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By Abhishek Vishnoi MUMBAI (Reuters) - The BSE Sensex snapped a four-day losing streak to edge higher on Friday, rebounding as Tata Steel surged after its March-quarter operating profit beat analyst estimates and as recently beaten-down blue-chips such as Larsen & Toubro recovered. Sentiment improved after foreign institutional investors extended their record net purchases of Indian stocks to a twenty-sixth consecutive session on Thursday, despite worries the Fed may unwind its stimulus earlier than expected. ...

By Zorianna Kit LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Wikileaks founder Julian Assange may claim to be a champion of transparency, but when an Oscar-winning filmmaker wanted to shine a light on his rise to fame after publishing secret U.S. diplomatic cables on his website, Assange was none too pleased. Alex Gibney set out to uncover the story behind Assange, 41, and the website he founded in 2006 to leak classified information submitted by anonymous sources, but received little cooperation from the former computer hacker. ...

By Terril Yue Jones and Sui-Lee Wee BEIJING (Reuters) - A North Korean envoy told China's president on Friday that his reclusive country was willing to take "positive actions" to ensure peace and stability on the Korean peninsula, as China steps up diplomatic efforts to bring Pyongyang back to talks. Choe Ryong-hae, a special envoy of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, met Chinese officials, including President Xi Jinping, in the highest-ranking visit by an official from Pyongyang in about six months. But Choe made no new offer to abandon the North Korea's nuclear programme. ...

By Yantoultra Ngui KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysian billionaire Vincent Tan is exploring an IPO of British soccer team Cardiff City for as early as this year, people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters, in a deal that would follow the team's recent promotion to the Premier League. The process is in its early stages, the people said, with details on the timing, size and listing venue subject to change. A listing would come after Manchester United Plc's debut on the New York Stock Exchange last year, which raised $233.2 million in the largest sports team IPO ever. ...

By Douglas Busvine MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's leading online social network was briefly banned on Friday, in a move dismissed as a "mistake" but which follows intensifying official pressure on the company as President Vladimir Putin consolidates his power. VKontakte (www.vk.com), Europe's largest homegrown social network with 210 million registered users, was put overnight on a "black list" of sites barred from distributing content inside Russia. Hours later, the ban was lifted. ...

By Richard Hubbard LONDON (Reuters) - World share markets looked vulnerable to further falls on Friday, with better economic news from Europe doing little to encourage investors who are worried that central bank stimulus may curtailed. MSCI's world equity index, which shed 1.4 percent for its second biggest daily loss of the year on Thursday, was virtually unchanged, with losses in Europe cancelling out a rise of nearly one percent in Japan's turbulent Nikkei. ...

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Indian gold futures edged lower on Friday as a strong rupee offset gains in the world market, while demand was lacklustre in the physical market after many weeks of hectic buying. "We are entering into a lean season in India, so physical buyers will be on the sidelines as we have seen huge buying in April and May," said a trader with a private-run bank. ...

By Mike Collett LONDON (Reuters) - UEFA president Michel Platini renewed his call for the formation of a European sports police force on Friday, telling delegates at the opening of the UEFA Congress he was upset that his appeal for one had been ignored for six years. "Six years ago now, in response to...problems of betting, corruption and match-fixing, as well as the problems of hooliganism and doping, I called for the establishment of a European sports police force," Platini said. "There has been no response to those calls so far. ...

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Shares in Wockhardt Ltd plummeted as much as 19.3 percent on Friday to their lowest since August 2012, continuing to reel for the second day, after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration imposed an "import alert" on a plant operated by the generic drugmaker. Wockhardt shares had already slumped by their daily limit of 20 percent on Thursday on the U.S. FDA action. An "import alert", effectively a ban, results in detention without physical examination of drugs from firms that have not met so-called good manufacturing practices, according to the FDA website. ...

By Yoshiyuki Osada OSAKA, Japan (Reuters) - Two elderly South Korean women forced to work in Japanese war-time military brothels cancelled a meeting on Friday with the mayor of the city of Osaka after he refused to withdraw remarks asserting the brothels were "necessary" at the time. The mayor of Osaka, Toru Hashimoto, an outspoken populist who has often stirred controversy, sparked a storm of criticism at home and abroad when he said last week that the military brothels had been needed, and Japan has been unfairly singled out for wartime practices common among other militaries. ...

REUTERS - Former Giro d'Italia winner Danilo Di Luca has been provisionally suspended after testing positive for the banned blood booster erythropoietin (EPO), the International Cycling Union (UCI) said on Friday. Italian Di Luca, who had a previous positive for the same banned substance in 2009, failed an out-of-competition test taken on April 29 at his home, five days before the start of this year's Giro. The 37-year-old Di Luca, who joined the Vini-Fantini team last month, won the Liege-Bastogne-Liege classic and the Giro in 2007. ...

MUMBAI (Reuters) - The Reserve Bank of India plans to allow exporters and importers to rebook and cancel up to 50 percent of their total hedged exposure from the present cap of 25 percent, Executive Director G. Padmanabhan said in a speech in Singapore on Friday. Padmanabhan did not explain why the RBI was contemplating taking this measure. In July RBI had allowed only exporters to cancel and rebook forward contracts up to 25 percent of hedged exposure. ...

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran denied on Friday it had forces in Syria supporting President Bashar al-Assad's army, one day after foreign backers of his rebel foes demanded Tehran withdraw its fighters from Syrian territory. "The true enemies of Syria make up these accusations to provoke the people of this country," Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Araqchi said, quoted by Iranian state television. At a meeting in Jordan on Thursday, the Friends of Syria grouping of Western and Arab governments called for the immediate withdrawl from Syria of Iranian fighters and Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas. ...

Ranchi, May 24 (IANS) Former Jharkhand chief minister Madhu Koda, allegedly at the centre of a Rs.2,500 crore money laundering scam, surrendered in a court here Friday after his bail period ended and was sent to 14 days in judicial custody.

Beijing, May 24 (IANS) President Xi Jinping Friday reaffirmed China's stance of denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula while stressing that targets should be met by all parties involved irrespective of how the situation evolved.

Mumbai, May 24 (IANS) Costume designer Neerushaa, who has been designing for the television industry for the last 12 years, talks about lack of freedom as they have to "go though many people" and admits it is "much harder" to work for TV projects.

Mumbai, May 24 (IANS) Actors Arjun Rampal and Irrfan, who play RAW agents in Nikhil Advani's forthcoming thriller "D-Day", trained with Hollywood stunt director Tom Struthers for real action sequences in the film. Arjun calls him the "backbone" of the movie.

Chennai, May 24 (IANS) Gurunath Meiyappan, the chief of IPL franchise Chennai Super Kings and son-in-law of Indian cricket board president N. Srinivasan, is expected to appear before Mumbai police Friday evening.

Mumbai, May 24 (IANS) Actor Abhishek Bachchan, an avid football fan, wishes that the Indian football team qualifies for the FIFA finals slated for 2014.

Mumbai, May 24 (IANS) Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan will narrate a part of the opening episode of forthcoming show "Bharat Ka Veer Putra - Maharana Pratap".

Mumbai, May 24 (IANS) Preity Zinta's debut production "Ishkq in Paris", which released this Friday, has managed to touch the hearts of film industry members like Shabana Azmi and Javed Akhtar. Preity was delighted with their presence at the movie's premiere.

Bangkok, May 24 (IANS) Five Thai soldiers were killed and one was injured in a roadside bomb explosion in a Thai province of Pattani Friday. The rangers were returning to their base in their pick-up truck after duty at a Buddhist temple.

Los Angeles, May 24 (IANS) There's no ill-will between singer John Mayer's former girlfriends Taylor Swift and Katy Perry.

Kolkata, May 24 (IANS) As the Indian Premier League (IPL) spot fixing scam gets messier with links to film personalities becoming public, West Bengal's celluloid celebs Friday expressed disgust at the scandal, calling it a "big crime" and "not acceptable at all." But there were also calls for legalising betting.

Washington, May 24 (IANS) The interest of teenagers is moving away from social networking platform Facebook, and they prefer "parent-free" platforms, according to a survey.

Lucknow, May 24 (IANS) Of the 89 government properties allotted by the Uttar Pradesh government here to various organisations and individuals, 27 are being illegally occupied, according to an estate department reply to a Right to Information (RTI) query.