IBT Staff Reporter

The guest house owner Mr. Vijay Singh welcomed me into his beautiful guest house like I was a long lost pale Scottish relative. Vijay, or Camel Man as he is also known, has a personality as large as his frame and was an instantly likeable, chatty, friendly host.

Ever had the dream of spending a magical white Christmas on a reindeer sleigh? Admit it, we all have. Sleigh bells ringing, frolicking in frosty snow and the smell of pine trees - it's all part of our childhood fantasy. Forget about commercialized Christmas tunes and last-minute Christmas sales, here are 6 cities that could just make your Christmas dream come true.

Shares of AIG fell 12 percent on Monday after an analyst raised concerns about a possible deficiency in the company's non-life insurance reserves.

Looking to work overseas? Head to Canada, Australia or Thailand, according to an annual global survey which found recession-hit Britain was one of the worst locations to live for expatriates.

Tiger Woods' alleged mistress Rachel Uchitel, 34, is linked to a bunch of celebrities including two players of the New York Yankees, according to a report.

U.S. stocks inched lower on Monday with retail shares down after Black Friday and data suggesting weak holiday sales, while data showing expansion in business activity in the Midwest helped to limit losses.

NYMEX introduced ASCI contracts earlier this month and said it will launch a physically-deliverable U.S. Gulf sour crude contract early in December. Around the same time, the ICE will launch cash-settled futures contracts tracking ASCI on December 7.

Investors took a dim view of holiday retail sales after a weak Black Friday weekend, with Amazon.com Inc one of the few stocks to rise on hopes it was gaining a greater share of consumer spending.

The developed world should pay African countries to preserve their vast forests to help the fight against climate change, some of the continent's governments will argue at next month's summit in Copenhagen.

Germany's biodiesel industry, Europe's largest, is suffering from cheap U.S. imports of the green fuel which evade punitive European Union import duties, industry leaders said on Monday.

Got 48 hours to explore the capital of Europe, with its unique combination of looks, architecture, culture, food and language?

Hotels that combine service, technology and comfort have topped a list of the world's best business hotels with the winners offering their guests those added extras that can make all the difference to a trip.

SmarTone Telecommunications Holdings Ltd. on Monday announced an agreement with Apple Inc. to sell the hot iPhone 3G and 3GS in Hong Kong, making it the second carrier for the popular handset in the city.

Major automakers are expected to report flat U.S. auto sales for November from a year ago -- another sign the industry is on the mend after a bruising downturn that forced extensive restructuring early this year.

Differentials for diesel in the Midwest are expected to slip this week as harvest demand wanes, Midwest traders said Monday.

U.S. banks have already recognized two-thirds of an estimated $2.1 trillion to $2.6 trillion in credit losses, but prime mortgage and commercial real estate would contribute more to the remaining losses, Goldman Sachs said.

The U.S. manufacturing sector is expected to have grown but at a slower pace in November in a still fragile recovery from the longest recession in decades, according to a Reuters' poll of economists.

MUMBAI - Europe's second-biggest carmaker PSA Peugeot Citroen is exploring various entry routes into the Indian automobile market but has not yet taken a decision, a spokesman for the group said on Monday.

Amazon.com said on Monday that its Kindle electronic book reader posted its best sales yet in the month of November, as rivals struggle with fulfilling their customer orders.

The Obama administration threatened on Monday to punish mortgage lenders with fines unless they speed up efforts to give hard-pressed homeowners a permanent break on monthly payments.

Internet games can boost children's interest in mathematics, says a footballing Oxford University professor who plays wearing the prime number 17 and uses dance to prove theorems.

U.S. banks continue to face significant challenges, particularly from rising delinquencies in commercial real estate and commercial loans, a Federal Reserve official said on Monday.

Nokia plans to install Linux software on just one new smartphone next year, a source told Reuters on Monday, dampening prospects of a quick makeover of the Finnish group's struggling product line-up.

Manufacturing in parts of the United States was picking up steam, data showed on Monday, but jobs were lagging the recovery and consumers remained cautious, economists said.

Worldwide server revenue tumbled 15.5 percent in the third quarter to $10.7 billion, industry tracker Gartner said on Monday, with four of the top five vendors posting double-digit declines from a year ago.

Tiger Woods screamed to his wife supermodel Elin Nordegrin she had ruined their Thanksgiving, fleeing away from their Orlando house and before crashing his car on Friday, RadarOnline.com reports Monday.

The winner of Honduras' controversial election called on Latin American governments on Monday to recognize him as president-elect to help pull the country out of a deep political crisis since a coup

A Spanish judge threatened to seize up to $100 million from Banco de Chile and individuals suspected of laundering funds for Augusto Pinochet, including the former Chilean dictator's widow.

Business activity in the U.S. Midwest expanded more than expected in November, reaching its highest level in over a year as new orders jumped, a report showed on Monday.