UNITED STATES

The Rockefeller Group and Mitsubishi Estate New York have purchased a Washington D.C. office building from Tishman Speyer.

Housing starts and building permits jumped to a 1-1/2 year high in November as demand for rental apartments rose, suggesting the housing market was entering a tentative recovery.

What will it take to get the U.S. economy growing at a faster rate and to stabilize Europe's economy? Courage. The courage to deploy more fiscal stimulus and stabilization funds.

The PS Vita was released in Japan on Dec. 17, and has already sold more than a quarter million units in the first two days available.

Fred Shapiro, a Yale Law School librarian and well-known authority on quotations, just released his sixth-annual list of the most memorable quotations of the year. The top three quotes all deal with statements made by people protesting the income disparity in the U.S. The Occupy Wall Street protesters’ slogan --“We are the 99 percent” – was the list's top quote.

Honda Motor Co <7267.T> expects U.S. sales to jump by 23 percent in 2012 as dealer inventories return to normal levels and the Japanese automaker makes up for lost ground against rivals, executives said.

The $8-billion, multi-year contract provides a big boost to Lockheed, while Japan seeks to replace its aging fleet of Boeing F-4 jets.

Joe Wiesenfelder doesn't blame General Motors for Saab Automobiles' bankruptcy filing. Wiesenfelder, a Cars.com analyst who has been covering the ups and downs of Saab for more than a decade, can understand the backlash, though.

Last week Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke told federal lawmakers that no bailout of Europe was forthcoming and ended a monthly meeting of the central bank’s top decision-making body by pointedly rejecting a new round of quantitative easing. Data released by the Fed reveals that, at least partially, the organization spent the week engaging in exactly those actions.

Gold prices rose Tuesday with other commodities and global equities on unexpected signs the U.S. housing market is turning around and continued improvement in the Eurozone.

Stocks surged more than 2 percent on Tuesday as positive economic data at home and abroad cheered investors after some recent declines, though low volume was seen as exaggerating the market impact.

The Federal Reserve proposed on Tuesday new capital and liquidity rules for the largest banks that would roll out in two phases and not likely go further than international standards.

New York pet owners can now rest at ease - forever -- with their beloved critters.

Army deserters killed by Syrian forces in one of the bloodiest massacres of the country's nine-month uprising as Arab League peace observers set to enter the country.

Research In Motion's sales in the United States fell for a fifth straight quarter in the third quarter even as the BlackBerry maker's overall revenue jumped by $1 billion from a year earlier, a regulatory filing released on Tuesday showed.

Some fans will not be happy.

The U.S. Cabinet comprises the Vice President and the head of fifteen executive departments, the most prominent of which is probably the Secretary of State.

Stocks extended gains on Tuesday, with the Nasdaq rising 3 percent as investors latched onto signs of easing stress in Europe's bond markets as well as positive economic data at home and abroad.

Even though her nude Playboy shoot, which was leaked on the Internet leading up to the magazine's release, is still floating around, Lindsay Lohan shifted gears and put on some clothes for Jag Jeans, for which she was named the new spokes model.

At a time of daily stock-market seizures, weekly bank and sovereign debt downgrades and monthly central bank interventions, most people are seeing the glass half empty, and have forecasted bearish -- if not downright abysmal -- market conditions for next year. A look at some of the more salient predictions.

Roubini said in an article published on the Financial Times Web site that the global problems could materialize, developing into a perfect storm that would involve the U.S. economy.