

European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi told euro zone governments on Friday to act fast to get their rescue fund up and running, expressing exasperation at their lack of progress in responding to the escalating debt crisis.

The leaders of Germany and Britain sent out conflicting signals on Friday about how to solve the euro zone's debt crisis and admitted they had failed to narrow differences over the introduction of a financial transaction tax in Europe.

MF Global's administrator KPMG has told the failed futures broker's clients they will get back much-needed funds before it had finally settled all positions.

Fear over European banks' exposure to risky government debt stalked markets and harried bank executives on Friday, as unsecured lending between banks evaporated and the cost of secured loans rose.

During famed fund manager Bill Miller's 15-year streak of outperforming the S&P 500, he was often held up as proof that stock picking wasn't just dumb luck. It required skill.

Stocks were little changed on Friday, but easing European sovereign debt yields kept the S&P 500 above a key technical level.

Fear over European banks' exposure to risky government debt stalked markets and harried bank executives on Friday, as unsecured lending between banks evaporated and the cost of secured loans rose.

LONDON - In some cultures, the number 7 is mystical and magical; in the euro zone, it's a Mayday call.

A U.S. law aimed at curbing tax evasion by citizens using foreign accounts could cost large multinational banks as much as $100 million apiece to implement in one-off systems costs, a top asset manager and a tax lawyer told a conference on Friday.