WASHINGTON (AFP) ― Facebook secretly manipulated the feelings of 700,000 users to understand “emotional contagion” in a study that prompted anger and forced the social network giant on the defensive.For one week in 2012, Facebook tampered with the algorithm used to place posts into users’ news feeds to study how this affected their mood, all without their explicit consent or knowledge.The researchers wanted to see if the number of positive or negative words in messages the users read determined

Argentina is poised to miss a bond payment, putting the country on the brink of its second default in 13 years, after a U.S. court blocked the cash from being distributed until the government settles with creditors from the previous debt debacle. The nation has a 30-day grace period after missing the $539 million debt payment to seek an accord with a group of defaulted bondholders led by billionaire Paul Singer’s NML Capital Ltd. and prevent a default on its $28.7 billion of performing global do

SHANGHAI (AFP) ― China’s central bank said it has signed agreements for yuan clearing arrangements with France and Luxembourg, with the aim of promoting greater use of its currency overseas.The People’s Bank of China said it would designate Chinese banks as the yuan clearing institutions in the two European countries later, according to statements issued on Sunday.China earlier this month named the Bank of China as the clearing bank for yuan dealings in Frankfurt, Germany, and the China Construc

WASHINGTON (AFP) ― Developing economies are increasingly hurt by the way global corporations exploit taxation differences and move profits to low-tax locations, according to an International Monetary Fund report Wednesday.But few countries can protect themselves in a competition for direct investment that increasingly appears like a “race to the bottom” in setting corporate tax rates, the IMF said.Moreover, companies are increasingly able to shift and relocate more intangible assets ― like intel

WASHINGTON (AFP) ― U.S. consumer confidence increased for the second straight month in June to its highest level since January 2008, when the U.S. economy was sinking into recession, The Conference Board reported Tuesday.The consumer confidence index rose to 85.2, up from 82.2 the previous month, with consumers more positive about the outlook for the labor market and holding greater expectations overall for the next six months.“Expectations regarding the short-term outlook for the economy and jo

VIENNA (AFP) ― Coinciding with a visit to Vienna by Russian President Vladimir Putin, Russian energy giant Gazprom on Tuesday signed a deal with Austria’s OMV approving the EU country’s section of the controversial South Stream pipeline.The crisis in Ukraine has made the planned pipeline bringing Siberian gas to the European Union ― bypassing Ukraine ― a new focus of tensions between Moscow, Brussels and Washington.EU member Bulgaria earlier this month said it was suspending work on building its

NEW YORK (AFP) ― Business software giant Oracle said Monday it was buying rival Micros Systems for $5.3 billion in a deal to expand its big data efforts in key retail sectors.The acquisition is the biggest for Oracle since buying Sun Microsystems in a deal announced in 2009 and closed in 2010.The all-cash takeover comes from Oracle’s $39 billion cash stockpile and comes after the software giant founded by Larry Ellison produced disappointing results over the past quarter.“Oracle has successfully

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) ― Yahoo on Monday ramped up its move to mobile, grabbing for Android smartphone home screens with an Aviate application tuned to where people are.Yahoo bought Aviate early this year in a deal reported to be valued at about $80 million dollars. The software was subsequently honed with a test group.An English language version of Aviate for handsets powered by Google-backed Android software made its global debut on Monday, in a move to give new prominence to Yahoo on the smartph