IBT Staff Reporter

Emmy award-winning actor Kelsey Grammer will make his Broadway musical debut in April playing the gay owner of a transvestite club in the revival of La Cage aux Folles, publicists said on Monday.

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.

Governments should not wait for a full Doha Round deal before slashing punitive tariffs on wind turbines, solar power heaters and water-saving showers, Britain's top trade official said on Tuesday.

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.

Governments should not wait for a full Doha Round deal before slashing punitive tariffs on wind turbines, solar panels and water-saving showers, Britain's top trade official said on Tuesday.

The European Union hailed the start of a new era Tuesday after its Lisbon reform treaty went into force, carrying with it the bloc's hopes of become a more powerful force on the world stage.

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.

Europeans could help cut climate warming emissions to much safer levels for just 2 euros ($3) each per day, but they would also have to cut back on driving and meat eating, a report said Tuesday.

Euro zone finance ministers will take their first step towards exiting discretionary fiscal stimuli on Tuesday by accepting deadlines for deficit reductions proposed by the European Commission last month.

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.

The benchmark contract for European Union carbon emissions futures were steady on Tuesday, ignoring the threat of a blocks to an Australian emissions trading scheme, traders said.

South Korea's Unification Ministry dismissed rumors Tuesday that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il had been attacked and killed, which prompted financial markets to slide briefly in what one analyst said was a reflection of fragile sentiment.

While nations bicker over the size of emissions cuts and climate funds, saving forests has turned out to be among the least contentious issues in U.N. climate talks and has achieved the most progress.

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.

Britain's Aurelian Oil & Gas Plc (AUL.L) said on Tuesday it expected resource upgrades across its wider portfolio in the near future.

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

Reviled by the public and spurned in private, bankers have been looking for solace in adultery, according to a dating website for people seeking affairs.

Enerflex Systems Income Fund told its unitholders to reject the buyout offer from Toromont Industries Ltd as it undervalues the company, and said it received expressions of interest from third parties.

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.

Thailand's stock market .SETI ended 3 percent higher on Tuesday as investors bought energy big caps .SETEN and banks .SETB on hopes of an early, favourable conclusion to a court case that has halted some industrial activities.

Woodside Petroleum Ltd, Australia's No. 2 oil and gas producer, said on Tuesday about half of the construction workers for its Pluto liquefied natural gas (LNG) project have gone on strike over housing issues.