Top Business News

AP - An imam who has become the public face of a proposed Islamic community center and mosque near ground zero has returned to the United States following a taxpayer-funded tour of the Middle East, his wife said Monday.

BusinessWeek - Don't expect an Elizabeth Warren-style campaign for the first director of the Office of Financial Research, yet another agency set up under the financial system overhaul. Unlike the pending decision over who will lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which has prompted online petitions and a viral rap video in support of the Harvard law professor, the competition over who will be the head of the research office is a wonks-only affair. ...

AP - Some Cuban Americans in south Florida are upset to see a picture of revolutionary Che Guevara promoting an irreverent car race.

Reuters - Change swept through the top of Britain's banks on Tuesday as Barclays said its investment banking supremo Bob Diamond will take over as chief executive and HSBC was expected to say its chairman is going into government.

AP - Americans' economic struggles persisted in July, largely unchanged from the previous month, according to The Associated Press' monthly analysis of conditions around the country.

Reuters - Samsung Electronics, the world's top memory chipmaker, warned of an oversupply in the computer memory chip market from next quarter as a sputtering global economy may further weaken PC sales.

Reuters - American International Group Inc plans to seek Hong Kong listing committee approval on September 21, to list its Asian life insurance unit, aiming to raise about $15 billion, two sources with direct knowledge of the deal said on Tuesday.

AFP - The six members of the Gulf Cooperation Council have postponed the implementation on Tuesday of a customs union due to disagreement over sharing tariff revenues and problems meeting World Trade Organisation rules, officials said.

AP - A Somali-born Norwegian citizen has pleaded not guilty to charges of sending over $30,000 to top leaders of an al-Qaida-linked Somali militant group.

Reuters - European Union finance ministers made a fresh attempt on Tuesday to settle their differences over taxation of banks and trading as they prepared to approve the creation of new financial watchdogs.

Reuters - The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has seen a surge in tip-offs concerning alleged corporate fraud as the Financial Reforms Act offers millions of dollars in bounty payments to whistleblowers, the Wall Street Journal said.

AFP - US President Barack Obama has pledged 50 billion dollars to create jobs in a massive transportation infrastructure campaign, targeting huge unemployment and ripping resurgent Republicans.

AP - Sales of passenger cars in China — the world's biggest market — rose 18 percent in August from a year earlier, a report said Tuesday, as government subsidies and price cuts by dealers helped spur demand.

Reuters - World stocks edged down from the previous day's one-month high on Tuesday while the euro fell broadly as renewed concerns about Europe's banking sector encouraged investors to pause after a recent rally.

AP - The top executive at Kia Motors has resigned after the company recalled more than 100,000 vehicles worldwide over defective wiring, the automaker said Tuesday.

Reuters - Silicon Valley technology giant Oracle Corp has hired Mark Hurd, the former chief executive of Hewlett-Packard Co who resigned amid a scandal, as president.

Reuters - The U.S. Justice department is looking into Google Inc's takeover of airline ticketing software firm ITA Software Inc, to determine whether the deal would exert too much influence on the online travel industry, the Wall Street Journal said.

AFP - The Roma minority are targets of a security crackdown in France, but an EU-funded project has given two dozen members of the community new jobs and new hope at a troubled time for gypsies.

AP - A combative President Barack Obama rolled out a long-term jobs program Monday that would exceed $50 billion to rebuild roads, railways and runways, and coupled it with a blunt campaign-season assault on Republicans for causing Americans' hard economic times.

AFP - The head of South Korea's second-largest automaker Kia Motors has resigned to take responsibility for mass vehicle recalls caused by defective electrical wiring, the company said Tuesday.