European markets fell Friday on concerns about banks and pharmaceutical companies, whose profits investors believe may be curbed by President Obama’s plan to reform America’s costly health care system. By afternoon in mainland Europe, Britain’s FTSE 100…

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World stocks mostly lower as economic fears weigh

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Citigroup, Feds in New Aid Deal

Facebook is trying its hand at democracy. The fast-growing online hangout, whose more than 175 million worldwide users could form the world’s sixth-largest country behind Brazil, said Thursday that those users will play a “meaningful role” in deciding the…

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Facebook to let users give input on policies

A “substantial” number of the roughly 100,000 U.S. combat troops to be pulled out of Iraq by Aug. 31, 2010, will remain in the war zone through at least the end of this year to ensure national elections there go smoothly, senior Obama administration officials…

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Officials: Obama sets Aug. 2010 as Iraq end date

Wall Street signaled a flat open Friday as investors awaited a key government report on how the economy fared in the final three months of 2008. The market was also waiting for news that Citigroup Inc. has reached a deal for the government to significantly…

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Wall Street points to flat open ahead of GDP data

A Ford Motor Co. plant in suburban Cleveland which has been idle for nearly two years is about to begin making a new fuel-efficient engine for some of the company’s 2010 model cars. Ford has called an 11 a.m. EST Friday news conference to announce that its…

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Ford expected to reopen Cleveland engine plant

Eastern Europe’s struggling banks will receive euro24.5 billion ($31.1 billion) worth of emergency help from leading international financial institutions to shore up their battered finances, the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development said Friday. The…

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East European banks get euro24.5 billion support

Investor enthusiasm waned Friday, pulling oil prices lower to near $44 a barrel after a day-earlier surge in crude on evidence that protracted weak U.S. oil demand could be recovering. Thursday’s bullish price increase turned neutral as the worst recession…

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Oil momentum subsides after demand increase

Sony said Friday that Chief Executive Howard Stringer will also become president, a move it said will give him more power over its core electronics division to deliver quicker decisions as the company battles the global economic crisis. Welsh-born American…

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Sony centers power at top in Stringer

(Reuters) – Futures for the Dow Jones industrial average index fell 0.1 percent on Friday, gained 0.3 percent for the Nasdaq 100 and rose 0.1 percent for the S&P 500 share index, pointing to a mix open for Wall Street.

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Index futures point to mixed Wall St open

Vonage Holdings Corp. Thursday reported a net customer loss for the fourth quarter, a first for the Internet telephone pioneer. The Holmdel company said its loss for the quarter widened because of debt refinancing costs, while revenue grew modestly….

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N.J. Internet-phone company Vonage reports drop in customers

Questions about the future of the Rocky Mountain News had become so common, the newspaper’s staff put up a handwritten paper sign on the news desk that said, “We don’t know.” On Thursday, someone wrote over it in heavy black marker: “Now we know.” Colorado’s…

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Rocky Mountain News publishes final edition

TOKYO (Reuters) – NTT DoCoMo Inc, Japan’s biggest mobile phone operator, said on Friday it has halted sales of Research In Motion’s BlackBerry Bold because the phone can overheat while the battery is being recharged.

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DoCoMo halts BlackBerry Bold sales due to overheating

Fresh from a medical exam, a New York hedge-fund cheat is returning to court on charges that he skipped out on a 20-year prison sentence. Instead of reporting to federal prison last June for bilking millions from his investors, Samuel Israel faked his suicide…

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Hedge-fund swindler due in NY court after checkup

The Freedom Tower at 1 World Trade Center will have the five fastest elevators in the Western Hemisphere when it opens in 2013, according to a report in the New York Times. The report said these express cars, serving the…

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Re-built World Trade Center will have super-fast elevators