JAPAN

North Korea will stay away from international nuclear disarmament talks, Russia's foreign minister said on Friday after visiting the secretive state and pressing Pyongyang to return to the sputtering discussions.

North Korea will put two U.S. journalists arrested last month on its border with China on trial to face criminal charges, its media said on Friday, ratcheting up tensions already raised by a defiant rocket launch.

The global economic downturn has shown signs of easing in recent weeks, although significant risks remain, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said before a meeting of G20 officials in Washington on Friday.

Earnings disappointments drove Asian stocks lower on Friday, helping to snap the region's longest streak of weekly gains in 18 months, while gold shot to a three-week high above $910 an ounce after China revealed it now has the world's fifth-largest stock pile.

Asian stocks edged up on Friday, as financials gained on hopes that credit fears have eased, although the yen drifted higher with investors cautious until more details emerge on the U.S. Treasury's bank stress tests.

China slammed Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso on Thursday for his offering to the Yasukuni shrine for war dead, warning of damage to ties while the two Asian powerhouses grapple with financial woes and North Korea.

Investors generally put aside recent worries about the world economy and banking industry woes on Thursday, sending global stocks higher and reversing safety flows into the Japanese yen.

Stocks staged a comeback across most of Asia on Thursday as a larger-than-expected profit from Korea's Hyundai fed optimism that the auto sector could be nearing a turnaround and tech shares found strength on the back of buoyant earnings from Apple .

Japanese shares fell on Thursday as worries about the health of the global financial sector flared again after a larger-than-expected loss from Morgan Stanley and a report that top Japanese broker Nomura had also fallen deeply into the red.

Toyota Motor Corp said on Thursday its group-wide sales fell 27 percent to 1.767 million vehicles in the first quarter of 2009, keeping it ahead of Volkswagen AG as the world's top-selling carmaker.

The IMF said Tuesday the global economy recession is likely go deeper and will have a slow recovery to stabilization.

Japan's Canon Inc is expected to report an operating profit for the January-March quarter on brisk sales of single-lens reflex cameras and a weak yen, the Nikkei business daily reported without citing sources.

Stocks in Japan and South Korea rose on Wednesday but most Asian markets slipped as caution spread, pushing up the U.S. dollar and yen, before official results of U.S. bank stress tests are released on May 4.

Asian stocks edged up on Wednesday supported by the top U.S. Treasury official saying most banks have adequate capital, but caution was likely to reign until official results of stress tests were released on May 4.

Honda Motor Co's operating profit for the last financial year will likely beat the company's estimate by a small margin thanks to a weaker yen and better-than-expected sales in China, a newspaper said on Wednesday.

Banks and other financial institutions around the world will eventually need to write down assets by $4.1 trillion in order for global financial stability to be restored, the International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday.

Banks and other financial institutions around the world will eventually need to write down assets by $4.1 trillion in order for global financial stability to be restored, the International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday.

Global write-downs of toxic debt among banks and other financial institutions in the United States, Europe and Japan could reach $4.1 trillion, the International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday.

Rare talks between North and South Koreas fizzled on Tuesday with the rivals unable to even agree on a venue for the meeting, which had already been clouded by Pyongyang's threat to restart its nuclear arms plant.

Honda Motor Co. President Takeo Fukui said on Tuesday the U.S. market has shown signs of having bottomed out since the start of April.

U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei said on Monday more talk and deeper trust were needed to defuse nuclear disputes with North Korea and Iran, and urged Washington to stick to dialogue with both states.