IBT Staff Reporter

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.

Nearly 45,000 people die in the United States each year -- one every 12 minutes -- in large part because they lack health insurance and can not get good care, Harvard Medical School researchers found in an analysis released on Thursday.

Friday at sunset will mark the beginning of the Jewish New Year, or known to the Jewish community as Rosh Hashanah, the start of year 5,770 for the Jewish community.

Aircraft leasing company AerCap Holdings said on Friday it would buy rival Genesis Lease Ltd in an all-stock deal valued at $1.75 billion.

Goldman Sachs said it agreed to sell part of its stake in Japan's Sanyo Electric Co Ltd into a planned tender offer by Panasonic Corp, locking in 59 billion yen ($648 million) in profit.

First talks between European unions and delegates from General Motors and Magna begin next week over plans to cut 10,500 jobs at Opel save labour costs in the hundreds of millions of euros.

South Africa's labor federation COSATU is trying to halt a planned multi-billion tie-up between MTN and India's Bharti Airtel but the Treasury wants a deal, sources close to the matter said.

U.S. food giant Kraft could raise its bid 20 percent up to 12.3 billion pounds ($20.1 billion) to seal a takeover deal for Britain's Cadbury without losing a key investment grade rating on its debt.

Nycomed, the private equity-owned Swiss drugmaker, recently made a fully financed 4 to 4.5 billion-euro ($5.88 to $6.62 billion) offer to buy Solvay SA's drug unit, people familiar with the matter said.

The U.S. government could save more money by increasing the use of cheaper generic drugs rather than hiking rebates paid by manufacturers, an industry executive said on Thursday.

American clients of UBS AG were formally 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.

American Airlines will team up with British Airways and Qantas Airways to bolster cash-strapped Japan Airlines, two sources said, aiming to fight off a rival offer from Delta Air Lines.

Former American Idol judge, Paula Abdul, mocked talk show host Ellen DeGeneres on VH1's show Divas Thursday night amid news that DeGeneres is her replacement on Idol.

Arena Pharmaceuticals Inc's obesity drug disappointed investors in a second big clinical trial, sending shares plunging 33 percent on Friday from their highs on Thursday night.

The stars have aligned for gold prices, leaving them just a short hop from record highs, but as bullion bugs celebrate, the rally appears to have flaws.

President Barack Obama pitched his U.S. healthcare reforms to college students on Thursday and Senate Democrats searched for common ground after some criticized elements of a highly anticipated new plan.

Unemployment in this small U.S. town has quadrupled in the past 16 months, but worse is to come as thousands of unemployed workers run out of severance money and benefits.

The U.S. Federal Housing Administration on Friday said it was appointing a risk officer and making changes in its credit policies to make sure its reserves against future losses stay above a minimum set by Congress.

Production of H1N1vaccine over the next year will be substantially less than the 4.9 billion doses previously forecast but one dose should provide adequate protection, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday.

AMR Corp's American Airlines said on Friday it expects September mainline passenger traffic to slide 16.4 percent from August levels and sees costs rising 1.7 percent during that time.

The U.S. Federal Reserve is close to proposing wide-ranging rules on bankers' pay that would apply to any employee able to take risks that could threaten the safety and soundness of the institution, a Fed source said on Friday.

Southern California Edison's 1,070-megawatt Unit 2 at San Onofre nuclear power station in California ramped up to 98 percent by early Friday from 60 percent early Thursday after exiting an outage, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said in a report.

American Electric Power Co Inc planned to shut the 528-megawatt Unit 3 at the Welsh coal-fired power station in Texas on Sept. 18-20 for maintenance, the company told Texas regulators in a report.

Pay policies for bank employees across the United States would require approval from the U.S. Federal Reserve as part of a proposal to curb risk-taking at financial institutions, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

Mazda Motor Corp said it would begin selling the Mazda2 hatchback in the United States towards the end of 2010, getting a late start in a segment that has held up relatively well as consumers seek cheaper and smaller cars.

Arena Pharmaceuticals Inc said its experimental obesity drug, lorcaserin, met the goals of a second late-stage study, but its shares dropped more than 15 percent as the results fell short of a U.S. Food and Drug Administration guideline.

Arena Pharmaceuticals Inc said its experimental obesity drug, lorcaserin, met the goals of a second late-stage study, but its shares dropped more than 15 percent as the results fell short of a U.S. Food and Drug Administration guideline.

Sometime in the next six years, astronauts bound for the International Space Station may find themselves strapped inside a private commercial spacecraft known as Dragon.

A suicide car-bomber killed 33 people in northwest Pakistan on Friday in an explosion on a road that brought down shops where people were stocking up before a holiday.