Reuters - Merrill Lynch & Co may sell its 20 percent stake in financial news and data provider Bloomberg LP to a blind trust controlled by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, The New York Post reported on Friday.

Reuters - The buyers of telecoms company BCE Inc are sticking to the agreed C$34.8-billion ($34.1 billion) purchase price and have finalized the funding for the deal to go ahead, the company said on Friday.

AP - Between surging oil prices, food inflation and a credit crunch that's depressed global growth, leaders from the Group of Eight economic powers face the gravest combination of economic woes in at least a decade when they gather next week.

Reuters - It will be tough for Wall Street to shake off the bear market blues next week if the price of oil keeps rising and the earnings season kick-off from Alcoa and General Electric disappoints investors.

Reuters - Phillip Bennett, the former chief executive of Refco, was sentenced to 16 years in prison on Thursday for fleecing investors of more than $2.4 billion in a fraud that destroyed the world's largest independent commodities broker.

Reuters - U.S. employers cut workers for a sixth straight month in June for the longest such streak since 2002 and the country's vast service sector unexpectedly contracted, underscoring the economy's frailty.

Reuters - World stocks slipped back towards this week's five-month low on Friday as oil prices near record highs kept inflation concerns alive a day after the European Central Bank raised interest rates.

Reuters - Blockbuster Inc , which abandoned its offer to buy Circuit City Stores Inc this week, may try to acquire the electronics retailer later, the New York Post said Thursday citing insiders.

AP - Employers cut payrolls by 62,000 in June, the sixth straight month of nationwide job losses, underscoring the economy's fragile state. The unemployment rate held steady at 5.5 percent.

Reuters - The deteriorating U.S. economy and slumping stock prices will frame discussions among top media and technology executives at the 26th annual Allen & Co confab in Sun Valley, Idaho, next week.

Reuters - Hedge fund swindler Samuel Israel III faced a fresh charge of bail jumping on Thursday and was ordered to jail immediately, one day after his mother convinced him to end a high-profile run from justice.

Reuters - NEW YORK (Reuters) -The Dow rose on Thursday, a day after the blue-chip average entered a bear market, on relief payrolls data was not as weak as some had feared and with another record oil price boosting energy shares.