Asian markets were mixed in nervous trade Friday as European leaders put back a final plan to contain the Eurozone sovereign debt crisis.

A rift between France and Germany over how to boost the continent's rescue fund made it unlikely a summit on Sunday would end in a solid deal, leading the 17-nation bloc to announce a second meeting would be held Wednesday.

Austerity measures in Greece which have sparked violent protests are nevertheless the "best" way for the country to recover from its desperate debt crisis, Europe's central bank chief said Friday.

"The measures that are taken are the best way to put progressively the people of Greece in a better situation, both in terms of growth and in terms of jobs," Jean-Claude Trichet, the outgoing European Central Bank (ECB) president, said in Warsaw on Friday.

As grime-covered men emerge from deep shafts on the Philippines' "golden mountain", Norie Palma eagerly prepares to haggle for her share of ore from the weary miners.

The former laundrywoman turned gold buyer directs the procession to her small milling shack amid grunts from the miners whose backs are stooped under the weight of their hauls from the dangerous honeycomb tunnels of Mount Diwata.

The death of Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi eases the specter of a fully fledged insurgency that could disrupt oil production for years to come, energy analysts said Thursday.

Experts said news of Gadhafi's death would have little immediate impact on the price of oil, but removed a threat that had been hanging over future prices.

LinkedIn Corp. on Thursday launched its online professional networking service in Japanese, the first Asian language platform for the rapidly growing company as it pushes to expand in the region.

Mountain View, California-based LinkedIn also established a small Tokyo office, following the opening of its Asia-Pacific headquarters in Singapore in May.

U.S. stock futures edged higher Thursday after the government said that the number of people who applied for unemployment benefits dipped slightly last week.

The Labor Department said that first-time applications for unemployment dropped 6,000 to a seasonally adjusted 403,000. The number was in line with Wall Street's estimates, but still above the 375,000 claims a week that economists say signals a healthy jobs market.

South Korea's Hyundai Motor on Thursday unveiled a revamped and fuel-efficient version of its i30 compact car to better compete with European models such as Volkswagen's Golf.

Hyundai said it aims to sell 215,000 units of the i30 hatchback next year, including 25,000 at home and 190,000 abroad, as part of its push to secure a bigger share of the premium sub-compact car market.

Japan's Panasonic is to sharply scale down its money-losing television business and cut more than 1,000 jobs, Japanese media reported on Thursday.

The leading electronics manufacturer plans to cease production of plasma panels at its No. 3 plant in Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture, by March, according to Jiji Press, Kyodo News, the Yomiuri Shimbun and NHK.

The U.S. Embassy and the Lebanese Standards Institution (LIBNOR) on Wednesday celebrated the opening of the Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) Enquiry Point for Lebanon at the Metropolitan Hotel in Sin-el-Fil.

The Enquiry Point, a prerequisite for World Trade Organization (WTO) accession, increases transparency and global accessibility to Lebanese trade regulations and facilitates trade operations.

Italian authorities seized 245 million Euros ($338.5 million) fromUnicredit, Italy's largest bank, on suspicion of tax evasion in 2007 and 2008, judicial and Unicredit sources said on Wednesday.

According to the sources, executives from Unicredit, including former head Alessandro Profumo, and British bank Barclays are under investigation in an operation dubbed "Brontos".