Japan has selected the Lockheed Martin F-35 stealth fighter to bolster its ageing air force and is likely to announce the multibillion-dollar deal by the end of the week, media reports said.

Wall Street ended an erratic session with a modest advance today as investors awaited further signs about the health of the economy.

AT LEAST 128 people were killed when a military transport plane clipped the top of a 10-storey apartment building in Tehran and crashed, gouging out a huge crater and igniting a major fire.

Wall Street extended its November rally with modest gains today despite pressure from rising oil prices and a major restructuring plan at General Motors Corp.

Stocks in the United States stumbled to a mixed finish today as the Federal Reserve kept to its policy of gradual interest rate rises but signalled increased concerns about inflation.

Controversial Dutch Prince Bernhard acknowledged he had two illegitimate daughters – one in France and another, previously unknown, in the United States - in an interview published posthumously today.

A weaker gross domestic product figure and a flurry of late-day trading left stocks widely mixed today, with tech issues and small caps gaining as blue chips suffered. The major indexes all finished the week lower.

Investors received some reassurance about inflation and the economy from Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan today – and sent stocks higher as the market’s interest rates worries ebbed.

Islamic militants who claim to have abducted an American in Saudi Arabia are threatening to torture him in the same way as Iraqi inmates were mistreated in a US-run prison in Baghdad.

Suspected militants have shot dead an American as he parked his car in the garage of his home in the Saudi capital.

A US airport has been named after entertainer Bob Hope.

The girlfriend of a man who shot dead five colleagues at a Mississippi factory interrupted a memorial service by standing up in the church and saying her partner was a victim too.

A gunman has opened fire at a Lockheed Martin aircraft plant in Mississippi today, hitting several people.

THE annual May Day demonstrations got off to a violent start overnight when police clashed with protestors in Berlin and the northern city of Hamburg.

US economic indicators to be released this week will show continued weakness in the overall economy, according to analysts.

Lockheed Martin has won the biggest-ever defence contract to supply Joint Strike Fighters to the US Air Force.

Italy has pulled out of a European programme to build a large military aircraft, the Airbus A400M - a move some say creates uncertainty over the country’s commitment to an integrated European defence industry.

Nasa's solar-powered flying wing has soared past previous altitude records for non-rocket powered aircraft.