By Isabel Reynolds and Reiji Murai TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s Fujifilm Holdings is watching developments at scandal-ridden Olympus Corp but it is too early to say if it will invest in the rival endoscope maker, a senior executive told Reuters in an interview on Monday. Fujifilm, a film and camera maker that has been diversifying [...]

China tests 500 km/h super high-speed trainReuters China launched a super-rapid test train over the weekend which is capable of travelling 500 kilometers per hour, … From: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/finance/news/rss/story/*http://us.rd.yahoo.com/finance/news/topfinstories/*http://finance.yahoo.com/news/china-tests-500-km-h-060158636.html?l=1

(Reuters) – Yahoo Inc’s board of directors has agreed to keep exploring a plan to split off the Internet company’s Asian assets in a complex deal valued at $17 billion, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. The company’s board of directors decided to move forward with negotiations related to the deal on Friday, while [...]

By Ernest Scheyder and Liana B. Baker NEW YORK (Reuters) – George Eastman is best known as the inventor of photographic film and founder of Eastman Kodak Co, but his century-old legacy of entrepreneurship now rides on the lesser-known Eastman Chemical Co. That was hardly the case in 1994, when Eastman Kodak spun off its [...]

By Noel Randewich SANTA CLARA, California (Reuters) – Mike Bell likens his new job at Intel Corp to piloting a glider. The engineer Intel is counting on to spearhead a belated drive into the smartphone arena has refocused its development arm, brought in new blood, and tried to inculcate an appreciation for gadgetry at the [...]

More than spirits are being lifted this holiday season. Shoppers may be grabbing lots of things off shelves, but many are leaving stores without paying for them. During the four weeks leading up to Christmas, an estimated $1.84 billion in merchandise will be shoplifted this year, according to The Global Retail Theft Barometer, a survey [...]

By Chuck Mikolajczak NEW YORK (Reuters) – Stocks edged higher on Thursday, putting the benchmark SP 500 index on track for its third straight advance after economic data pointed to gradual improvement in the economy. The number of Americans filing new claims for jobless benefits hit a 3-1/2 year low last week, bolstering views the [...]

By Jeremy Pelofsky and James Vicini WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Bank of America Corp’s Countrywide Financial unit agreed on Wednesday to pay a record $335 million to settle civil charges that it discriminated against minority homebuyers, a historic settlement for the Obama administration in the wake of the subprime mortgage morass. As the financial and housing [...]

By Richard Hubbard LONDON (Reuters) – European shares and the euro rose on Tuesday on surprisingly good news about the German economy and a better-than-expected outcome at a Spanish treasury bill auction, but concerns about the euro zone debt crisis limited gains. The Munich-based Ifo think-tank said German business sentiment rose sharply in December, defying [...]

By Richard Hubbard LONDON (Reuters) – European stocks and the euro were under pressure Tuesday after a euro zone plan to boost crisis funds parked with the IMF failed to reach a hoped-for target, though looming ECB funding for the region’s banks lifted sentiment in some bond markets. The euro hovered around $1.3010 Tuesday, slightly [...]