IBT Staff Reporter

The party of Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi expressed grave concern on Friday for her health while she is in prison facing charges that carry a jail term of up to five years.

An Iranian official accused the United States on Friday of involvement in a mosque bombing that killed more than 20 people in volatile south-eastern Iran, two weeks before the Islamic Republic's presidential election.

North Korea test-fired another short-range missile off its east coast on Friday and said it would take more self-defense measures if the U.N. Security Council punished it for this week's nuclear test.

The United States could authorize emergency use of some currently unapproved immune system boosters called adjuvants to make a swine flu vaccine more effective, an official at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Thursday.

The Pentagon plans to create a new military command for cyberspace, stepping up preparations by the armed forces to conduct both offensive and defensive computer warfare, the New York Times said on Friday.

North Korea's second nuclear test has forced the United States to grapple with the idea that Pyongyang may never give up atomic weapons, current and former U.S. officials said this week.

U.S. consumer confidence improved in May to its highest level since last September, prompted by hopes the government's economic stimulus program will bring the economy out of recession.

Linking the European Union's emissions trading scheme with a U.S. cap-and-trade scheme will be difficult and require adjustments on both sides, EU market participants said on Friday.

U.S. yellow-pages publisher R.H. Donnelley Corp filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Thursday and said the move would slash its debt by about $6.4 billion.

Stocks were poised for a higher open on Friday after government data hinted the recession may be abating, putting the S&P 500 on pace for its third straight monthly gain, its longest streak since late 2007.

Tiffany & Co said quarterly earnings fell a worse-than-expected 62 percent as jewelry sales suffered amid the recession.

U.S. automaker Chrysler hopes to end a third day of bankruptcy court hearings on Friday with approval to sell most of its operations to a group led by Italy's Fiat, although opponents are likely file immediate appeals.

The U.S. economy contracted slightly less than initially estimated in the first quarter, while corporate profits rebounded, according to a government report on Friday that hinted the recession was moderating.

ScottishPower started up a small unit on Friday to capture carbon from a British coal-fired power plant for the first time, the Iberdrola-owned company said.

The U.S. economy contracted slightly less than initially estimated in the first quarter, while corporate profits rebounded, according to a Commerce Department report on Friday that hinted that the recession was moderating.

Spanish wind turbine maker Gamesa sees a sector recovery in 2011, but net profit will decline in 2009 on weaker-than-expected sales, according to embargoed comments from Chairman Guillermo Ulacia to reporters on Thursday.

Counting the climate-warming carbon dioxide locked up in forests could offer a cheaper way to curb the greenhouse gas than by considering only emissions from industry and fossil fuels, according to a new study.

Stock index futures pointed to a higher open on Wall Street on Friday ahead of another round of key economic data, putting the S&P 500 on pace for its third straight monthly gain, its longest streak since late 2007.

Lee Iacocca, the car executive credited with saving Chrysler from bankruptcy in the 1980s, is to lose a big chunk of his pension and a guaranteed life-long company car due to the U.S. automaker's bankruptcy filing two decades later.

The dollar hit five-month lows against a basket of currencies on Friday and the yen also dropped as investors sought higher-yielding and riskier assets, believing the worst of the global recession may have passed.

Tiffany & Co posted a lower-than-expected quarterly profit on Friday as shoppers avoided jewelry, but the upscale retailer kept its full-year forecast, citing a smaller sales decline so far in May.

A local Swedish court on Friday granted General Motors' loss-making unit Saab a further extension to its protection from creditors, giving it more time to restructure.

OPEC Secretary-General Abdullah al-Badri said on Friday he saw oil prices at $70 to $75 a barrel by the end of the year, making him the latest official from the group to predict the current rally will persist.

Futures for the Dow Jones industrial average, the Nasdaq 100 and the S&P 500 share indexes rose 0.3-0.5 percent on Friday, pointing to a higher start on Wall Street.

Upscale jeweler Tiffany & Co posted a 62 percent drop in quarterly profit on Friday, as shoppers stayed away from jewelry in the recession.

Oil rose to a six-month high above $66 per barrel on Friday, on track for its largest monthly percentage gain in more than a decade, after Japanese and U.S. data suggested the economic downturn may be moderating.

Italian automaker Fiat SpA is still interested in buying German peer Opel but more cannot be asked for a takeover, it said on Friday.

The dollar fell to a five-month low against a basket of currencies on Friday and the yen also dropped as signs the global recession may have passed its worst prompted investors to seek riskier assets.

World stocks closed in on a new high for the year and the dollar sank toward a five-month low against major currencies on Friday on hopes that the global economy has seen the worst days of its downturn.