CANADA

Canada's Gold Wheaton Gold Corp said its Barbados unit agreed with First Uranium Corp to buy gold from its South African unit for an initial payment of $50 million.

Air Canada reported a quarterly net profit on Friday and said it sees signs the bottom of the recession is behind it although it does not expect a full recovery for another 12 to 18 months.

The U.S. jobless rate unexpectedly jumped to a 26-1/2-year high of 10.2 percent last month, adding to pressure on the Obama administration to do more to tackle unemployment even as signs of recovery mount.

Canada's GLG Life Tech Corp said it filed for an IPO in the United States offering 3.6 million common shares.

Russia accused General Motors of showing the United States' scorn of business with Europe by abandoning its sale of Opel, whose German workers went on strike on Thursday.

Suncor Energy Inc's third-quarter operating profit fell 64 percent as oil and gas prices sank in its first quarterly reporting period including results from Petro-Canada assets it acquired in August.

The surprise decision by General Motors Co to drop a plan supported by Chief Executive Fritz Henderson to sell the company's Opel unit has raised new questions about the standing of the veteran GM insider after just six months on the job.

Swedish telecom equipment maker Ericsson expects to close its acquisition of key assets of bankrupt Nortel Networks Corp very soon, a senior company executive said on Thursday.

Although U.S. President Barack Obama has never set foot there, China cast a long shadow in the Pacific region where he grew up.

General Motors Co is confident that it can find the financing to keep and restructure its European Opel unit, Chief Executive Fritz Henderson said on Thursday.

TPG and the Canada Pension Plan on Thursday announced a deal to buy IMS Health Inc hich provides prescription drug sales data, for around $4 billion.

Australian toll road operator Transurban Group rejected a $4.4 billion buyout approach from two Canadian pension funds on Thursday, but left the door open to a better offer, sending its shares up 20 percent.

Canada's Agrium Inc sweetened its hostile bid for U.S. rival CF Industries to $4.52 billion, the latest twist in a three-way takeover battle, but the offer failed to impress CF's investors and the company's shares fell 8.4 percent.

Americans are more likely than people in 10 other countries to have trouble getting medical treatment because of insurance restrictions or cost, an international survey of primary care doctors released on Wednesday found.

The U.S. commercial real estate market, slammed by the credit squeeze and recession, is likely to hit bottom in 2010, according to a survey of industry investors, developers, lenders and consultants.

General Motors Co directors narrowly opted to retain Opel instead of selling the European unit to a group led by Canada's Magna International because they believed losing it could have left a significant gap in its operations, a senior GM executive said.

Molson Coors Brewing Co said beer volumes continue to decline in the current fourth quarter as consumers remain focused on value, pushing shares down 7 percent despite a better-than-expected quarterly profit.

The mood in the global automotive industry has shifted to cautious optimism, marked by the unveiling on Wednesday of Chrysler's turnaround plan and General Motors' plan to keep its Opel unit.

General Motors' decision to keep its European unit Opel is embarrassing for German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who had lobbied for a sale, but the U.S. group's U-turn deals no lasting blow to her new government.

General Motors' move to scrap the sale of its Opel unit and raised forecasts from Nissan Motor Co lifted confidence in the global auto industry's recovery on Wednesday.

The United States ranks 30th in terms of infant mortality, an important measure of the quality of healthcare, according to a report released on Tuesday.