`SWEET SPOT': Both the Dow Jones and Standard & Poor's 500 soared to their highest levels in more than three years as US payroll data boosted confidence
A surprisingly strong job creation report energized Wall Street on Friday, propelling stocks sharply higher as investors grew more confident about the economy and corporate earnings. The Dow Jones industrial average and Standard & Poor's 500 index both reached three-and-a-half-year highs on the news.

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With the petroleum industry pumping just barely enough fuel to keep the world's economic engine humming, a buying frenzy on oil markets is setting the stage for sharply higher gasoline prices in the US as early as next week.

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INVESTOR JITTERS: Taiwanese shares ended slightly lower, as declines in technology heavyweights more than offset gains in some old-economy blue chips
Most stock markets finished up across Asia on Friday, with shares on the Japanese bourse closing at an eight-month high amid hopes the economy would pick up soon.

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The US dollar suffered sharp losses on Friday in the wake of the US February payrolls report, with the greenback surrendering its gains from earlier in the week.

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European stock exchanges surged ahead on healthy job creation figures in the US on Friday, with markets in both Paris and Frankfurt scoring substantial gains.

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PAY UP: Parents have been caught in the net as the recording industry agreed settlements with people accused of illegal music downloading
They wouldn't say whether I Fought The Law (And The Law Won) was one of the offending tracks. But British record labels Friday revealed that 23 individuals accused of illegally swapping songs over the internet had agreed to pay out more than £50,000 in court settlements.

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BIG TALK: China's premier made bold predictions about the country's growth over the next five years, while ruling out a possible revaluation of the yuan
China is aiming for 8 percent economic growth in 2005 and will promote robust export increases while maintaining controversial currency controls, Premier Wen Jiabao said yesterday.

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RAID: US marshalls were sent in to plants in Tennessee and Puerto Rico to seize tablets of an antidepressant that the FDA claims is poorly manufactured
Angered by quality-control problems it said had dragged on for more than two years, the Food and Drug Administration used armed federal marshals to seize millions of tablets of two medicines from facilities in Tennessee and Puerto Rico operated by GlaxoSmithKline, the agency said Friday.

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Coca-Cola Co. and PepsiCo Inc. saw their share of the US soft-drink market decline in 2004, according to annual rankings released Friday.

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Just as Brazil and the US try to revive stalled negotiations for a Free Trade Area of the Americas, a stumbling block has emerged for the formation of the world's biggest free trade area: Cuba has asked to become an associate member of the US$727 billion Mercosur trade bloc.

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■ Lighters
Security rules worry Zippo
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