Visa Inc. , the world’s biggest payments network, fell as much as 5 percent after saying the U.S. Department of Justice may sue the company over a policy that bars merchants from charging extra to customers who pay with credit cards.

Sony Corp. and Panasonic Corp., the world’s largest consumer-electronics makers, signaled Japanese technology companies are withstanding slowing European demand and the stronger yen after raising their earnings forecasts .

U.K. consumer confidence fell more than economists forecast this month as the prospect of government spending cuts undermined Britons’ optimism on the economic recovery, GfK NOP said.

Rubber futures rose 1.3 percent in July, the first monthly advance since March.

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc., Japan’s biggest bank by market value, reported first-quarter profit that more than doubled, beating analysts’ estimates as bad loan charges fell and bond trading increased.

Thailand’s industrial production growth accelerated in June as exports surged to a record level, adding to signs of Asia’s resilience to the threat of weaker demand from Europe.

Arizona sought an expedited hearing before the U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco in a bid to reinstate provisions of a law requiring police to determine the immigration status of people stopped for questioning.

Alan Shadrake, the British author charged for contempt of court for challenging the integrity and independence of Singapore’s judiciary, said he wouldn’t apologize for his book on the city’s death penalty .

Louisiana reopened some commercial fishing areas that were closed due to BP Plc ’s oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, according to an e-mailed statement from the office of Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal .

T. Boone Pickens , the billionaire energy hedge-fund manager, and Home Depot Inc. , the largest U.S. home-improvement retailer, are winners in energy legislation that fails to help solar-panel and wind-turbine makers.

A mere “bump in the road” is how Governor Janice Brewer described the jolt that a judge delivered this week to Arizona’s new immigration law. Actually, it’s more like a head-banger.

Get Spiritualized at Radio City Music Hall as Jason Pierce and his bandmates recreate their 1997 album “Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space.”

Tim Tebow , the 2007 Heisman Trophy winner, signed with the Denver Broncos in time for the National Football League team’s training camp.