UNITED STATES

The U.S. Department of the Treasury has designated the MS-13 gang a "transnational criminal organization" in order to target the group's financial assets, which flow back to its leadership in El Salvador.

MS-13, also known as Mara Salvatrucha or La Mara, was founded in Los Angeles by El Salvadoran immigrants fleeing the country during its civil war in the 1980s.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denied a newspaper report on Friday that said he had agreed in principle to hand back land annexed from Syria as part of secret U.S.-mediated peace talks that broke off last year.

Tom Clancy's "Splinter Cell" video game series will be adapted to comics in the graphic novel "Splinter Cell: Echoes."

Shares of Softbank (Tokyo: 9984) fell 20 percent Friday on reports of the takeover of Sprint-Nextel (NYSE: S)

From Medicare to national security, Vice President Joe Biden and Rep. Paul Ryan grappled in a spirited, freewheeling debate.

Saudi Arabia recently called for an international discussion to lay down new guidelines for Internet accessibility.

With a 4-inch display and a dual core processor, the new Galaxy S3 Mini is just a mediocre version of its larger, more powerful cousin, the 4.8-inch Galaxy S3 that was released globally in May and made available in the US this summer across five major carriers.

Asian stocks were mixed Friday as concerns over global growth and weak corporate earnings outweighed upbeat U.S. jobs data.

Spain's Telefonica (TEF) has reached an agreement with investment firm Bain Capital to sell Atento Call Center for 1 billion euro ($ 1.3 billion) as part of plan to sell assets and cut debt.

The U.S. stock index futures pointed to a higher open Friday ahead of the Labor Department's Producer Price Index and the Treasury Department’s Federal budget report.

Infosys Technologies Ltd, India's second largest software services firm, reported Friday a 24 percent rise in the net profit for the second fiscal quarter ending June 31, 2012, meeting market expectations. However, the Bangalore-based company gave a weaker-than-expected earnings forecast for the third quarter, sending its shares down by 5 percent in the morning trade.

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta warned Thursday that the nation was faced with a dire cyber threat from foreign actors targeting computer control systems that operate chemical, electricity and water plants and those that guide transportation.

Most of the Asian stocks rose Friday with investor sentiment turning positive as a drop in the U.S. jobless claims indicated an improvement in the labor market in the world’s largest economy.

Joe Biden and Paul Ryan battled over the economy, Medicare and the Middle East. But Biden's was definitely the performance of the night.

Asian stocks and the euro steadied Friday, but were on course for a losing week as worries about weak corporate earnings and slowing global economic growth limit the appeal of riskier assets.

Mitt Romney has extended his lead over President Barack Obama to 3 percentage points, according to a Reuters/Ipsos tracking poll released Thursday.

Twitter users reported that Facebook was down in European countries.

A Hong Kong couple are suing a tutor to whom they paid $2 million to get their kids into the Ivy League school in the U.S., only to have their money stolen.

As of Thursday, the toll of the fungal meningitis outbreak stands at 169 cases across 11 states, with 14 deaths.

A final necropsy showed that the deceased panda cub had poorly developed lungs, which led to a lack of oxygen that damaged her liver.