IBT Staff Reporter

Under a hail of gunfire, a suicide bomber charged a checkpoint in northern Iraq on Friday, detonating a truck laden with explosives and killing five U.S. troops and two Iraqi policemen.

President Barack Obama will discuss financial conditions in a meeting this morning with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp head Sheila Bair, Securities and Exchange Commission chief Mary Shapiro and Comptroller of the Currency John Dugan.

Poland's mid-sized lender BPH, unit of General Electric, plans to issue up to 750 million zlotys ($225 million) in bonds, the bank said on Friday.

Buy-out houses are doing smaller deals, borrowing less money and are more involved in hands-on management, as the crisis pushes them back to the roots of their industry.

The financial crisis is happening so fast that books about it can be outdated before they hit the shelves. Some U.S. publishers and authors are responding by bringing books to market faster.

A Greek student angry at how his schoolmates treated him shot and wounded a fellow student and two workers at a training institute in Athens on Friday before killing himself, police said.

Fiat staff in Brussels closeted local managers inside their office for several hours in another apparent boss-napping linked to worker anger over job cuts in Europe.

Fiji's president revoked the politically unstable South Pacific nation's constitution on Friday, named himself to replace temporarily a post-coup interim government and called for fresh elections by 2014.

A chocolate Easter egg from aid workers brought a weary smile to the face of Maria Pia Carpentieri, one of thousands of people left homeless by Italy's worst earthquake in nearly 30 years.

Italy held a state funeral on Friday for victims of its worst earthquake in three decades, as the death toll climbed to 289 and survivors voiced anger that houses simply collapsed.

U.N. Security Council negotiations on how to respond to North Korea's launch of a long-range rocket are deadlocked, U.N. diplomats say.

Asian equity markets are likely to run out of steam after leading a one-month rally in global stocks, with the full brunt of the deep global recession yet to be fully felt on corporate earnings and balance sheets.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development said on Friday that it regretted Switzerland's decision to veto part of the OECD's budget in a dispute over bank secrecy in the Alpine tax haven.

Dutch utility Nuon, which Swedish energy group Vattenfall is partially buying, said on Thursday it would start building a test carbon-capture facility at one of its power plants in the Netherlands.

Japan's Nissan Motor Co and France's Renault said on Friday they will supply electric cars to China, the world's largest auto market.

POSCO, the world's No. 4 steelmaker, said on Friday it was in a preliminary deal with Rio Tinto for a 20 percent discount in iron ore term prices, but is seeking for prices to go down even further

U.S. stocks typically rebound six months before the economy, but investors worry that the current 25 percent rally since the market's March 9 low could be a red herring.

HSBC Global Asset Management says it is finally seeing inflows into some of its hedge funds and believes it may have reached a tipping point after a tough period of client withdrawals.

Dog-crazy Americans will soon be able to buy a pet-friendly car with a cushioned dog bed in the trunk, fitted with a built-in water bowl and fan and a ramp to help less agile dogs climb in.

Japan's latest burst of economic stimulus spending is aimed at promoting energy-efficient products made by recession-hit exporters, but analysts say it is unlikely to help the world's fifth-biggest polluter cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Thai troops repelled anti-government protesters at a resort hosting an Asian summit on Friday as leaders began arriving for a meeting meant to focus on the global financial crisis.

Islamic finance is slowing as the global financial crisis hits its hubs in Malaysia and the Gulf, but the sector now has a chance to move on to Western economies seeking to boost their financial centers.

Buying or selling your car in an auction can give you a headache if you do not have any idea what you are getting yourself into.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il put to rest this week any doubt about whom he sees as his second in command when he elevated his brother-in-law Jang Song-taek to a powerful military post, analysts said on Friday.

Somali pirates holding an American on a drifting lifeboat vowed on Friday to fight any attack by U.S. naval forces and reportedly recaptured their hostage when he jumped overboard to escape.

If you are buying a used car, you probably want to save some money. This means that you need to prioritize what is most important to you in a car.

An advanced solar car that can cruise in a range from 50 to 60 miles per hour and weighs less than 500 pounds is being developed by students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

A Florida utility and a real estate developer are aiming to bring the country's first solar-powered city to the Sunshine State.

The diesel engine has a long history that is intertwined closely with economic and other issues of the time.