UNITED STATES

Millions of unemployed U.S. workers face sharply higher health insurance premiums and loss of coverage as temporary federal subsidies expire, a healthcare advocacy group said on Tuesday.

Citigroup said there are substantial risks facing U.S. bank stocks now, but in the near term these stocks can grind higher given a combination of the Federal Reserve's accommodative stance plus a modest recovery.

Saab Automobile faced the threat of closure as the board of U.S. parent General Motors met on Tuesday to hammer out plans after a deal collapsed to sell the Swedish brand.

The U.S. manufacturing sector grew for the fourth straight month in November, though at a slower pace, and questions remain about the staying power of the incipient economic recovery.

Japan's Asahi Breweries said it could spend up to 400 billion yen ($4.6 billion) on acquisitions to avoid getting left behind amid a rush towards consolidation in the global food and beverage industry.

The Hurt Locker, a suspense film about a U.S. Army bomb squad unit that defuses bombs in Iraq, won best feature on Monday at the Gotham awards, the top U.S. East Coast independent film awards.

U.S. actor Alec Baldwin says he has lost interest in acting and considers his film career a failure.

Swiss authorities will not release film director Roman Polanski into house arrest at his luxury Alpine chalet before Friday, the government said on Tuesday.

U.S. stocks rose on Tuesday, boosted by a run-up in the shares of natural resource companies, as economic data reinforced recovery hopes and U.S. dollar weakness lifted global commodity prices.

Prosecutors accused 89-year-old John Demjanjuk on Tuesday of knowingly herding thousands of Jews to their deaths in the Holocaust and standing by as victims of Nazi death camp Sobibor screamed in fear.

Holiday shoppers in the United States spent some $595 million online on Black Friday, up 11 percent from last year, with Amazon.com and Walmart.com the most visited sites, according to analytics firm comScore.

Dubai's debt crisis may not sow lasting global contagion, but it may colour a 2010 investment landscape where asset managers will likely differentiate more between risks rather than embracing them indiscriminately.

Iran said on Tuesday it intended to take unspecified legal action over an IAEA rebuke of its nuclear activities and would provide Iranians with enough gasoline in order to trump any further U.N. sanctions.

A U.N.-backed scheme that aims to reward developing nations for saving or rehabilitating their forests has made major progress during climate negotiations over the past two years and is likely to advance further at talks in Copenhagen.

President Barack Obama plans to announce on Tuesday that he will send about 30,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan in a long-awaited war strategy shift that he hopes will defeat the Taliban and allow for a U.S. exit.

When U.S. retail chains report November sales this week, investors will learn whether they have gone far enough to protect profits against a weak start to the holiday shopping season.

For anyone trying to understand why the United States is having such a hard time joining an international effort to combat global warming, a short drive west from Washington to one of the smaller states in the country might explain a lot.

The Australian government's plans to cut carbon emissions were headed for defeat in a hostile Senate after the elevation of a new opposition leader opposed to carbon trade laws, setting a trigger for an early 2010 election.

Investors Await Retail Results; Dubai Fears Wane; New Ponzi Scam Arrests

Oil and gas exploration and production company Linn Energy LLC said it would buy properties in the Permian and Anadarko basins for $154.5 million.

U.S. stocks were poised for a higher open on Tuesday as concerns over Dubai's debt problems eased and solid manufacturing data from China boosted sentiment as investors awaited a host of U.S. economic reports.