The Philippines aims to buy two frigates, two helicopters and three gunboats for deployment in the South China Sea where a territorial dispute with China has lent urgency to the need to bolster forces, a Philippine navy officer said on Wednesday.

Greece's future in the euro zone may hang in the balance once more, but investors believe the market fallout from any current political turbulence can be insulated, unlike during the region's sovereign debt crisis of 2012.

A Japanese lingerie maker is recalling more than 20,000 brassieres after complaints that underwires suddenly poked out, sometimes while women were wearing them.

A senior Hitachi Ltd (6501.T) executive confirmed the company has bid for Italian conglomerate Finmeccanica's (SIFI.MI) train-making and rail signal assets.

Dozens of temporary tax breaks, including big ones for business research, wind power and foreign profits, were renewed by the U.S. Senate late on Tuesday, putting to rest worries that further delays in dealing with the so-called tax extenders might foul up the approaching tax-filing season.

The New York premiere of "The Interview", a Sony Pictures comedy about the assassination of North Korean President Kim Jong-Un, has been canceled and a source said one theater chain had scrapped plans to show it, after threats from a hacking group.

Chinese Internet giant Baidu Inc (BIDU.O) agreed to buy a stake in Uber as the online car-hailing service seeks to gain ground on rivals with powerful backers in one of the world's biggest transportation markets.

Citgo Petroleum Corp, Venezuela's U.S. oil refining unit, has received revised bids from at least four bidders, some which have valued the company at more than $10 billion, according to three people familiar with the matter.

Taxi service provider Uber Technologies Inc said only some of its employees have access to "God View", or a real-time aerial view of the movement of its cars.

British scientists have developed a new use for 3D printing, putting it to work to create personalized replica models of cancerous parts of the body to allow doctors to target tumors more precisely.

A U.S. judge has allowed a Seattle artist's intellectual property lawsuit to go forward over her claims she was cheated out of possibly millions of dollars from the sale of "Angry Birds" pet toys she designed, her attorney said on Tuesday.

Apple Inc (AAPL.O) won an antitrust trial on Tuesday when a U.S. jury decided the company did not act improperly when it restricted music purchases for iPod users to Apple's iTunes digital store.

Two U.S. security officials cast doubt on a threat against theaters planning to show Sony Corp's (6758.T) controversial movie about an assassination of the leader of North Korea, but police across the country vowed on Tuesday to take extra precautions.

An uneasy calm settled on Asian markets on Wednesday as a brewing financial crisis in Russia and the rout in oil prices sent investors scurrying for the cover of top-rated bonds.

The boomtown in the heart of Canada's oil sands region is getting nervous. Fort McMurray, surrounded by the boreal forest of northern Canada, has long drawn thousands with jobs that paid six-figure salaries to a region that produces more crude than anywhere else in the Western Hemisphere.

American Apparel Inc has officially fired its founder and former Chief Executive Officer Dov Charney, months after it suspended him for misconduct, according to a news release Tuesday.

U.S. stocks fell for a third day in a volatile session Tuesday, led by declines in consumer discretionary and technology shares, while another drop in the Russian rouble added to worries about the global economy.

U.S. housing starts and permits fell in November, but remained at levels consistent with a gradually improving housing market. Groundbreaking declined 1.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual pace of 1.028 million units, the Commerce Department said on Tuesday. October's starts were revised up to a pace of 1.045 million units.

Dutch insurer Delta Lloyd NV (DLL.AS) has agreed to sell its Belgian banking operations to China's privately-held Anbang Insurance Group for 219 million euros ($273 million).

Destined to form models of the Burj Khalifa and Tokyo Tower, 90 million toy bricks will be used in new Legoland Parks in Dubai, Japan and Korea by 2017, building blocks in British operator Merlin's (MERL.L) expanding empire.

The global economy is ending the year in a fragile state with factory activity shrinking in China, euro zone business growth remaining weak, and emerging market giant Russia in a spiraling currency crisis.

The ruble plunged more than 10 percent for the second day on Tuesday and recorded its worst fall since the Russian financial crisis in 1998 as confidence in the central bank evaporated after an ineffectual overnight rate hike.

Belgian biotech group Galapagos said on Tuesday that its research partner Janssen Pharmaceutica, a unit of Johnson & Johnson, had pulled out of a program to develop a new drug to treat bowel disease.

Oil fell to just above $59 a barrel for the first time since May 2009 on Tuesday, extending a six-month selloff as slowing Chinese factory activity and weakening emerging-market currencies added to concerns about demand.

Sliding oil prices and a downbeat China factory survey weighed on Asian shares on Tuesday, while the ruble jumped against the dollar after Russia sharply increased its benchmark interest rate in a bid to halt a collapse in its currency.

Activity in China's factory sector contracted in December for the first time in seven months, the latest in a string of weak economic indicators that will intensify calls for more stimulus measures to head off a hard landing.

A U.S. government lawyer faced tough questioning in an appeals court on Monday as he sought to defend a judge's ruling that Apple Inc conspired with five publishers to raise e-book prices.

Corporate lobbyists, news organizations and academics joined forces with Microsoft Corp on Monday in the software company's legal battle with the U.S. government over access to customer data stored overseas.

U.S. President Barack Obama pressed China's Xi Jinping during recent talks on the use of Chinese antitrust policy to limit royalty fees for foreign companies, an issue at the heart of a probe into U.S. mobile chipset maker Qualcomm Inc.

Sony Pictures Entertainment advised its current and former employees to be on the alert for fraudsters looking to use their stolen data, which included detailed personal information.