UNITED KINGDOM

The Make it Easy on Yourself singer, songwriter and guitarist passed away in his Los Angeles home after a battle with lung cancer.

The British Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne has warned that Greece may need additional bailout funding, but that the U.K. is unlikely to contribute to any such payouts.

The growth outlook in major industrialized nations is diverging with activity improving in North America, China and Russia and moderating in most European countries, the OECD's leading indicator for March showed on Monday.

Barclays put aside 1 billion pounds ($1.64 billion) to compensate people who were wrongly sold insurance and other UK banks backed down in their fight against accusations of mis-selling.

British banks gave up a fight over compensating customers wrongly sold insurance, forcing Barclays Plc and HSBC to take a combined hit of more than $2 billion in the latest blow to the industry.

A student at the University of Dundee has taken the concept of social media quite literally. He has design a park bench where people can be social all the while be voluntarily and involuntarily connected to media by way of a bench that tweets.

European mutual fund managers sense an opportunity to drive down the price of Glencore International's bumper $11 billion listing, as fears of slowing global economic growth rattles commodity markets.

Researchers at the Queen's University Human Media Lab in Kingston, Ontario, have invented a device they hail as the 'future of the phone'. The PaperPhone, as it is called, is made of extremely thin film, and has a flexible electronic display.

Osama bin Laden chose his fifth wife Amal al-Sadah from Yemen, the land of his ancestors. She married the terror leader at the age of 17 and lived with him till his last day. She was with him in his final moments, either willingly trying to act as a human shield or pushed in front by her cowering husband.

Afghan intelligence sources suspected that Osama bin Laden was living in the region around Abbottabad, Pakistan as long ago as four years ago – but nothing was done about it because the president of Pakistan at the time, Pervez Musharraf, angrily rejected any such possibility.

Analysts say Intel has its sights set on the mobile space and ARM Holdings.

The Bank of England kept its key interest rate at 0.5 percent on Thursday, in a widely expected move after a run of subdued data which has cast doubt on the strength of Britain's economic recovery.

Commodity prices fell once again, and Silver Bullion sank for the fourth day in succession, losing 22.5% against the Dollar since Thursday last week - the sharpest plunge since April 1987.

Axa on Thursday said it was confident it would raise profits this year in spite of a drop in first-quarter sales as Europe's second-biggest insurer implements a strategy shift focused on improving margins.

British bank Lloyds said it will take a 3.2 billion pound ($5.3 billion) provision to cover it for losses from the mis-selling of protection insurance and suffered another 1.1 billion hit in Ireland.

Axa, Europe's second- biggest insurer, on Thursday posted a 2 percent drop in first-quarter revenue on a comparable basis, hit by significant declines in business in France, Italy and the United Kingdom.

News Corp missed Wall Street profit expectations on weaker movie box office output compared to a year ago and struggling newspapers despite a strong performance by its cable and television business.

Computer hackers are exploiting the fascination with the death of Osama bin Laden to spread malicious software through scams that promise access to videos of the historic killing.

News Corp posted a lower quarterly profit on a weaker box office performance than a year ago, which was partly offset by strong performance at its cable television business.

Osama Bin Laden's wife, who was in the late Al-Qaeda leader's compound in northern Pakistan on Sunday when U.S. military personnel made a raid, has been identified.

Google's Android platform rose to a dominant position in the smartphone market in the first quarter, research firm Canalys said on Wednesday, increasing its lead over struggling Nokia.