Spring has begun in Japan with the blooming of the country's beloved cherry trees, with revelers eager to use the occasion as a way to break from a year marked by crisis and disaster. Last year, the mood was muted and many cherry celebrations were cancelled after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami which killed
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Asian shares struggled on Friday in holiday-thinned trade, with investors awaiting key U.S. jobs data later in the day and fretting about rising yields in weaker euro zone economies that are reviving concerns about the region's debt crisis. MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan fell in early trade for a third straight
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Twitter filed a lawsuit on Thursday in a U.S. court against five websites that it accuses of creating tools for spamming, as the social media firm battles a wave of automated tweets barraging real users with anything from Viagra ads to virus-ridden links. Often billed as a service to help a Twitter account gain followers,
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President Nicolas Sarkozy pledged to achieve a budget surplus for the first time since 1974 and cut France's swelling debt if re-elected on May 6, warning that his Socialist rival would lead the country towards the fate of Greece or Spain. Presenting an austere manifesto less than three weeks before the first round of voting
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The Bank of England held back from giving Britain's fragile recovery an extra boost on Thursday, as the economy appears to have narrowly avoided falling back into recession despite a shock drop in manufacturing output in the first months of 2012. The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR), one Britain's leading economic think-tanks,
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A U.S. appeals court has revived lawsuits by Viacom Inc, the English Premier League, and various film studios and television networks accusing Google Inc of allowing copyrighted videos on its YouTube service without permission. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said on Thursday that a reasonable jury could have found that YouTube knew of
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The euro hit a three-week low against the dollar and global stock markets dipped on Thursday as Spain's debt burden fueled worries about further problems for euro zone economies and curtailed investors' appetite for riskier assets. Safe-haven U.S. Treasuries edged higher, along with gold prices. Spanish 10-year government bond yields rose as high as 5.86%
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Greece's technocrat Prime Minister Loucas Papademos arrived in Cyprus for a two-day official visit to discuss issues related to recent energy finds and exploitation, as well as regional security matters. ''Our aim'', Papademos said on his arrival, ''is to achieve a better coordination as regards the efforts to solve the Cyprus problem, as well as
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Greek bank shareholders are under pressure from Athens to contribute billions of euros to recapitalise the lenders so that the government can avoid taking them over. Investors will find out by April 20 the details of the financial support package on offer from the Greek government, technocrat Prime Minister Lucas Papademos said on Thursday. Athens
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Iran's oil flows to Greece have stopped this month, depriving the Islamic Republic of one of its most loyal European customers and leaving Greece with its financing troubles struggling to buy elsewhere. The European Union will impose a full embargo on Iranian oil imports from July 1 as part of an international stand-off over Tehran's
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