UNITED STATES

Ford Motor Co reinstated a quarterly dividend of 5 cents per share on Thursday for the first time since the No. 2 U.S. automaker slid into a financial crisis five years ago.

Verizon Wireless suffered outages across the U.S. on its recently launched high-speed 4G network that have prevented some customers from accessing any Internet data.

Former dictator Manuel Noriega will be flown back to Panama from France on Sunday, marking the first time that the convicted criminal has returned to his homeland in twenty years.

Hewlett-Packard, who may have inadvertently jump-started widespread interest in tablet computers with a deep price discount in September, will again be selling their now discontinued TouchPad tablets for $99 on Sunday, Dec.11. When the TouchPad first came out, the price was $400, nearly as much as an iPad.

President Barack Obama needs several factors to break his way to improve his chance for re-election in 2012 -- the most important of which is U.S. job growth.

A U.S. citizen was sentenced Thursday to 2 1/2 years in prison for insulting the king of Thailand.

McDonald's Corp reported a bigger-than-expected rise in November sales at established restaurants across the board, led by big gains in Japan, China and a strong showing in its top revenue market of Europe.

British luxury fashion brand Mulberry said it had substantial room for growth in Europe, the United States and Asia, as it reported first-half profit more than treble last year's due to robust international demand.

Daniel Radcliffe has been named Entertainer of the Year by Entertainment Weekly, and the honor is well-timed.

New claims for unemployment benefits dropped to a nine-month low last week, a government report showed on Thursday, suggesting the labor market recovery was gaining momentum.

With an expected price of $99, American consumers will soon get the chance to try out the Novo7, the first tablet computer to sun Android's Ice Cream Sandwich operating system. Get the full spec list here, learn where to look for Novo7s (now available only in China), and compare it another Apple iPad challenger, the ill-fated HP TouchPad.

Sharp Corp said on Thursday it will likely sell more than 1 million large-screen TVs of 60-inches and above in North America in the year to March 31, and expects the burgeoning market to push sales higher next business year.

Iranian authorities blocked a website Wednesday hours after it was launched by the U.S. State Department to be a virtual embassy reaching out to people in the Islamic Republic.

About 1,000 asteroids big enough to cause catastrophic damage if they hit Earth are orbiting relatively nearby, a NASA survey shows.

The U.S. Call Center Worker and Consumer Protection Act, sponsored by Reps. Tim Bishop (D-NY) and Dave McKinley (R-WV), would prohibit federal grants or loans to U.S. based companies who move call center jobs outside of the country following enactment of the legislation.

Samsung Electronics Co, the world's top TV brand, said on Thursday its television sales hit a record 5.7 million units in November, helped by strong U.S. sales during the long Thanksgiving weekend.

The health secretary overruled government scientists and refused to bring the controversial morning-after pill from behind the pharmacy counter and onto drugstore shelves.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is set to launch a large trial using antibodies to test a way to prevent birth defects, such as blindness and deafness, caused by mothers passing a common virus to their unborn babies.

An American named Joe Gordon was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison by a court in Thailand on Thursday for defaming the country's king and royal family on his blog.

The European Central Bank doused on Thursday hopes it will aggressively ramp up its bond-buying program and allow the euro zone to lend money to IMF so it can help fight the Eurozone debt crisis.

First Colombia Gold Corp. moved closer to gaining sole ownership of the 160-acre South Idaho Silver Project, the company said Thursday.