Europe sank to what may have been the recession's low point in the first quarter of this year as tumbling German exports and investment plus further sharp drops in output elsewhere hastened the pace of a year-old contraction.
Oil prices rose toward $59 on Friday as European equities opened higher, shrugging off gloomy German economic data and a firmer dollar.
World equities rose on Friday yet still looked set to end the week down for the first time in 10 weeks, while poor economic data from German hit the euro and boosted bonds.
Asian stocks rose on Friday as investors bought shares that stood to benefit the most from an expected global recovery, but were set for their biggest weekly decline since March as volume thinned and some recent gains were cashed in.
Toyota is moving toward launching experimental plug-in hybrid vehicles in Europe in 2009 as part of a three-year lease trial, ahead of rival GM, which plans to introduce its own version in late 2010.
German budget deficit will hit €90 billion by 2010, breaking Germany's post-war budget deficit record of €40 billion in 1996, the German Finance Minister said Thursday.
The German solar industry expects a recovery in the second half of this year after a string of earnings showed on Thursday the sector has written off the first three months as the low point of 2009.
Japan's Konica Minolta Holdings said on Thursday it planned to expand its range of high-tech film for LCD panels in a move to broaden its customer base.
Sales of biodiesel at German petrol stations have come to a virtual halt, leading German bioenergy company Verbio said on Thursday.
The German solar industry expects a recovery in the second half of this year after a wave of earnings showed on Thursday the sector has written off the first three months as the low point of 2009.
Stock index futures fell about 1 percent on Wednesday as investors waited for key retail sales data for an indication of the mood of the U.S. consumer.
A U.S. soldier suspected of shooting dead five fellow servicemen at a military clinic in Baghdad was charged with five counts of murder on Tuesday, the U.S. military said.
Accused Nazi death camp guard John Demjanjuk arrived from the United States Tuesday to face charges he helped kill 29,000 Jews in 1943, and what is likely to be Germany's last major Nazi trial.
The speaker of Israel's parliament accused German-born Pope Benedict on Tuesday of showing detachment from Jewish suffering in the Nazi Holocaust, adding to criticism that has marked his Holy Land pilgrimage.
GlaxoSmithKline will take a 16 percent stake in Africa's biggest generic drug maker, Aspen Pharmacare, to expand its emerging market footprint in a deal worth 3.47 billion rand ($418 million).
Vodafone, the world's largest mobile operator by revenue, plans to launch a mobile online store to sell games, news and travel applications that its customers can buy on whatever model of phone they use.
Germany's Schott Solar inaugurated a plant in Albuquerque, New Mexico on Monday to produce photovoltaic modules and solar thermal receiver lines.
Norway opened a 560 kilometer (350 mile) hydrogen highway on Monday with more than a dozen hydrogen-powered cars rallying along a scenic route between its capital city Oslo and North Sea oil hub Stavanger.
A German office worker was found guilty on Monday of the savage murder of a British man whose girlfriend he had become obsessed with after they met on a website.
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) said Monday the unemployment rate for the OECD area rose to 7.6% in March, 0.3 percentage point higher than the previous month and 2.0 percentage points higher than a year earlier.
The downward trend in the financial crisis is easing and national economic stimulus packages are starting to work, billionaire investor George Soros was quoted as saying by a German newspaper on Monday.
The German government is examining competing plans to invest in carmaker Opel and aims to decide by the end of the month whether to provide the firm with financing guarantees, a leading Social Democrat said.
