IBT Staff Reporter

Germans are not known to be a nation of spendthrifts but when it comes to consumer electronics they throw caution to the wind -- much to the delight of exhibitors at Berlin's IFA trade fair starting this week.

Mexican authorities displayed in public a top drug lord on Tuesday whose arrest this week they hope will mark a breakthrough in President Felipe Calderon's bloody campaign against powerful cartels.

The withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan from next July will begin with a general thinning out of forces rather than any large-scale drawdown, the commander of U.S. and NATO forces said on Tuesday.

U.S. safety regulators have opened a preliminary investigation into claims Hyundai Motor Co's best-selling car in America, the Sonata sedan, may have steering problems.

Stocks rose in choppy trading on Tuesday, closing out a weak month for equities as a pair of positive data surprises on the consumer and housing fronts helped ease investor anxiety over the economy's strength.

U.S. consumer confidence rose modestly in August and U.S. homes prices gained more than expected in June, easing some worries the economy is headed for another downturn soon.

Euro zone inflation slowed in August, pointing to steady interest rates well into 2011, but unemployment remains high and uneven across the region, underlining the two-speed recovery, data showed on Tuesday.

Potash Corp said on Tuesday its suitor BHP Billiton has called many of its customers, a move that the fertilizer maker condemned as being inappropriate and highly unethical.

Rival anti-clotting drugs from Bayer and Bristol-Myers Squibb both impressed in clinical trials, keeping them firmly in the race to displace the old, problematic heart drug warfarin.

Former Hewlett-Packard Chief Executive Mark Hurd has not been nominated for reelection

Britain said on Tuesday it would discuss closer military cooperation with France in talks this week, but played down a report that the two countries would share aircraft carriers to save costs.

A growing belief among British investment managers that fears of a renewed economic slump are overblown has halted a five-month decline in allocations to stocks, according to a Reuters poll.

Net lending to British households unexpectedly fell to a four-month low last month after a sharp decline in mortgage lending, reinforcing economists' concerns that tight credit conditions may hamper future growth.

U.S. food maker H.J. Heinz Co said quarterly earnings from continuing operations rose 10 percent, helped by sales growth in emerging markets.

Mediacom Communications Corp said founder and chief executive withdrew his offer to take the cable television operator private after a special board committee rejected his sweetened bid.

Iraq's prime minister said the end of U.S. combat operations on Tuesday restored Iraq's sovereignty and meant it stood as an equal to the United States, despite political deadlock and persistent violence.

The exceptionally dry early summer months in Britain have revealed the ghostly outlines of several hundred previously unknown ancient sites buried in fields across the English countryside.

Consumer confidence rose modestly in August, lifted by a mild improvement in the short-term outlook, according to a private report released on Tuesday.

U.S. stocks rose on Tuesday as a pair of positive data surprises helped alleviate continued investor anxiety over the economy's strength.

Pakistan's top crime investigative agency will send a team to Britain this week to look at corruption allegations against some of the country's cricket players, a senior official said on Tuesday.

The Chinese exchange rate has little role to play in rebalancing bilateral trade with the United States, a senior Chinese central bank official said in comments published on Tuesday.

German unemployment fell in August to its lowest since November 2008, laying the ground for consumers to spend more and adding to evidence that the export-led economy is outstripping its euro zone peers.

Britain's top shares were lower by midday on Tuesday, as U.K. economic data added to uncertainty surrounding the global recovery, with risk-sensitive banks and commodity stocks leading the fallers.

Electric utility Exelon Corp said it will buy Deere & Co's wind power business for about $860 million, expanding its portfolio of carbon-free electricity generation.

World stocks fell on Tuesday in markets dominated by concerns the U.S. economy is sliding back into recession, prompting further flows into safe-haven assets.

Wall Street erased initial gains and moved higher on Tuesday as a string of economic data helped relieve investor anxiety about the strength of the economic recovery.

Sanofi-Aventis is doing everything possible to cajole, pressure and manipulate Genzyme Corp into entering acquisition talks based on its opening offer of $69 a share.

Canada's established telecom carriers must allow smaller Internet providers access to their high-speed fiber networks at the same speed they offer to their own customers, the telecom and broadcast regulator ruled on Monday, but it said they can charge a 10 percent mark-up for doing so.

Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling has donated 10 million pounds ($15.5 million) to set up a new clinic to carry out research into multiple sclerosis , the disease which killed her mother.