UNITED STATES

Payrolls could give the U.S. stock market some direction this week as investors comb through the key report on one of the economy's weakest areas.

Calpers, the biggest U.S. public pension fund, will review its assumed actuarial rate of return of 7.75 percent and will make a recommendation to its board whether to lower it in December, a spokesman said on Sunday.

Friday's private sector credit data out of Australia gave the Aussie dollar a boost from 0.8880 to send it above the 89 cent level heading into the European session.

Prudential's bid to buy American International Group's Asian life unit is a bet against Asian stock markets as falling share prices across the region would make the alternative of listing the business in Hong Kong less attractive.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton flies to Latin America on Sunday, working to buff a lackluster U.S. image in a region where Brazil is emerging as a regional power with global aspirations.

Prudential , Britain's largest insurer, is in advanced talks to buy the Asian arm of American International Group in a deal worth about $35.5 billion, sources familiar with the matter said on Saturday.

Toyota Motor Corp said its president would hold a news conference in Beijing on Monday as the automaker looks to limit the damage from a massive global recall on the fast-growing Chinese market.

The 8.8 magnitude earthquake that hit Chile early Saturday released 500 times more energy than the quake that hit Haiti on January 12, a scientist at the U.S. Geological Survey said.

Tesoro Corp , a petroleum refiner and operator of the 94,000 bpd refinery in Kapolei, Hawaii, said on Saturday it is monitoring the tsunami alerts prompted by the massive earthquake in Chile and will take the steps deemed necessary.

Warren Buffett defended his issuance of $10.6 billion of Berkshire Hathaway Inc stock as part of this month's acquisition of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp -- even as he admitted that issuing stock is as much fun as preparing for a colonoscopy.

After surviving a minute of edge-of-your-seat terror, Canada got the happy ending they desperately craved -- a gold medal ice hockey game against the United States to cap off the Vancouver Olympics.

Italy's Giuliano Razzoli whooshed through sleet and fog to lead in the first run of a tricky men's slalom race on Saturday that tripped up nearly half the racers including Olympic comeback kid Bode Miller.

President Barack Obama said Saturday he is willing to enact health care industry reforms without the support of Republican lawmakers, two days after a televised summit in Washington brought together top politicians to discuss the issue.

One of the most powerful earthquakes in decades battered Chile on Saturday, killing at least 147 people, knocking down buildings and triggering a tsunami that rolled menacingly across the Pacific.

President Barack Obama warned U.S. citizens in the West Coast to prepare for the possible tsunami that is forecasted to hit Hawaii at 1.19 pm PST.

While I can't say I'm happy about the prospects for more deflation, I am happy about Bloomberg's recent interactive article U.S. Not Out of the Deflation Woods Just Yet (www.bloomberg.com, February 23, 2010).

Crude oil broke through the $80 a barrel ceiling repeatedly during the week but kept falling back as hedge funds placed big bets on the Euro's decline. The fiscal drama in Greece held global markets hostage much of the week as worries about the impact of the Greek crisis on the euro outweighed comments from Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke about continued low interest rates in the U.S., pushing the euro down against the dollar and damping crude prices.

Prudential , Britain's largest insurer, is in advanced talks to buy the Asian arm of U.S. giant AIG , in what could be one of the largest overseas deals to date for a UK firm, sources familiar with the discussions said on Saturday.

A suicide car bomber killed three policemen and a child on Saturday in an attack on a police station in a northwestern Pakistani town, police said.

Hawaii prepared to start evacuations ahead of a tsunami generated by a massive earthquake in Chile, a civil defence official on the U.S. island said on Saturday.

President Barack Obama sought on Saturday to spark momentum for a final push to revive his stalled healthcare overhaul, insisting that Americans cannot wait another generation for us to act.