Cyprus is scrambling to overhaul its banking sector to avoid financial meltdown, after the European Central Bank threatened to pull the plug on emergency funding for the island's lenders.

Cyprus is scrambling to overhaul its banking sector to avoid financial meltdown, after the European Central Bank threatened to pull the plug on emergency funding for the island's lenders.

Ratings firm Standard & Poor's dealt a further blow to reeling Cyprus Thursday, cutting its credit rating as the eurozone country struggles to avoid a banking sector meltdown.

Italian President Giorgio Napolitano said he will announce on Friday his decision on who will be asked to form a government after inconclusive elections in the austerity-stricken country and amid rising tensions in the eurozone.

US stocks fell Thursday, hit by uncertainty over the Cyprus banking crisis and some surprisingly weak corporate earnings.

US prosecutors unveiled insider trading charges Thursday against the brother of disgraced hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam in the latest chapter of a giant Wall Street fraud investigation.

Cyprus Thursday was examining an overhaul of its banking sector to avoid financial meltdown after the European Central Bank threatened to pull the plug on emergency funding for the island's banks.

As the EU raised the spectre of a eurozone exit for Cyprus, experts warned on Thursday of the consequences of brinksmanship from Brussels to Moscow in the race to fix new bailout terms.

London shares closed lower on Thursday as traders looked past positive economic data to focus on bleak eurozone news, notably fallout from the Cyprus bailout impasse.

European stock markets slid Thursday as disappointing eurozone data and the Cyprus bailout impasse overshadowed strong Chinese economic performance.

Spain's battered banks predicted Thursday they will turn a profit this year after a "horrific" 2012 in which the overall industry recorded losses for the first time in its history.

The New York Stock Exchange said Thursday it was reviewing the listing of Suntech Power Holding Co.'s US-traded shares after the giant solar-panel maker's main China unit moved into bankruptcy reorganization.

Ireland's bailed-out economy grew by 0.9 percent in 2012 but stagnated in the final quarter of the year, official data for the troubled eurozone nation showed on Thursday.

Spain's borrowing costs dipped in a bond auction Thursday, easing concerns that a feared banking meltdown in Cyprus could scare investors away from other troubled eurozone states.

The European Central Bank warned Thursday it was ready to pull the plug on emergency funding for Cyprus banks as the island's politicians scrambled to raise billions of euros to head off financial meltdown.

European stock markets slid Thursday as traders looked past strong Chinese economic data to focus on bleak eurozone news, notably fallout from the Cyprus bailout impasse.

The Bank of Japan's new governor Haruhiko Kuroda on Thursday pledged "all-out efforts" to rid Japan of growth-sapping deflation as gloomy new trade data underlined the scale of the task ahead.

Cyprus politicians Thursday agreed to set up an investment fund as part of a Plan B to secure a bailout deal with eurozone lenders, while ruling out a tax on bank deposits that sank an earlier deal.

Asian markets were mixed Thursday as Chinese data showing manufacturing activity in the world's number two economy picked up in March, while Tokyo was lifted by renewed weakness in the yen.

Cyprus was on Thursday fine-tuning a "Plan B" aimed at securing a eurozone bailout that the European Central Bank warned should be adopted by the weekend to avoid a banking meltdown on the debt-hit island.