IBT Staff Reporter

German Chancellor Angela Merkel dismissed market rumors on Friday that she was to resign, saying the speculation was absurd.

At least five Afghan civilians were wounded when a combined force of Afghan troops and U.S. Marines opened fire on a crowd at the gate to a military base in Helmand, Afghanistan's most volatile province, NATO said on Friday.

North Korea threatened on Friday to cut off all dialogue with the South in a move that could raise tension on the peninsula and cloud the efforts of regional powers to push Pyongyang back to nuclear disarmament talks.

U.N. aid agencies will launch an emergency appeal to raise for about $550 million to help survivors of the earthquake in Haiti, a U.N. spokeswoman said on Friday.

President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats scored a victory in healthcare talks on Thursday, winning labor union support for a revised tax on high-cost insurance plans and possibly clearing the way for a final agreement.

U.S. consumer prices rose modestly last month while a cold snap lifted industrial output, suggesting the economy was growing but not generating enough inflation to trouble the Federal Reserve.

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid may pay the ultimate political price for championing President Barack Obama's liberal agenda: He could lose his seat back home in Nevada.

Congressional Democrats are very close to reaching final agreement on healthcare reform legislation and could have a deal in days, House of Representatives Democratic Leader Steny Hoyer said on Friday.

U.S. stock index futures pointed to a lower open on Friday as disappointing results from JPMorgan Chase & Co pressured banking stocks.

S&P 500 index futures are trading down 5.2 points from yesterday's close and JPMorgan shares are down 0.67% in pre-market trading.

U.S. retail videogame and console saw its best sales month ever in December 2009, according to NDP Group retail data.

U.S. hedge fund firm Citadel Investment Group, which is run by Kenneth Griffin, hired Jake Walthour as head of U.S. distribution for its asset management subsidiary, a company spokesman said on Friday.

U.S. stock index futures fell on Friday after disappointing results from JPMorgan Chase & Co pressured banking stocks.

JPMorgan Chase & Co reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter profit on Friday, but losses on mortgages and commercial loans continued to rise and its shares fell nearly 2 percent in premarket trading.

Chinese internet users, already the largest in the world, have grown even more to 384 million by the end of 2009, a Chinese research group said Friday.

Anheuser-Busch InBev , the world's largest brewer, said on Friday it had won a court ruling to end a blockade at one of its Belgian breweries and unions responded that they would strike if it were enforced.

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc has claimed that at least five members of rival Hilton Hotels executive committee knew of the alleged theft of trade secrets last year, court papers filed on Thursday showed.

Japan Airlines moved a step closer to bankruptcy on Friday by drawing down $1.6 billion in emergency funding and with the government setting Tuesday as the day to officially start a state-led restructuring.

Anheuser-Busch InBev , the world's largest brewer, said on Friday it had won a court ruling to end a blockade at one of its Belgian breweries, although did not plan to enforce the order for now.

U.S. stock index futures fell on Friday after disappointing results from JPMorgan Chase & Co pressured banking stocks.

Camera maker Eastman Kodak Co. has said it will sue Apple Inc. and Research In Motion (RIM), the makers of the iPhone and Blackberry, for patent infringement.

U.S. stock index futures pointed to a mixed open on Wall Street on Friday, with futures for the S&P 500 up 0.02 percent, Dow Jones futures down 0.22 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures down 0.17 percent at 4.40 a.m. EST.

Persistent worries over the world economy, fueled by tepid U.S. data and a relatively lackluster start to the earnings season, kept a lid on equity gains on Friday, boosting safe-haven trades like the dollar and yen.

China sought on Friday to play down a threat by Google Inc to quit the country on hacking and censorship concerns, saying any decision by the Internet search giant would not affect U.S. trade ties.

Kenneth Griffin's hedge fund firm Citadel Investment Group is in advanced talks to hire Jake Walthour, co-founder of Aksia LLC, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the matter.

Shiseido Co Ltd , Japan's largest cosmetics company, has agreed to buy U.S.-based Bare Escentuals for $1.7 billion, as it looks to speed up its expansion and break into a new part of the North American market.

Technology shares jumped in Asia on Friday after better-than-expected earnings from sector bellwether Intel, but stocks elsewhere in the region were largely subdued amid fresh doubts about the strength of the U.S. economic recovery.

In a bid to make India Solar and Wind Valley on lines of Silicon Valley, The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) has urged the Finance Minister to completely exempt imported equipment from levy of import duty for setting up of Solar and Wind Power plants.

National Food Authority (NFA) of the Philippines said it will allow private firms to import 163,000 tons of rice this year. With this the total imports by the world's biggest buyer for 2010 to a new record high of over 2.4 million tons, the state-run food agency said in a statement.