GERMANY

Global miner Rio Tinto plans to sell 13 aluminum assets, trimming the business it expanded with the badly timed $39 billion acquisition of Alcan four years ago as it tries to boost the division's performance, it said on Monday.

The chief public finance official of the world's largest economy said Sunday that he sees a ray of light in Europe's most recent effort to stop its sovereign debt crisis. U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, while attending a Group of Twenty (G20) meeting in Paris, said he is encouraged by the latest effort to address the crisis.

Greece's debt crisis cannot be solved without larger write downs on Greek debt and governments are trying to persuade banks to accept this, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said on Sunday, just days ahead of a key EU summit.

Greece's debt crisis cannot be solved without a write-down on Greek debt, and this would likely have to be larger than the write-down considered this Summer, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told German broadcaster ARD on Sunday.

G20 finance ministers and central bank governors put strong pressure on euro zone leaders at a two-day meeting in Paris to come up with a convincing solution to the bloc's debt crisis and avert the risk of a fresh global recession.

Germany's private banks called for euro zone policymakers to finally accept that Greece is insolvent and also pressed for rules that would force lenders to set aside capital on their balance sheets for government bonds, a magazine reported.

Greece could use state-owned real estate assets as collateral for new bonds to raise more than 100 billion euros ($138.7 billion), under a proposal put forward by a leading Greek think-tank and a former conservative minister.

Thousands of people protested outside the European Central Bank (ECB) headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany, on Saturday in solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Greece is not able to pay back its current debts even over the course of generations, according to Andreas Schmitz, president of BdB, a German bank lobbying group.

The world's leading economies kept pressure firmly on Europe to sort out its debt crisis on Saturday with the sense of urgency to be reflected in a communique at the end of a G20 finance chiefs' meeting.

The world's leading economies kept the pressure firmly on Europe to sort out its debt crisis on Saturday with the sense of urgency to be reflected in a communique at the end of a G-20 finance chiefs' meeting.

It was 68 degrees by 8:00 in the morning Friday, but the loyal fans who had lined up outside the Apple Store at 1 Stockton Street in San Francisco had already braved (slightly) less hospitable temperatures.

A key battle in the smartphone patent wars may come down to underpants for toddlers. Well, at least, a case involving underpants for toddlers.

From last Tuesday, U.S. stocks have jumped about 10 percent. This rally, however, may be as fragile as late baseball great Mickey Mantle, according to Keith McCullough of Hedgeye Risk Management.

The state-run Korean Central News agency, which acts as the mouthpiece of the North Korean government, has released a report about the Occupy Wall Street protests that is actually a reasonable account of the movement.

The International Monetary Fund may need a capital injection of about $350 billion to give it more firepower to fight economic crises, an emerging market G20 source said on Friday.

Despite Microsoft's initial announcement in May of acquiring Skype for $8.5 billion, the deal was finally sealed on Friday after both companies received approval from the European Commission.

Germany's SAP , the world's biggest maker of business software, reported a jump in its third quarter sales and profits, sending its shares 2 percent higher on Friday.

Apple opened the floodgates of iPhone 4S on Friday, at 8 a.m. local time in US, UK, Canada, France and Germany following Japan and Australia in rolling out the company's flagship phone in retail stores.

Stock index futures rose on Friday, shrugging off a credit rating downgrade of Spain, led by optimism the euro zone will continue to make progress toward a solution to its debt crisis.

Oct 14 - Germany's SAP , the world's biggest maker of business software, reported a jump in its third quarter sales and profits, sending its shares more than 3 percent higher on Friday.