IBT Staff Reporter

Contract activity for pending home sales has risen for six straight months, a pattern not seen in the history of the index since it began in 2001, according to the National Association of Realtors®.

Khosla Ventures said on Tuesday it had raised $1 billion for one for renewable energy and clean technology funds, a sign that skittish investors are hot for climate-change related projects.

Whitney Houston appeared on stage in Central Park on Tuesday on

About one of every five Internet display ads in the United States is viewed on a social networking Web site like MySpace and Facebook, according to a new report.

Oil prices fell nearly 3 percent to $68 a barrel on Tuesday as economic concerns sent investors into safer havens, outweighing positive U.S. manufacturing and home sales data.

Chrysler Group LLC's U.S. sales fell 15 percent to 93,222 units in August due to inventory shortages related to extensive summer shutdowns during its bankruptcy restructuring, a source briefed on the matter said on Tuesday.

Internet auction house EBay Inc plans to sell a majority stake in its online phone unit Skype for $1.9 billion to private investors including Silver Lake, a deal analysts said was worth more than expected but may curb eBay's growth potential.

General Motors Co [GM.UL] posted a 20.2 percent drop in U.S. sales in August from a year earlier, the highest sales of the year, supported by the U.S. government's

Take Africa's peaks: at 5,895m Kilimanjaro - the continent's highest point, the world's highest hiking peak, a visually satisfying snow-topped monolith - steals the show.

Philadelphia will take out a $275 million short-term loan from JPMorgan Chase to pay vendors that have gone without compensation since July because of one of the the worst budget crises in nearly 50 years, Democratic Mayor Michael Nutter said on Tuesday.

Cerberus Capital Management LP on Tuesday dismissed market speculation that some of its hedge funds, which have suffered losses and heavy redemptions, are in danger of default.

The date for DJ AM's funeral is not yet known to the public but speculation is that DJ's remains will be moved to California where he is expected to be buried later this week.

Former Tyco International Ltd Chief Executive Officer Dennis Kozlowski, imprisoned for up to 25 years for stealing from the company, is seeking to be released early.

South Africa declared support for a proposed tie-up between domestic telecoms operator MTN and India's Bharti Airtel on Tuesday, making the complex cash-and-shares deal more likely to succeed.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Monday a broad area of low pressure about 500 miles east of the Lesser Antilles in the Atlantic Ocean had a high chance of becoming the season's next tropical depression during the next 48 hours.

Canada will apply existing foreign ownership laws to PetroChina's bid to buy Canadian oil sands assets but will not introduce further barriers to investing in the country, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said on Tuesday.

Billionaire hedge fund manager John Paulson's big stake in AngloGold Ashanti is a strand of his heavy exposure to gold and not designed to gain from the slim chance of a merger bid.

The European Commission could decide to delay Oracle Corp's $7.4 billion acquisition of Sun Microsystems Inc with less than 48 hours to go before a deadline, two sources familiar with the situation said on Tuesday.

The yen and dollar rose on Tuesday as fears of further U.S. bank failures overshadowed unexpectedly strong U.S. manufacturing data, boosting the two currencies' safe-haven appeal. Major U.S. stock indexes .DJI .SPX .IXIC were down nearly 2 percent in afternoon U.S. trading as investors fretted that chatter from hedge funds on a bank failure could prove accurate.

Oil prices fell below $69 a barrel on Tuesday as economic concerns sent investors into safer havens, outweighing positive U.S. manufacturing and home sales data.

Ford Motor Co's U.S. sales rose 17 percent in August, a second consecutive month of increases, bolstered by the U.S. government's

The island's moving history and resilient people almost stole the show.

The late Tammy Wynette will be inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame at a formal ceremony on October 18, officials said on Tuesday.

The General Motors board of directors will discuss the future of Opel in a telephone meeting on Tuesday, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Belgian finance investor RHJ International raised the stakes in the ongoing bidding war with rival Magna for GM's Opel, a spokesman for RHJ said on Tuesday, confirming a report in a German paper.

Stuttgart prosecutors raided another apartment and confiscated material in connection with a probe of Porsche (PSHG_p.DE) employees, the spokeswoman for the Stuttgart prosecutor's office said Tuesday.

Not many actresses get a career-changing chance at 68.

Musicians from 40 countries gathered in the heart of former Nazi-occupied Poland on Tuesday to mark the outbreak of World War Two with a concert to persuade people making music is better than waging war.

Car makers will not be granted a delay to an agreed 2011 European ban on climate-damaging chemicals in the air conditioners of new car models, European Parliament officials said on Tuesday.