IBT Staff Reporter

Stock index futures pointed to a flat opening on Wall Street on Friday, with futures for the S&P 500 up 0.03 percent, Dow Jones futures up 0.02 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures down 0.01 percent at 4 a.m. EDT.

China Telecom Corp Ltd, the smallest of the country's three wireless carriers, has contacted Apple Inc to introduce the popular iPhone based on CDMA technology, Chairman Wang Xiaochu said on Friday.

The New York Stock Exchange is working with China to launch the country's international board that will allow foreign firms to list on the mainland, in a move seen as a crucial step in developing its capital markets.

Some prominent Israeli reporters who are accompanying the Egyptian Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on his trip to Washington, has predicted a stormy meeting between him and the US President. Netanyahu and Obama are scheduled for talks at the White House on Friday.

The Bank of Japan kept monetary policy steady on Friday in a sign that a first-quarter economic slump failed to undermine the central bank's confidence growth will pick up around autumn when the wounds from the devastating earthquake begin to heal.

Apple has trumped Google and Amazon's unlicensed music locker offerings by landing a cloud-music licensing deal with Sony Corp., EMI Music and Warner Music.

An earthquake measuring 5.9 on the Richter scale struck western Turkey on Thursday, the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported.

World stocks rose on Friday, supported by a weaker dollar as investors took the view after weak U.S. economic data this week that the Federal Reserve will be slow to raise interest rates.

Mobile phones have nudged away the wallets in UK to buy food, books and other stuff up to a value of £15 by pre-loading their cell phones with up to £100.

Europe's Central Bank wants Greece to drop debt reprofiling ideas and focus on economic reforms to fix its finances, its former vice president Lucas Papademos told Athens, daily Ta Nea reported on Friday.

Panasonic Corp's president said on Friday that he sees the current financial year as an extremely tough one for the electronics giant, with the effects of the devastating March earthquake and tsunami continuing to hamper sales through September.

Protesters in Madrid have camped out in the central square for the fourth consecutive night.

It's been more than two months since 8.9 magnitude earthquakes struck Japan and took a toll on Japanese people and crippled the economy. Various relief measures are underway at various stages to restore normalcy in the ravaged island nation with aid flowing in from various quarters and volunteers pledging their support to restore the lives.

The increased use of the Chinese yuan in trade and investment settlement will pave the way for the currency to become fully convertible, although the process will be gradual, central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan said on Friday, without offering any time frame.

Tyler Hamilton, ex-team mate of seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong, has claimed that Armstrong used the performance-enhancing drug EPO during his career.

The dollar looked set to post its first weekly loss in three weeks as investors increased bets on risky assets like equities on expectations the United States would take a long time to raise interest rates after weak economic data this week.

Ford Motor Company (F) announced today it is building its first transmission plant in China to support its growth plan there, in the world's largest auto market, the carmaker said in a statement.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed Obama’s speech on Thursday saying, Those borders are not defensible, the Palestinian state must not come at Israel’s expense.

In a much-anticipated address, President Barack Obama’s speech outlined the U.S. policy in the Middle East and North Africa in the middle of the Arab uprisings in the world.

Tokyo Electric Power Co is set to reveal a net loss of as much as $18 billion on Friday to account for the disaster at its Fukushima nuclear power plant, media say, the biggest corporate loss in Japan outside of the financial sector.

As Annie Jacobsen's new book, AREA 51: An Uncensored History of America's Top Secret Military Base, is to hit shelves in few days, various media reports are suggesting the major hot spots for UFOs around the world.

Kareem Abdul Jabbar, one of NBA's all-time stars, is not happy with the Los Angeles Lakers, according to tweets new and old.

The dollar struggled to regain ground on Friday as tepid U.S. economic data prompted investors to favor higher yielding currencies like the euro while a sluggish Wall Street session weighed on stocks.

A 7-years-old student Matteo Lopez from Monte Verde Elementary School San Francisco won the 2011 Doodle 4 Google competition with his imaginative work Space Life, outstanding from more than 107,000 submissions from the entire nation.

The Bank of Japan kept monetary policy steady on Friday in a sign that a first-quarter economic slump did not change the central bank's view that growth will pick up late this year when the wounds from the devastating earthquake begin to heal.

The dollar looked set to post its first weekly loss in three weeks as investors increased bets on risky assets like equities on expectations the United States would take a long time to raise interest rates after posting weak economic data.

One fringe group has received national notoriety with their predictions that the end of the world will be this coming Saturday, May 21.

Tokyo Electric Power Co will promote a company insider to be its next president when the stricken Japanese utility reveals a net loss of as much as $18 billion, media say, the biggest corporate loss in the country outside the financial sector.

Amazon.com, the largest online retailer in the United States, says it has been selling more ebooks than printed books since April 1.