JAPAN

In November, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson has made an announcement that the company, along with Apple, will release a new, faster iPhone next year, though the comments were never confirmed by Apple.

The weekend box office saw a revival with a hyped start from Will Smith's I Am Legend pushing out The Golden Compass from first place to give December its biggest weekend gross ever since the release in 2003 of the The Lord of the Rings: The Return the King.

The European Commission dealt a blow to European online gaming companies on Monday when it accepted a U.S. offer of openings in other sectors to compensate for closing the U.S. gambling market to foreign firms.

Business sentiment among big Japanese manufacturers has sunk to a two-year low, a Bank of Japan survey showed on Friday, reinforcing expectations that any rise in interest rates will be delayed to late next year. Rising material costs, lower construction and concerns over a possible U.S. recession contributed to the slide in optimism.

The European Union threatened on Thursday to boycott U.S. talks among top greenhouse gas emitting nations, accusing Washington of blocking goals for fighting climate change at U.N. talks in Bali.

Asian resources firms are ready to take a record share of deals but reasonable prices are hard to come by.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged the world on Wednesday to agree to work out a new climate treaty by 2009 but said it might be too ambitious to set goals for greenhouse gas cuts in Bali.

The U.S. subprime mortgage crisis was an accident waiting to happen as a period of unprecedented global growth seduced investors into underpricing risk, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan argued in an article published by The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday.

Sony Corp's consumer electronics business in the U.S. market has not been affected by the shaky economy and is on track to hit a 5 percent operating margin for the year ending March 31, Chief Executive Howard Stringer said.

Dutch financial group ING Groep will miss its goal of entering Japan's retail banking market this year with its ING Direct banking service, but remains on track for a launch with final regulatory approval, the company said on Monday.

Eisai Co Ltd said on Monday it would buy U.S. biotech firm MGI Pharma Inc for $3.9 billion cash to strengthen its cancer treatment pipeline, marking the largest overseas acquisition by a Japanese drug maker.

World stock markets are in for their most modest annual gains for years in 2008 thanks to the global credit crunch and an evolving economic slowdown, Reuters polls showed on Monday.

The chance that developing countries would accept firm emissions-cutting targets receded on Friday, as U.N.-led talks to launch negotiations on a climate pact to succeed the Kyoto Protocol inched forwards.

Dell Inc. announced on Thursday it will begin selling PCs at more than 900 Best Buy Co. Inc. stores in an attempt to gain more of the U.S. consumer market.

Dai-Ichi Mutual Life Insurance Co aims to list its shares in 2010 and sell more than $9 billion worth of them in what is likely to be Japan's third-largest initial public offering.

Toyota Motor Corp said on Thursday it aims to put its humanoid and other advanced robots to practical use soon after 2010 to help people in factories, hospitals, homes and around town.

Becoming mini-majors by making aggressive plans to acquire overseas oilfields and retail outlets could be a winning strategy.

The space shuttle Atlantis and Europe's Columbus lab is poised for a Thursday lift-off to the International Space Station

EBay Inc and Yahoo Japan will link up their auction sites to make cross-border bidding easier, in a deal that gives U.S. auction titan eBay another chance to woo lucrative Japanese consumers.

Singapore's Temasek, Asia's pioneer sovereign wealth fund with stakes in Barclays and Standard Chartered, looks to be calling the top of the China stock boom and is scouting for cheaper targets in the West.

Hollywood star Will Smith had the producer of his latest film holding his head in anguish on Tuesday after the actor gave away the ending of I Am Legend.