UNITED STATES

Australian Adam Scott birdied four of his last six holes to grab a one-shot lead in the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational first round Thursday as Tiger Woods made an encouraging return to competition.

Royal Bank of Scotland slid to a pretax loss of 678 million pounds ($1.1 billion) in the second quarter, bruised by writedowns on Greek government bonds and Irish customers struggling to repay loans.

ZURICH, Aug 5 - Swiss National Bank Chief Philipp Hildebrand will not put up with further appreciation in the franc without acting, a Swiss newspaper has reported him as saying.

It's still very early. In fact, it's not yet awards season in Hollywood, but already movie fans might have their first bona fide contender for this year's best actor Oscar.

Paul McCartney on Thursday recalled the shock and fear that engulfed New York in the aftermath of the Sept 11 attacks and what he called the magical power of music in helping to heal those wounds.

LinkedIn Corp (LNKD.N) projected faster-than-expected 2011 revenue growth after chalking up a surprise second-quarter profit, as the professional networking site sets off to prove it can fulfill the promise of its monster IPO and rich valuation.

What NASA planned in its post-shuttle space projects? Would more non-human space explorers be seen in the near future? After the shuttle fleet, astronomical science projects without human beings on board could come into U.S. space spotlight.

Britain and the United States poke fun at incompetent, arrogant middle managers in the television comedy "The Office," but in Afghanistan the target is a fictional minister of garbage in a new series called "The Ministry."

Claire Danes, the star of Showtime's upcoming CIA drama "Homeland," joked at the Television Critics Association's summer press tour that starring in those ads for the eyelash-enhancement product Latisse have given her new character an edge in fighting terrorism.

The United States came down heavily on Syria saying that President Bashar al-Assad's regime has lost legitimacy and that the rulers were accountable for the deaths of more than 2,000 pro-democracy protesters.

A series of solar flares that erupted in the Sun over the last three days are heading towards Earth and could disrupt power grids and satellites.

Oil tumbled as much as 6 percent on Thursday, with U.S. crude crashing through technical support to its lowest since February as mounting fears of a stalled economy set off a global race from riskier assets.

Gold edged up more than half a percent on Friday as investors used bullion to shelter from the storm engulfing financial markets on concerns that the United States may be facing another recession and Europe's debt crisis is spreading to some of its largest economies.

Japanese stocks on Friday tumbled to their lowest since the post-quake rout in March as investors ran for exits after the worsening financial crisis in Europe compounded anxiety over a weak U.S. economy that has come close to stalling.

Congressional leaders struck a deal on Thursday to resolve a partisan dispute and end a partial shutdown of the Federal Aviation Administration that has halted airport projects and threatened thousands of jobs.

Boeing Co (BA.N) announced plans to launch its seven-seat spaceship on a test run to the International Space Station in 2015 using Atlas 5 rockets built by its United Launch Alliance venture.

A record 82 percent of Americans say that they disapprove of the way Congress is doing its job, compared with 14 percent who approve, according to a New York Times/CBS News public opinion poll published on Thursday.

Disapproval of Congress rose to an all-time high after weeks of rancorous partisan battles over raising the U.S. debt ceiling took the country to the brink of default, according a New York Times/CBS News public opinion poll published on Thursday.

After the terrible rout in markets on Thursday investors spoke of holding fast and even poking around for buying opportunities, but that's hard when the market is likely facing another weak U.S. jobs report on Friday.

Investors fled U.S. stocks and dumped commodities on Thursday, rushing to the safety of government bonds on growing fears the global economy was weakening.

China's top official newspaper on Friday dismissed as irresponsible suggestions Beijing was the state actor behind massive Internet hacking of governments and companies that security company McAfee this week said it had discovered.