UNITED KINGDOM

Interest in U.S. real estate by international buyers declined due to the worldwide recession and severe credit crunch, according to the 2009 National Association of Realtors Profile of International Home Buying Activity.

British star Clive Owen has specialized in playing macho men in two decades of movies and television: tough, taciturn and unshaven, with long stares from smoldering gray-green eyes.

Lotus, one of the most successful and glorious names from Formula One's past, will return next year with a Malaysian-owned team replacing BMW-Sauber as the 13th entry on the starting grid.

Lloyds Banking Group topped the list for complaints to a consumer watchdog in the first half of the year with payment protection insurance drawing over a quarter of all cases in the finance sector.

Italian engineering company Trevi Finanziaria Industriale's order portfolio could rise to 1.2 billion euros ($1.7 billion) by the end of the year, driven by emerging markets, its CFO said on Tuesday.

Real estate equity funds dominated Lipper's ranking of top-performing funds in August, as expectations of an impending property market recovery prompted a rally in European property stocks. Of the top 20 UK-registered equity funds ranked by fund tracker Lipper, a unit of Thomson Reuters, 11 were real estate funds of which nine are invested in the UK or Europe.

German carmaker Opel needs to cut capacity and workforce quickly to return to profitability, but any decision on restructuring the company would not be driven by political considerations, Opel Chairman Carl-Peter Forster said on Tuesday.

Cash-strapped South Korean automaker Ssangyong Motor (003620.KS) proposed a capital writedown on Tuesday that would slash the stake of SAIC Motor (600104.SS), its Chinese majority shareholder.

Capital One Financial Corp's U.S. credit-card defaults fell in August, reinforcing signs that, despite job losses and the housing crisis, American consumers may not be in as bad shape as feared.

Climate change could cost some countries up to 19 percent of their gross domestic product by 2030, a panel including major insurance, banking and consulting companies as well as the European Commission said on Monday.

The Australian Dollar opens on Tuesday at 0.8610. In early domestic trade yesterday, the Aussie moved swiftly beneath US86 cents as local equities opened under pressure after a soft lead from Wall Street last Friday. Given the recent rapid rise of the Australian Dollar, part of the move back down can be attributed to profit taking after a sustained period of one-way price action. During overnight trade, the unit moved between a low of 0.8543 and a high of 0.8630.

The Australian Dollar opens on Tuesday at 0.8610. In early domestic trade yesterday, the Aussie moved swiftly beneath US86 cents as local equities opened under pressure after a soft lead from Wall Street last Friday.

Magna (MGa.TO) will cut about 10,500 Opel jobs in Europe, the bulk in Germany, as it acts to return the carmaker to profit and pay back 4.5 billion euros ($6.55 billion) in state aid, its co-chief executive said.

Sprint Nextel Corp shares jumped 14 percent on speculation that the No. 3 U.S. mobile service might be bought by Deutsche Telekom even as many analysts said such a deal would be very difficult to pull off.

A new wave of documentaries at this year's Toronto International Film Festival poses a disturbing question: is environmental and social disaster on a global scale imminent and perhaps inevitable?

The dollar fell against the euro on Monday, erasing earlier gains, as investors looked past a United States versus China trade dispute and took on more risk. U.S. stocks pared losses .N, illustrating higher risk appetite and reducing safe haven demand for the dollar, as investors stuck to the theme of recent months of changes in risk tolerance driving dollar action.

Poverty is as a strong a predictor of premature death today as it was a century ago, according to findings from a study in England and Wales.

Dili's gleaming new Presidential Palace and Foreign Ministry, gifts from China, stand in stark contrast to nearby burned-out buildings and are symbols of how the energy-hungry superpower is growing closer to tiny, oil-rich East Timor.

Iran and world powers seeking to resolve a dispute over Tehran's nuclear program will start talks on October 1, in what a senior U.S. official described as an important first step.

British bid target Cadbury is set to beef up its defense against Kraft this week as CEO Todd Stitzer addresses investors and it ponders an early third-quarter update, analysts and fund managers said.

Wall Street slipped on Monday as a decision by the United States to impose special duties on Chinese tires sparked concerns about a possible trade dispute.