ISRAEL

The Japanese Olympic Commission (JOC) will appoint Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara as the director-general of Tokyo Olympic Bidding Committee for the 2016 Summer Games, the commission said on Friday.

Lebanon will lose about $2 billion in tourism revenues this year due to a month-long war but the tourism minister is hoping a 15,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping force will help revitalise the industry.

The future of a European project aimed at matching U.S. and Israeli prowess in unmanned spyplanes that could eventually fire weapons was thrown into doubt after a test model crashed off the coast of Spain.

Lockheed Martin Corp.'s $276.5 billion F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, the costliest U.S. arms acquisition project, may be set back by moves in Congress to slow initial production, a top company official said on Wednesday.

The World Bank announced on Wednesday that it would give a $70 million grant for a trust fund for Lebanon to support the country's reconstructions efforts in the aftermath of the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.

Consumer confidence tumbled to its weakest in at least 2 1/2 years in August after the Bank of England's surprise interest rate hike

How much does terrorism affect stock prices?To find the answer, economists have parsed market reaction to events dating back to the 1915 sinking of the Lusitania, academics have studied how attacks on McDonald's restaurants have affected the company's stock price and researchers in Israel have chronicled what 13 years of suicide bombings did to stocks there.

The world's top handset maker Nokia said on Thursday it had agreed to buy mapping software firm gate5 AG for an undisclosed sum to tap into the fast-growing mobile navigation market.

SanDisk Corp., the worlds largest flash memory supplier, has been sued by two parties with regards to its proposed acquisition of M-Systems Ltd., the firm said on Thursday.

UK stocks closed at their highest level in nearly two weeks on Monday as numbers from Vodafone boosted investor confidence at the start of a busy earnings week and concerns over the conflict in Lebanon eased slightly.

Following a tumultous week, investors are wondering what lessons can be learned.

U.S. venture capital firm Greylock Partners said on Monday it closed a $150 million fund that will invest in early-stage Israeli high-tech companies.

The latest surge in energy prices may prove the undoing for a U.S. economy already pressured by a housing slowdown and accelerating inflation.

Oil prices topped $78 per barrel Friday and held near record highs as intensifying violence in the Middle East raised concerns of possible supply disruptions.

Leading British shares dropped 1 percent on Thursday, as escalating geopolitical tensions, record high oil prices and concerns over U.S. corporate profits sent jitters through global equity markets, while a decline in Aviva Plc shares also weighed.

Crude oil futures rose to record highs on Thursday, hitting European stocks and the dollar, with worries over rising tensions in the Middle East and North Korea affecting sentiment across the board.

European generic drug firms hope to lead the world in developing cheap copies of biotech medicines, but industry experts see hurdles ahead and warn that carving out a major market will not happen overnight.