GREENSBORO, North Carolina (Reuters) - Jurors weighing whether former U.S. Senator John Edwards illegally used campaign funds to conceal an extramarital affair when he ran for president headed home on Friday and will resume deliberations next week. A judge let the jury go for the weekend after 5-1/2 hours of discussions. Earlier Friday, jurors asked to review more than a dozen prosecution exhibits. Among the evidence they requested were notes from Rachel "Bunny" Mellon, a wealthy donor to Edwards' campaign, and testimony from her lawyer, Alex Forger. ...

GREENSBORO, North Carolina (Reuters) - Jurors weighing whether former U.S. Senator John Edwards illegally used campaign funds to conceal an extramarital affair when he ran for president headed home on Friday and will resume deliberations next week. A judge let the jury go for the weekend after 5-1/2 hours of discussions. Earlier Friday, jurors asked to review more than a dozen prosecution exhibits. Among the evidence they requested were notes from Rachel "Bunny" Mellon, a wealthy donor to Edwards' campaign, and testimony from her lawyer, Alex Forger. ...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - An Obama administration plan to cut the cost of space flights faces a key test on Saturday when a privately owned rocket lifts off for a practice run aimed at the first private docking at the International Space Station. Space Exploration Technologies' Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule are scheduled for launch at 4:55 a.m. EDT from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Meteorologists expect good conditions for a launch, but if weather or technical problems force a delay, Falcon 9's next opportunity to fly would be on Tuesday. ...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - An Obama administration plan to cut the cost of space flights faces a key test on Saturday when a privately owned rocket lifts off for a practice run aimed at the first private docking at the International Space Station. Space Exploration Technologies' Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule are scheduled for launch at 4:55 a.m. EDT from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Meteorologists expect good conditions for a launch, but if weather or technical problems force a delay, Falcon 9's next opportunity to fly would be on Tuesday. ...

It's Facebook's big day.

(Reuters) - The trustee for MF Global Holdings Inc's brokerage unit said he has received $168 million in cash from JPMorgan Chase & Co , which had been the commodities and futures brokerage firm's main bank prior to its October bankruptcy. James Giddens, the trustee for the MF Global Inc unit, said the money represents proceeds of excess collateral that the largest U.S. bank held when the unit began to liquidate. He said the payment will help his efforts to return money to former MF Global customers, and that he remains in talks with JPMorgan on other claims. An estimated $1. ...

(Reuters) - Solar stocks slumped to fresh lows on Friday as investors continued to punish Chinese solar companies a day after the United States said it would impose new duties on imports from the world's leading solar manufacturer. Suntech Power Holdings was down 4.2 percent, Trina Solar Ltd slid 5 percent and Yingli Green Energy dropped 7.5 percent, extending declines made on Thursday when the U.S. Commerce Department ruled China-based solar companies had violated trade rules and 'dumped' their products in the U.S. at below-market prices. ...

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Brazilian iron ore miner Vale is confident it will win a dispute over taxes the government claims the company owes on earnings abroad, CEO Murilo Ferreira said on Friday. The government has ordered Vale to pay 30.5 billion reais ($15.19 billion) in tax on profits from its foreign subsidiaries. The company said it already paid the taxes to foreign governments and that Brazil's claim is a form of illegal double taxation. Vale, along with other companies and industry associations, is disputing the back taxes in Brazil's highest court. ...

MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish banks' bad loans rose in March to their highest in 18 years, underscoring the problems facing the government as it drafts in independent auditors in an attempt to reassure investors it can clean up the sector. The Bank of Spain said bad loans rose to 8.37 percent of banks' outstanding loans, the highest since August 1994 and up from 8.3 percent in February, which was also revised higher. The data was released before Spain names auditors on Monday to assess how bad the losses are likely to get, and how much cash banks will need to rebuild their balance sheets. ...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Republican Party's fundraising arm working to elect its candidates to the U.S. House of Representatives raised $6.9 million in April, slightly more for the month than its Democratic counterpart. The National Republican Congressional Committee figures released on Friday showed that the NRCC ended last month with $31.3 million left in the bank, adding about $4.2 million to the cash on hand in March. Republicans currently have a majority in the House. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee raised $6. ...

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - For a company that is dramatically upending business strategies and social relationships around the world, Facebook Inc made a surprisingly modest debut on the Nasdaq on Friday as a sky-high valuation and trading glitches capped the stock's rise. In late trading, Facebook shares were only a few cents above the company's initial public offering price of $38, after opening 11 percent higher, rapidly heading south to touch their initial price and then rebounding by several dollars. ...

It's going to take more than Facebook's initial public offering to push the stock market higher.

Facebook is trading up 8 percent Friday, as investors seek to put a dollar value on the company that turned online social networking into a global cultural phenomenon.

Mark Reuss has arguably the most important job at General Motors.

Mitt Romney is on a charm offensive.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - World stocks erased the year's gains on Friday as investors fled risky investments for safe-haven assets on concerns about the euro zone's deepening debt woes, while U.S. stocks lost ground after the market debut of social network Facebook failed to lift optimism. Brent crude briefly slipped below $107 per barrel to its lowest in 2012 as the euro zone crisis raised fears of a global slowdown that could dent oil demand, while German borrowing costs hit record lows. World stocks, as measured by the MSCI index , dropped 1. ...

CHICAGO (Reuters) - An estimated 2,500 people, including hundreds of nurses, protested peacefully in a downtown Chicago plaza under the watchful eye of police Friday, chanting mostly about economic issues that have little to do with the summit of the NATO military alliance starting this weekend. The rally, which Chicago police estimated at about 2,500, was the largest so far in a week of daily protests before representatives from 60 countries arrive for the two-day summit to discuss the war in Afghanistan. ...

CHICAGO (Reuters) - An estimated 2,500 people, including hundreds of nurses, protested peacefully in a downtown Chicago plaza under the watchful eye of police Friday, chanting mostly about economic issues that have little to do with the summit of the NATO military alliance starting this weekend. The rally, which Chicago police estimated at about 2,500, was the largest so far in a week of daily protests before representatives from 60 countries arrive for the two-day summit to discuss the war in Afghanistan. ...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama pressed Europe on Friday to shift toward a more pro-growth policy and away from austerity to tackle a crisis that threatens to push Greece out of the euro zone and send economic shockwaves worldwide. Setting the tone for a weekend G8 summit, Obama made clear he was aligning himself with the new French president's drive for more economic stimulus in the recession-plagued euro zone instead of emphasizing belt-tightening programs spearheaded by Germany. ...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks fell on Friday as investors turned cautious before leaders of the Group of Eight nations met about the euro zone debt crisis and after a shaky market debut by Facebook Inc . The S&P 500 dipped below the 1,300 level, seen as a key support point, for the first time since mid-January, before the meeting by the leaders of the world's major industrial economies near Washington. Leaders will try to confront the continuing crisis in the euro zone, including the increasing likelihood of a Greek departure from the bloc. ...

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German police said they detained 400 anti-capitalist protesters in Frankfurt on Friday for defying a ban on demonstrations against austerity policies implemented to tackle the intensifying euro zone debt crisis. The demonstration in the German financial capital was part of a four-day-long "Blockupy" protest, due to run until Saturday, against capitalism and austerity measures. "Hungry? Eat a banker," read one banner protesters held up outside the Messeturm skyscraper housing Goldman Sachs' offices. Reuters' Frankfurt office is also in the building. ...