UNITED STATES

Japanese bank lending logged its biggest annual fall in more than four years in January as companies faced with overcapacity and a murky economic outlook steered clear of borrowing for capital investment purposes.

President Barack Obama said on Sunday he will hold a meeting with Democratic and Republican lawmakers to discuss ways to move forward on legislation to overhaul the healthcare system.

China has closed what it claims to be the largest hacker training website in the country and arrested three of its members, domestic media reported on Monday.

A senior Chinese envoy was in North Korea to prod the reclusive state back to stalled nuclear talks while the South sent a team across the border on Monday for talks to restart tourism projects halted due to political wrangling.

Sidestepping the usual slapstick comedy and animal tricks, a number of advertisers tried to score during Sunday's Super Bowl with commercials that tapped into men's ambivalence with their everyday lives.

CIT Group Inc has hired former Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain as its new chief executive, the commercial lender said late on Sunday, wagering that the well-traveled executive can guide its post-bankruptcy turnaround.

President Barack Obama said on Sunday the economy has turned the corner and resumed growth.

Toyota Motor Corp, which has recalled more than 8 million vehicles around the world for problems with unintended acceleration, has decided to recall its new Prius hybrid in Japan to fix a braking software glitch, a dealer said Sunday.

SAP AG Chief Executive Leo Apotheker in a surprise move will step down with immediate effect amid customer dissatisfaction and what some analysts perceived as a lack of company strategy just seven months after taking over.

Private equity firms are again being threatened with higher taxes, as a long-running debate over how to classify their profits again becomes a focus for governments desperate for cash.

The Aussie dollar remained relatively range bound on Friday bouncing between 0.8650 and 0.8700 for the majority of the Asian session.

Trade tensions are starting to flare as the pace of the global economic revival shows signs of slowing.

The risk the economy will slip back into recession is lower now than at any time in the past year, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Sunday, while conceding that recovery will be slow and uneven.

U.S. regulators are investigating whether the mortgage insurance market was improperly distressed in 2008 because of payment demands that Goldman Sachs Group Inc and other banks made on American International Group Inc , The New York Times reported on Sunday.

Japan Airlines Corp will keep its partnership with American Airlines in the Oneworld alliance and end talks with Delta Air Lines and the rival SkyTeam group, the Asahi newspaper reported.

U.S. stocks face more turbulence that could send indexes spiraling through key levels this week as doubts about the global recovery's pace persist and fears linger over Europe's sovereign debt woes.

The United States is unwilling to re-enter talks to alter a key deal struck with Switzerland to end a damaging tax case against Swiss banking group UBS AG , the U.S. ambassador in Berne was quoted saying in a Swiss Sunday paper.

The risk the U.S. economy will slip back into recession is lower now than at any time in the past year, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Sunday, while conceding that recovery will be slow and uneven.

Reassurances about debt-strapped Greece and agreement that banks should pay for future rescue funds capped an international meeting in Canada's Arctic, as European policymakers sought to convince jittery markets that they have things under control.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner insisted on Saturday that major economies were not easing up on their commitment to stiffen the rules for banks just because the global economy was recovering.

Group of Seven officials agree banks must contribute toward the cost of dealing with the financial crisis but have not agreed on how they should pay, a German official said on Saturday.