UNITED STATES

A new General Motors emerged from bankruptcy protection on Friday -- far more quickly than most industry watchers had expected -- as a leaner automaker pledging to win back American consumers and pay back taxpayers.

U.S. President Barack Obama warned Iran on Friday the world will not wait indefinitely for it to end its nuclear defiance, saying Tehran had until September to comply or else face consequences.

The U.S. Treasury said on Friday that State Street Corp. paid $60 million to buy back stock warrants, becoming the first of the largest U.S. banks to completely free itself from the government's financial bailout program.

The G8 summit in L'Aquila, Italy, concluded on Friday.The U.S. Energy Department announced on Friday it will deploy funds of more than $589 million for energy efficiency and weatherization programs. Continental Automotive awarded for production of lithium-ion batteries.

Altria Group Inc said it will seek a further review of a federal jury verdict against it that threw out $24 million in tax refunds from investments in utilities and other assets.

The biggest U.S. banks, including Wells Fargo & Co. and Bank of America Corp., JP Morgan Chase and Citibank announced plans to stop exchanging the registered warrants for cash after Friday.

Obama administration officials outlined comprehensive proposals to rein in the free-wheeling market in financial derivatives on Friday, which has been blamed for helping to create the global economic crisis, and proposed stronger investor protections.

The Dow industrials and the S&P 500 fell on Friday, dropping for the fourth straight week, after Chevron Corp warned about its quarterly results and consumer confidence fell to it lowest level since March.

Average U.S. ethanol margins have risen for the fourth week running as prices for corn, the top raw material cost for distillers, have fallen more than $1 a bushel over the month, experts said.

A group of unsecured creditors objected on Friday to a request by bankrupt Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc for more time to draft its reorganization plan, claiming the delay will cut into the $13 billion they say they are owed, according to court documents.

The owner of a website onto which a purportedly stolen Goldman Sachs Group Inc computer code was downloaded has declined to say whether or not other people accessed the code while it was on the site.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Friday proposed clamping down on dealers in freewheeling markets for derivatives, the little-understood, complex securities that helped create a crisis in U.S. and world financial markets.

A new General Motors emerged from bankruptcy protection on Friday -- far more quickly than most industry-watchers had expected -- as a leaner automaker pledging to win back American consumers and pay back taxpayers.

Cyber attacks slowing U.S. and South Korean websites could enter a new phase on Friday by attacking personal computers and wiping out hard disks, a South Korean government agency and web security firm said.

'New GM' emerges, Oil rebound in 2010, AIG to pay more bonuses?

Real estate research site Trulia.com says 24.6 percent of current homes on the market in the United States as of July 1, have had at least one price cut, totaling $27.1 billion in reductions.

Property investors are turning to the student accommodation sector as a would-be phoenix rising from the ashes of the UK real estate market, promising growth in returns and size for at least the next few years.

President Barack Obama made headlines on Friday after a photo of him at the G8 summit apparently showed the president looking at a junior delegate from Brazil Mayora Tavares.

Stocks fell on Friday, with the Dow industrials and the S&P 500 set for their fourth weekly drop, after Chevron's warning about its second-quarter results prompted investors to sell some energy shares.

The U.S. Federal Reserve on Friday said that continued improvements in financial market conditions had lowered demand for many of its emergency liquidity programs.

U.S. consumer sentiment wilted in early July to the weakest since March, when confidence in the financial sector and economy were at a low ebb, the Reuters/University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers showed on Friday.