JAPAN

Greece will decide within weeks on whether to activate a euro zone aid package, Prime Minister George Papandreou said, as a poll showed austerity measures had begun hitting Athenians' pocket books.

Countries negotiating a deal to curb trade in fake and pirated goods are close to reaching an agreement in talks that have raised concerns among digital rights advocates, U.S. trade officials said on Friday.

No. 1 toy company Mattel Inc surprised Wall Street with a quarterly profit on strong demand for its classic brands and newer product lines, and its shares rose more than 3 percent.

No. 1 toy company Mattel Inc surprised Wall Street with a quarterly profit on strong demand for its classic brands and newer product lines, in yet another sign of a revival in consumer demand.

Mobile phone maker Sony Ericsson swung to a surprise first-quarter pretax profit on Friday as its push into the growing smartphone market and hefty cost cuts boosted margins.

Stock index futures pointed to a lower open on Wall Street on Friday, with equities poised to reverse recent strong gains after Google's results, and ahead of General Electric and Bank of America earnings.

Global shares softened from 16-month highs on Friday after an unexpected jump in U.S. jobless claims tempered optimism over the global economic recovery.

by Vikram S SubhedarAsian stocks retreated from 22-month highs, and higher-yielding currencies fell, as investors booked profits after risky assets ran up in recent sessions on the back of good economic data.

The project, which is unrivalled in scale, went underway in 2008 and is working to catalogue the genetic profiles of cancer cells collected from 25,000 people - 500 per targeted cancers.

(Reuters) - People living in countries with government-run healthcare systems like Sweden and Canada are far more confident than Americans that their families can get good, affordable care, according to a 22-nation survey released on Thursday.

Mazda Motor Corp said on Thursday it would recall 89,822 Mazda3/Axela compact cars in Japan and China to fix a problem with the oil hose, and a further 191,503 sold elsewhere could be subject to repairs.

Senior executives of Fujitsu Ltd have been sued by financial advisers who say the technology services company defamed them by implying they had a connection to organized crime.

Jeffery Stone and his wife Janette Diller Stone, one-time operators of a now-defunct New York investment firm called Crescent Fund, are not on any government most wanted list. And they aren't exactly hiding, either. But the former Greenwich, Connecticut, residents owe U.S. regulators nearly a half-million dollars in fines and restitution for their part in a five-year-old penny stock manipulation ...

Stock index futures pointed to a lower open on Wall Street on Thursday, with futures for the S&P 500 down 0.3 percent, Dow Jones futures down 0.2 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures down 0.21 percent at 5:12 a.m. EDT.

The Greek aid deal is a turning point in the crisis that shows suggestions of a euro zone break up and Greek default are absurd, a top European Central Bank policymaker said on Thursday.

Strong growth in China and upbeat corporate earnings lifted world stocks on Thursday to a new high for the year, putting them at levels last seen around the collapse of Lehman Brothers.

Occupancy rates in hotels in Bangkok, the Thai capital that has been the scene of violent clashes between anti-government protesters and security forces, are at about one-thirds of expectations, a spokesman for Federation of Thai Tourism Associations said on Thursday. We were expecting 80-90 percent room occupancy rate in Bangkok, but I don't think we can make it to 30 percent, Charoen Wangan...

Asian stocks rose and neared 22-month highs on Thursday after U.S. tech and financial firms beat earnings forecasts and China's accelerating economic growth underpinned hopes of a broad, global economic recovery.

Asian stocks rose on Thursday as China's economic growth accelerated and bellwether U.S. tech and financial firms reported strong results, boosting appetite for riskier assets and putting the U.S. dollar on the defensive.

Apple Inc's decision to delay the sale of its iPad overseas may frustrate customers in Germany, France or Japan -- but it brightened the day of at least a few crafty fans closer to home.

Technology companies drove up stocks in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan on Wednesday after bellwether Intel Corp's street-beating earnings while aggressive monetary tightening in Singapore lifted regional currencies on speculation it heralded a yuan revaluation.