British engineers head to Tenerife to test systems they hope will keep a European rover trundling across the rocky landscape of Mars. Read more…

Technology companies are being encouraged to think more about how to make gadgets easy to use. Read more…

Aston Barrett, the bassist from Bob Marley's band The Wailers, loses his legal battle for Ј60m in unpaid royalties. Read more…

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Verizon Communications said Friday it does not and will not provide any government agency unfettered access to customer records, responding to a report that it was one of three U.S. telephone companies that had given access to data on millions of consumers.USA Read more…

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - Time Warner announced a deal Friday to buy the half of Court TV that it doesn't already own from partner Liberty Media for $735 million.The network, which reaches 86 million homes, will become part of Turner Broadcasting. Read more…

BOSTON (Dow Jones) - Federated Investors Inc., a company known for money- market funds, said Friday it will pay up to $240 million to acquire MDT Advisers, which uses mathematical models to pick stocks.Cambridge, Mass .-based MDT Advisers, a unit of MDTA LLC, manages about $7.1 billion . Read more…

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - The light at the end of the tunnel continues to be elusive for Enron founder Kenneth Lay who could find himself spending life in prison even if he is acquitted by a jury for allegations that he helped bring about Enron's collapse.With closing arguments in the Read more…

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Brooks Automation Inc., a maker of equipment and software used to make microchips, said Friday that the Securities and Exchange Commission had opened an informal inquiry into its stock option practices.It also said the Nasdaq Stock Market has threatened to delist Read more…

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Japanese Web and telecom conglomerate Softbank Corp. is working with Apple Computer Inc. to develop mobile telephones with built-in iPod music players, Nikkei reported Friday.The music-playing phones can download songs from Apple's iTunes Music Store, The Read more…

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - The Senate on Thursday passed a GOP-supported final tax reconciliation bill that extends the reduced tax rates on capital gains and dividends, and prevents millions of households from falling prey to the alternative minimum tax (AMT) in 2006.The bill also Read more…

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican broadcaster Televisa has joined an investment firm owned by Bill Gates and four other private equity companies to explore a bid for U.S. Spanish language broadcaster Univision.Univision ( Read more…

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Former Tyco International Inc. chief executive Dennis Kozlowski will pay $21.2 million to settle a New York state tax case, Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morganthau said Friday.Kozlowski will pay $3.2 million in taxes, fines and penalties, in connection with Read more…

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - GlaxoSmithKline added the increased risk of suicide for young adults to its Paxil label this week, but the antidepressant is past its prime in terms of sales so it's unlikely to hurt the drugmaker."If this had happened 7 or 8 years it would have sent the stock Read more…

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Allstate Floridian, a unit of Allstate Corp. said Friday it would allow newly-formed Royal Palm Insurance Co. to offer property insurance coverage to 120,000 of its customers in Florida .Royal Palm will provide property coverage through more than 900 Allstate agencies Read more…

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. consumer sentiment plunged to a seven-month low in May, with a cut in current conditions and consumer expectations as high energy prices took its toll on consumers' moods, a report showed Friday.The University of Michigan's preliminary May index of consumer Read more…

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil fell more than a dollar Friday after two widely watched reports signaled that soaring energy costs were buckling consumer confidence and curbing global fuel consumption.Crude for June delivery last traded down $1.27 at $72.05 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Read more…

Judges uphold a law barring Arab Israelis from living with West Bank spouses and children in Israel itself. Read more…

China risks more tension with the Vatican by installing another bishop without Holy See approval. Read more…

At least 12 people die as a series of bomb blasts rocks Baghdad, in the latest wave of Iraqi violence. Read more…

Villagers defy the danger of Indonesian volcano Mount Merapi, saying they must tend their livestock and crops. Read more…

Iran says it will reject any offer to resolve the row over its nuclear work that obliges it to halt peaceful activities. Read more…

Riots break out in 18 prisons after a wave of attacks in Sao Paulo, Brazil, leave at least 30 people dead. Read more…

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is to arrive in the UK, but will not meet Prime Minister Tony Blair. Read more…

Soccer champions Dinamo Zagreb will donate their final match proceeds to help Croatian war crimes suspects. Read more…

Four men wanted over a series of suicide bombings in a Sinai resort hand themselves in, police say. Read more…