UNITED STATES

Global stocks faltered and oil prices fell below $72 a barrel on Friday as waning risk appetite lifted the U.S. dollar against most major currencies.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called the Holocaust a lie Friday, raising the stakes against Israel just as world powers try to decide how to deal with the nuclear ambitions of an Iran in political turmoil.

The global economy should recover from recession in the first half of 2010, but it will take time for unemployment levels to decline, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said.

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune is poised to exit bankruptcy by the end of September after a federal bankruptcy judge approved a reorganization plan that gives ownership of Minnesota's largest newspaper to its senior lenders.

U.S. stocks rose on Friday as a brokerage upgrade of Procter & Gamble lifted shares of consumer staples companies, putting the market on track for a second week of gains.

With more requests than money, the U.S. Department of Energy faces the tough task of allocating more than $4 billion among hundreds of utilities that want to modernize the country's aging electricity grid.

The number of rigs drilling for natural gas in the United States climbed six this week to 705, according to a report on Friday by oil services firm Baker Hughes in Houston.

UBS AG has formally warned wealthy American clients that secret Swiss accounts may be revealed to U.S. tax authorities after the Wednesday expiration of an amnesty program that could give them immunity from prosecution.

Google Inc said Apple Inc rejected its Google Voice application for the popular iPhone, contradicting Apple's statement to regulators last month.

Arena Pharmaceuticals Inc's obesity drug produced mixed results in a second late-stage trial, sending the company's shares on a roller coaster in furious trading on Friday.

U.S. bank regulators are considering tapping a line of credit with the U.S. Treasury Department and may explore other lesser-known options to replenish the dwindling fund that safeguards bank deposits.

The U.S. Federal Reserve plans new rules on bank pay to curb excessive risk-taking, which is blamed for sparking the global financial crisis and has triggered international demands for action.

U.S. clients of UBS AG have been warned by the bank that their undeclared income in Switzerland may be revealed to U.S. tax authorities, according to a letter obtained by Reuters on Friday.

U.S. stocks clung to slim gains in a choppy session on Friday as a stronger dollar and quarterly options expiration unsettled investors before the weekend.

U.S. authorities are conducting a criminal probe into Bank of America Corp's purchase of Merrill Lynch, the Charlotte Observer reported on Friday.

Airline employees who report to work ill are more likely than sick passengers to spread infections such as the H1N1 swine flu virus aboard airplanes, with low-paid workers posing the greatest danger, a U.S. government expert said on Thursday.

Jobless rates rose in the majority of U.S. states in August, tracking national trends, but unemployment rates fell in the Midwest and South, a government report showed on Friday.

EU regulators should look into the book settlement that Google reached with a group of U.S. writers and publishers last October because the deal will create a de facto monopoly, lobby group ICOMP said on Friday.

Cramped living quarters on college campuses increase students' chances of being infected with all kinds of flu, but scrupulous hand hygiene and simple face masks may help some stay healthy, at least until swine fluvaccines become available next month, health experts say.

Surgeons are increasingly turning to high-tech robotic equipment to operate on patients with prostate cancer and other conditions but some medical authorities worry about inadequate training and lax standards among practitioners.

General Electric Co, the largest U.S. conglomerate, will prioritise Asia and resource rich countries like Russia, GE's Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Immelt said on Friday.