CHINA

Italy will allow the IMF to monitor its progress with long overdue reforms of pensions, labor markets and privatizations, European leaders announced on Friday, looking beyond the crisis in Greece to the far graver threat to the euro zone.

White House officials bristled on Thursday at the suggestion U.S. power within the G20 had been diminished by budget woes back home, as Europe looked toward an economically self-confident China for help.

Quarterly net profit of HCL Infosystems plunged 74 percent as its flagship computer retailing business suffered in an economic slowdown worsened by lesser government investment in computing and office automation business.

China should await workable plans from Europe before Beijing puts money into any bailout package, an adviser to the Chinese central bank said on Friday, adding that China should insist on certain controls over how the money will be used.

Stock index futures pointed to a mixed open on Wall Street, with futures for the S&P 500 flat, Dow Jones futures up 0.1 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures down 0.2 percent at 1008 GMT (6:08 a.m. EDT).

Asian shares rallied more than 3 percent and the euro steadied Friday on hopes that Greece will abandon a proposed referendum on a European Union bailout, but investors remained cautious over a confidence vote scheduled for later in the Greek parliament.

Italy, under fierce pressure from financial markets and European peers, has agreed to have the IMF and the EU monitor its progress with long- delayed reforms of pensions, labor markets and privatization, senior EU sources said Friday.

Johnson & Johnson, the U.S. healthcare giant, Thursday denied reports that its baby shampoo products contained cancer-causing chemicals.

Asian shares rose more than 2 percent and the euro steadied Friday on hopes that Greece will abandon a proposed referendum on a European Union bailout, but investors remained cautious over a confidence vote planned in the Greek Parliament.

Daniel Craig will be back dodging bullets and vanquishing villains from China to Turkey in the 23rd installment of the James Bond film franchise, but the stars and director of Skyfall are keeping the who, what and how under wraps for now.

Actress and film producer Lucy Liu is expanding her talents into the art world with a new book of illustrations that explores Kabbalah and meditation.

Short sellers who banked on a fall in the price of solar stocks this year pocketed big returns and are already positioning themselves for another go at the battered sector.

The Iraq/Afghanistan Wars have been costly, but the United States' longer trend of spending too much on defense and not enough on public goods over two decades could end up costing the economy and the nation far more.

Kenya Airways used fuel hedges to protect its bottom line from an escalation in direct costs in its first-half ended September, it said on Thursday, as it prepares to raise funds to finance its expansion.

Chinese mining companies in Zambia, Africa's biggest copper producer, are routinely flouting laws designed to protect workers' safety and the right to organise, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Thursday.

The Democratic Republic of Congo could offer up to 10 blocks in a new onshore hydrocarbon bid round possibly launched next year, a senior government official said on Thursday.

South Africa on Thursday said it signed an agreement with 12 other countries to combat cross-border tax evasion.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had confirmed what many in the west already assumed – that the Iranians are building nuclear weapons.

China and Russia are using cyber espionage to steal U.S. trade and technology secrets to bolster their own economic development, which poses a threat to U.S. prosperity and security, a U.S. intelligence report said on Thursday.

A new report by the Daily Mail indicates that the United States and Britain are working together to draft a plan to attack Iran as evidence of new nuclear weapons capabilities in the Middle Eastern country arises.

Abuse of Zambian workers is widespread in mines owned by Chinese companies, according to a new report from Human Rights Watch.