Business

LONDON (AP) -- World stock markets rose Friday ahead of a U.S. jobs report that could help determine whether the Federal Reserve opts to introduce fresh measures to get the world's largest economy going again....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The unemployment rate may be about to rise again....

BUXTON, N.C. (AP) -- Hurricane Earl roared past the North Carolina Outer Banks early Friday, flooding some parts of the narrow vacation islands and knocking out electricity before driving north at the start of at least 24 hours of stormy, windy weather along the East Coast....

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- U.S. Agriculture Department employees worked full-time at two Iowa egg farms at the center of a salmonella outbreak and massive recall, but two former workers said they ignored complaints about conditions at one site....

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Stark differences exist between the oil platform fire in the Gulf of Mexico and the blast that led to the massive BP spill. Most notably, no one was killed and no crude was gushing into the water, but the distinctions don't end there....

LONDON (AP) -- BP says it has so far spent $8 billion responding to the disastrous oil well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico....

NEW YORK (AP) -- Stock futures inched higher Friday, continuing a rally ahead of the government's monthly employment report....

BANGKOK (AP) -- Oil prices fell below $75 a barrel Friday in Asia as investors awaited a report on U.S. employment that will influence guesses about the strength of future energy demand from the No. 1 economy....

BEIJING (AP) -- China has ordered local leaders to cool a surge in politically sensitive food prices by raising vegetable production amid rising tensions in poor countries over surging food costs....

STOCKHOLM (AP) -- Swedish investment bank Carnegie AB Friday said it will buy competitor HQ Bank AB, which had its banking license revoked by the financial watchdog last week....