UNITED STATES

A U.S. federal judge tossed out a lawsuit by California's attorney general on Monday seeking hundreds of millions of dollars from six automakers for damaging the state with climate-changing greenhouse gases.

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. posted a 3.2 percent decline in quarterly earnings on Tuesday as the U.S. investment bank wrote down mortgage and leveraged loan assets, but the results beat expectations and its shares rose. The results soothed investors concerned that the widening U.S. subprime mortgage crisis would wallop investment bank earnings.

The New York Times Co said on Monday it will end its paid TimesSelect Web service and make most of its Web site available for free in the hopes of attracting more readers and higher advertising revenue.

Ford Motor Co may accelerate cost cutting if a slowing U.S. economy puts the auto maker at risk of missing key financial goals in 2008 and 2009, the Wall Street Journal reported in its online edition on Tuesday, citing an interview with an executive.

The dollar steadied above last week's record lows versus the euro on Tuesday as investors chose to hold fire ahead of a widely-expected Federal Reserve interest rate cut.

The Federal Reserve is expected to chart a new course on Tuesday and cut benchmark interest rates for the first time since mid-2003 to protect the economy from a housing downturn and jittery credit markets.

The review of all security companies in the country comes after a shooting incident involving guards from the U.S. firm Blackwater.

Oil struck an all-time high above $81 a barrel on Tuesday, fuelled by concerns of a winter supply squeeze in top consumer the United States, where an anticipated interest rate cut was calming recession fears. Supply risks and fund flows into energy from poorly performing equity markets have driven up the price of crude to record highs for the past five trading sessions.

Major handset vendors have much more to gain than to lose from the buzz Apple Inc's coveted iPhone will create when it arrives in European stores for the key shopping season ahead of Christmas.

Top U.S .phone company AT&T Inc said on Monday that it was ordered to pay $156 million after losing a jury verdict in a patent infringement case brought by TGIP Inc.

It could be due the climate, the large number of students or the ethnic mix of the people who live there, but whatever the reason London and Toronto have the highest number of Facebook users.

Oil soared to a record above $80 a barrel on Monday on worries that global energy supplies could shrink to critical levels this winter heating season due to strong demand growth.

Hartford Financial Services Group Chief Financial Officer David Johnson said on Monday the insurer will generate $140 million of surplus in the second half of 2007, giving it a total of $640 million available.

Democratic presidential contender Hillary Clinton, whose first attempt at a health care overhaul fell flat 13 years ago, unveiled a broad proposal on Monday to require health insurance for all Americans and make it more affordable.

Risks of a recession have increased, but the Federal Reserve must be cautious in supporting the economy because global forces that have kept inflation in check are receding, former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan said on Monday.

Hartford Financial Services Group Inc will start selling life and retirement products to small business owners who already buy its commercial insurance, and on Monday named the former head of its Japanese unit to run the operation.

Negotiators for the United Auto Workers union and General Motors Corp were back at the bargaining table on Monday after breaking in the early hours of the day, as thousands of GM factory employees went to work without a new contract.

Lines of Britons bent on getting their money out formed at Northern Rock Plc's bank branches for a third working day on Monday in defiance of reassuring words from government and management.

Female consumers are spurring much-needed growth in Chinese consumption and helping offset the country's high savings rate, a source of tension with its trading partners.

Eli Lilly & Co, the U.S. maker of antidepressant Prozac and erectile dysfunction drug Cialis, said its China sales were rising about 26 percent a year, on track to become the company's tenth biggest global market by 2010.

Gold rose on Monday and stayed within sight of a 16-month high of $717 an ounce struck last week with expectations running high for the U.S. Federal Reserve to cut interest rates.