UNITED STATES

A gunman shot dead a rival of Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud on Tuesday, dealing a potential blow to a government plan to defeat al Qaeda ally Mehsud.

Powerful tropical storm Andres churned off Mexico's Pacific coast on Monday, threatening to brush past the popular beach resort of Zihuatanejo and was expected to build into a hurricane.

The U.S. government plans to disclose that Ford Motor Co , Tesla Motors Inc and Nissan Motor Co will be among the beneficiaries of a $25 billion loan program created by Congress to help auto makers retool factories for advanced-technology vehicles, the Wall Street Journal said.

Asian stocks tumbled on Tuesday, after falling commodity prices and a sharp drop on Wall Street spooked investors into taking profits and buying the yen on speculation the rapid pace of recovery may not be sustainable.

President Barack Obama will throw his weight behind legislative bids to reform healthcare and cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions on Tuesday in his fourth White House press conference since taking office.

Fewer Americans believe that President Barack Obama's stimulus package will restore the nation to economic health compared to two months ago but most still approve of the job the president is doing, according to a new poll published on Monday.

Visa Inc and MasterCard Inc, the world's largest payment networks, could face lower revenue and pressure on their stock prices amid a push for increased U.S. regulation of credit cards.

The United States and Russia started their third round talks on a new strategic arms reduction pact on Monday in Geneva.

Nokia Siemens Networks and Nortel signed USD$650 million planned acquisition agreement to purchase LTE and CDMA assets.

China will not back away from its July 1 launch date for the controversial anti-pornography computer filter Green Dam Youth Escort, a Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) source said on Monday.

While General Motor is struggling in US, its joint venture in Shanghai has sold its two millionth Buick in China as sales have grown rapidly, the auto giant said on Tuesday.

U.S. billionaire Len Blavatnik filed a lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase on Monday, accusing the bank of mismanaging an investment account that held about $1 billion in assets owned by Blavatnik's industrial holding company, Access Industries.

U.S. firearms maker Smith & Wesson Holding Corp's quarterly profit more than doubled and topped estimates, as demand for its handguns and tactical rifles remained strong.

Corporate sentiment surveys from Germany and Japan showed glimmers of hope on Monday, contrasting with grim global outlooks from the World Bank and Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.

If it were in a position to do so, Al Qaeda would use Pakistan's nuclear weapons in its fight against the United States, a top leader of the group said in remarks aired Sunday.

Stocks suffered their worst one-day loss in two months, dropping the S&P 500 back into negative territory for the year on Monday in a broad-based sell-off, as investors reconsidered the health of the economy.

The percentage of corporate tax returns audited by U.S. collectors fell about 9 percent in 2008 and was down nearly 20 percent from about a decade earlier, an inspector general report released on Monday said.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc needs to make its price-matching policies clearer and stop claiming in a television commercial that viewers can save more than $700 a year buying groceries in its stores, an advertising industry self-regulating group said on Monday.

Detroit's top-selling auto brands, Ford and Chevrolet, have almost eliminated a long-criticized gap with Toyota in new car quality, according to a closely watched survey released on Monday.

Stocks suffered their worst one-day loss in two months, dropping the S&P 500 back into negative territory for the year on Monday in a broad-based sell-off, as investors reconsidered the health of the economy.

Not a lot of goodness and cheer in the real estate industry these days.