UNITED STATES

In a report considered crucial to U.S. strategy in the highly unpopular war in Iraq, the top U.S. commander there is expected to tell Congress on Monday that U.S. troop levels should not be cut deeply.

With a dash of charity and some posthumous help from Elvis Presley, smash hit American Idol clinched its first Emmy in six years on Saturday to avoid becoming the biggest loser in the history of U.S. television's highest honors.

One of India's premier fashion events may be bigger and better than ever before but the decision to conduct it the same week as the prestigious New York Fashion Week seemed to have ruffled a few feathers.

Most OPEC oil ministers held the line on Sunday that current output is sufficient to meet demand, but the world's biggest exporter Saudi Arabia was silent ahead of a September 11 meeting to chart production policy. The group that supplies more than a third of the world's oil will consider conflicting economic signals at Tuesday's talks when it sets production levels for peak winter demand.

Asia-Pacific leaders said on Sunday they saw real progress in world trade talks now underway in Geneva and pledged flexibility and the political will to forge a deal by the end of 2007.

Friday's news of a buckling U.S. job market sent stock investors running for the exits, and this week promises to be no less stressful as investors grapple with the increasing possibility of an economic recession.

A drop in July payrolls may lead to aggressive interest-rate cutting.

Lower hemlines could spell bad news for the U.S. stock market.

Starbucks Corp. Chairman Howard Schultz on Friday predicted a shortage of gourmet coffee beans as coffee drinkers across the globe develop more sophisticated tastes.

Gold hit a 16-month high above $700 per ounce on Friday, boosted by a falling dollar after U.S. data showing a surprise contraction in U.S. non-farm payrolls for the first time in four years.

Oil prices rose on Friday as tight supplies in the United States countered worries about a possible economic recession in the world's top energy consumer.

The dollar slid to a 15-year low against major currencies on Friday as data showed U.S. payrolls fell last month for the first time in four years, raising recession fears and pressure for the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates.

Apple Inc's hefty iPhone price cut pits it in direct competition with handsets from Motorola Inc and Palm Inc, which are struggling to convince Wall Street they can turn around their aging brands.

Lenovo Group Ltd., the world's third-largest PC maker, said on Thursday its nascent overseas consumer market will grow eventually to match the dominate position it enjoys in its home market.

The U.S. Senate voted 79-12 on Friday to slash government subsidies to student loan firms and use the money saved to boost student aid by $20 billion and reduce the federal deficit.

JPMorgan Chase & Co, which has one of the largest U.S. student lending operations, said on Friday it will hire up to 150 Indianapolis-based workers from Nelnet Inc to expand its loan-origination operations.

IndyMac Bancorp Inc, one of the largest independent U.S. mortgage lenders, plans to cut 1,000 jobs and halve its dividend, and may report a third-quarter loss, as loan volumes decline and credit markets remain tight.

Asia-Pacific officials agreed on Friday to a draft climate statement which reaffirms a U.N. treaty on fighting global warming, while urging non-binding aspirational targets for greenhouse gas reductions, a delegate said.

Bush administration officials on Friday sought to ease fears the U.S. was tipping into recession after a government report showed the economy shed jobs for the first time in four years last month.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson on Friday said he was not totally surprised about the decline in jobs in August given housing troubles and less government hiring, but he still sees the U.S. economy as healthy.

Stocks tumbled on Friday, driving major indexes down nearly 2 percent, as data showing the first monthly drop in payrolls in four years stoked fears on Wall Street that the economy was headed into recession.