By Ian Chua SYDNEY (Reuters) - Asian stocks fell to one-month lows on Friday and the yen rebounded broadly as extreme volatility in the Nikkei kept investors on edge. The Nikkei has soared nearly 70 percent since November, off the back of aggressive fiscal and monetary policies to revive the economy, leaving the market susceptible to profit taking. It fell more than 7 percent on Thursday after Chinese data raised doubts about the health of the global economy, but it found support on Friday from investors looking for bargains. ...

By Jessica Wohl (Reuters) - Procter & Gamble Co on Thursday brought back A.G. Lafley to run the world's largest household products maker, replacing Bob McDonald immediately in the midst of a major restructuring. Lafley is taking on the roles of chairman, president and chief executive officer, effective immediately, while McDonald is set to retire on June 30 after 33 years at P&G. The move comes as some investors have pushed for faster improvements from the maker of Tide detergent and Gillette razors. P&G unveiled a $10 billion restructuring program in February 2012. ...

By William Mallard TOKYO (Reuters) - This week's turbulence in Tokyo markets exposes a key risk of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's all-in strategy to revive Japan's economy - if investor confidence falters, the government and the Bank of Japan may be left with few options to turn the tide. On Friday, the Nikkei share average had another tumultuous session, traversing a 7.1 percent range between positive and negative territory before ending up 0.9 percent. The violent moves kept investors on edge after a 7. ...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. regulators are in the early stages of an antitrust probe into whether Google Inc, the top player in Web display advertising, breaks antitrust law in how it handles some advertising sales, a source told Reuters on Thursday. The source said that it was unlikely that the Federal Trade Commission had sent out civil investigative demands in relation to the probe, which would be the sign of a formal and more serious investigation. ...

By Andrew Callus LONDON (Reuters) - A group of accountancy professors is backing BP's fight to cap the U.S. oil spill compensation payouts it has to fund as the cash outflow threatens to add billions of dollars to its bill for the disaster. The news comes after the payouts administrator, Patrick Juneau, predicted that over 200,000 claims may be made in total by businesses and individuals under a settlement BP agreed last year - a level that could result in a charge against the oil company's profits as early as next year. ...

By James Pomfret HONG KONG (Reuters) - Three men were charged on Friday in a Hong Kong court with possessing false documents including a check for $460 million in connection with an investigation into the city's shuttered Hong Kong Mercantile Exchange. The exchange, which operated a trading platform for gold and silver futures, surrendered its license to the Securities and Futures Commission at the weekend, saying it did not have enough trading revenues to support its operating expenses. ...

By William Schomberg CARDIFF (Reuters) - A Bank of England policymaker said on Friday he favored small additional amounts of bond purchases over time, but not a hard-to-manage commitment to longer-term stimulus like that of the U.S. Federal Reserve. "I don't think I want to get into the American position of saying it is indefinite and then stopping," said Paul Fisher, one of the British bank's rate-setters. "I think the Americans are finding it a bit hard - as we have seen recently - to get out, because they have got this indefinite horizon. ...

By Michelle Sierra NEW YORK (Reuters) - Activist investor Carl Icahn and Southeastern Asset Management Inc have initiated talks with banks and asset managers to line up commitments for as much as $7 billion in bridge loans to back their leveraged recapitalization proposal for Dell Inc, banking sources told Thomson Reuters LPC on Thursday. Jefferies & Co is leading the deal. Icahn and Southeastern are looking to lock in the financing before Dell shareholders meet in July to vote on a rival take-private offer from CEO Michael Dell and Silver Lake Partners. ...

By Sarah Marsh BERLIN (Reuters) - Robust private consumption helped Germany eke out meager growth in the first quarter, compensating for declines in both exports and investment, and is likely to remain a pillar of support for Europe's largest economy this year. Germany's gross domestic product (GDP) rose by 0.1 percent on the quarter and shrank by 1.4 percent on the year, final seasonally adjusted data from the Statistics Office confirmed. Private consumption added 0.4 percentage points to GDP, while gross capital investment deducted 0.3 points. Foreign trade added 0. ...

By Angela Moon NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks slipped on Thursday but finished sharply off their session lows as a rally in Hewlett-Packard's shares offset worries about weak Chinese manufacturing data and the prospects of the Federal Reserve reducing its monetary stimulus. Trading was choppy as many traders were adjusting their positions ahead of the long holiday weekend. Markets will be closed on Monday for Memorial Day. Hewlett-Packard shares jumped more than 17 percent to a fresh 52-week high a day after the world's largest PC maker raised its outlook. ...