UNITED STATES

U.S. auto sales have been slipping as domestic automakers have struggled to boost sales amid high gas prices this year - a trend that will continue into next year, industry executives and analysts said.

High-level talks to jump start negotiations on a global trade agreement won't be possible until the end of the year or early next year, European Union Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said Monday.

Oil dropped $1 on Monday as OPEC looked set to keep pumping at high rates to ensure world consumers were well supplied despite a 20 percent fall in prices since mid July.

Bristol-Myers Squibb's board faces pressure to show investors it is addressing the fallout from sudden competition to the drug maker's top product and a stock that has lost more than half its value since early 2002

The board of Dutch retailer Ahold is divided over whether the group should spin off key parts of its operation

Shares in Volkswagen fell more than 2 percent on Monday ahead of a vote by German metalworkers union IG Metall on whether to reopen its contract with Europe's biggest carmaker.

The top U.S. trade negotiator said on Sunday before meeting a group of developing nations the United States was committed to a successful outcome of current world trade talks.

Anglo Danish security services firm Group 4 Securicor reported half year core earnings close to market expectations on Monday

After a barrage of lawsuits accusing it of overcharging customers, H&R Block Inc. on Thursday said it will slash fees on loans to people waiting for tax refunds.

Nasdaq International said on Sunday it was focusing on the China market as strong economic growth creates a broad range of companies that are seeking overseas listings.

The FTSE 100 fell on Monday, led by mining and oil stocks as commodity and oil prices dropped.

The top U.S. trade negotiator said on Sunday before meeting a group of developing nations the United States was committed to a successful outcome of current world trade talks.

Unbeknownst to many of her peers, 70-year-old Barbara Sainte-Hilaire, MTV's senior video game correspondent and star of the blog Old Grandma Hardcore, is a sensation in video game circles.

CBS Corp. said on Saturday it would broadcast the documentary 9/11 on the Internet as well as the airwaves after several affiliates said they would delay or forgo the award-winning film because it includes profanity.

DaimlerChrysler's Chrysler Group has decided against a cooperation deal with German car maker Volkswagen to produce a new sub-compact car, a German magazine said on Saturday.

Despite all the dramatic advancements that the mobile entertainment industry has made, there is a still one important ingredient it has not obtained: customers.

A series of scandals at oil giant BP Plc's U.S. operations, has shaken investors' faith in its head John Browne and prompted some to re-examine the record of a man often rated among the world's most respected CEOs.

Fast-growing U.S. social network Web site Facebook said on Friday it has adopted new privacy controls following an unprecedented online backlash over a new feature that let users track their friends online.

Publisher Hachette Filipacchi is testing a new mobile phone strategy with what may be its most colorful U.S. title: Shock magazine, home to photos of nuns practicing taekwondo and a polio-stricken dancing transvestite.

Ford Motor Co.'s new chief executive Alan Mulally will receive $18.5 million in one-time compensation to join the troubled automaker, the company said in a regulatory filing on Friday.

U.S. mortgage lending data show sharp growth in the use of higher-priced non-prime mortgages for home purchases in 2005 over 2004, and even steeper gains in the incidence of such loans among blacks and Hispanics, a Federal Reserve study showed on Friday.