FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Siemens finance chief Joe Kaeser has blasted the way joint venture Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) was handling planned job cuts in Germany and called on it to hold talks with labor. "Siemens will not accept without a fuss that NSN simply disappears from Munich," Kaeser told the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper in Siemens's home town. "It is really time for NSN management and labor representatives to sit down and constructively seek economically sustainable solutions for the Munich site," he said in the interview published on Saturday. ...

ATHENS (Reuters) - Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos formally submitted his candidacy to lead the Socialist PASOK party on Saturday, as the focus in Athens shifted to elections expected once an international bailout deal is cleared. Greece averted the immediate threat of an uncontrolled default on Thursday when it successfully concluded a bond swap deal under which private sector creditors agreed to accept deep cuts in the value of their holdings. "There is now more than just recession, budget cuts and tax increases ... ...

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission ordered major safety changes for U.S. nuclear power plants Friday, two days before the one-year anniversary of the nuclear crisis in Japan.

The United States added 227,000 jobs in February, the latest display of the breadth and strength of the economic recovery. The country has put together the most impressive three months of job growth since before the Great Recession.

Greece's private creditors agreed Friday to take cents on the euro in the biggest debt writedown in history, paving the way for an enormous second bailout for the country to keep Europe's economy from being dragged further into chaos.

Raising campaign cash in Republican territory, President Barack Obama on Friday hailed a rebounding economy and accused Republicans of banking on voters having "amnesia" about the steps that led to a brutal economic collapse.

China reported its biggest monthly trade deficit in at least a decade in February as imports rebounded after a Lunar New Year holiday slowdown, but a broader measure showed global and Chinese demand both weakening.

The operator of a Utah coal mine where a 2007 collapse led to the deaths of nine people agreed on Friday to plead guilty to two misdemeanor criminal charges and pay a $500,000 fine.

President Barack Obama is hitting back at Republican criticism of his energy policies and his role in controlling gasoline prices.

ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece averted the immediate threat of an uncontrolled default on Friday, winning strong acceptance from its private creditors for a bond swap deal which will eat into its mountainous public debt and clear the way for a new bailout. With euro zone ministers set to approve the 130 billion euro ($172 billion) rescue, French President Nicolas Sarkozy declared the Greek problem had been settled - just as Germany said that any impression the crisis was over "would be a big mistake. ...

STAMFORD, Connecticut (Reuters) - A senior Morgan Stanley banker pleaded not guilty on Friday to hate crime, theft and assault charges stemming from an incident last December that police say escalated from a dispute over a $200-plus cab fare to a knife attack on the driver. William Bryan Jennings, who had been co-head of North American fixed-income capital markets at the Wall Street bank until being put on leave following his arrest last month, entered "not guilty" pleas to each of three charges against him. ...

(Reuters) - Apollo Global Management LLC co-founder Leon Black will take home $104.2 million in 2011 dividends, salary and share of profits from the private equity firm, more than twice what he got in 2010, thanks to the firm's record investment payouts. Apollo's revenues from realized carried interest - its cut from the profits it makes investors - hit an all-time annual high of $645 million in 2011 due to cash payouts from some of its realized investments, such as the sale of Parallel Petroleum to Samsung C&T Corp for $772 million. ...