Asian stocks are set to finish their best week in two months as investors scooped up bargains amid signs that heavy selling of the past few weeks was drawing to a close. In the currency market, the Swiss franc was the main beneficiary of safety bids triggered by mounting tension in the Middle East. Indonesian

EU member states are increasingly concerned about Portugal's ability to fund itself in financial markets and believe Lisbon will need to seek a bailout by April, according to euro zone sources. The European Union has discussed a rescue plan for Portugal, but it is dependent on Lisbon asking for the aid and making that request

Nokia and Microsoft will sign a final software deal in a couple months time, chief executive of the Finnish firm said on Friday. The deal would be signed "in a couple of months (or) it might take a bit longer," Chief Executive Stephen Elop said in a meeting with Finnish journalists. Nokia will adopt Windows

On a given signal the groups of four young men, each holding onto the ends of a bamboo sedan chair carrying an image of a local deity, leapt in turn into the chilly winter waters of a northern Taiwanese port. Making their way back to land they then carried the sedan chairs barefoot across a

The European Commission is launching an action plan aimed at giving every child a better start in life and at laying the foundations for successful lifelong learning, social integration, personal development and employability later in life. European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth, Androulla Vassiliou, said that “investing in early education and care is

    Google Inc launched a service to make it easy for publishers to sell digital versions of newspapers and magazines, undercutting a similar plan launched by Apple Inc, as both tech titans battle to dominate smartphones and tablet computers. Google announced in a blog post on Wednesday its plan to woo newspapers and magazines,

There was none of the drama of last February, when Sotheby's sold a Giacometti statue for a new world record auction price, but art sales this month in London banished immediate concerns about a boom-and-bust cycle. Comparisons were imperfect, especially at Sotheby's which held a special single-owner sale on Feb. 10 that was comfortably the

Europe, with its history of war and authoritarianism not long in the past, is often quick to promote democracy, human rights and the rule of law as the values it wants to see other states adopt. But the unrest sweeping North Africa and the Middle East, bringing down authoritarian rulers in Egypt and Tunisia, has

Need a condom? There's an app lication for that. The New York City Health Department on Monday unveiled a smartphone application that will help users locate the nearest place in the area giving out free condoms.