
United States banks in New Jersey, Ohio, Florida, Oklahoma and Illinois were shut, pushing the toll of failed US lenders to 69 this year. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation was named the receiver of the five banks, the regulator said in e-mailed statements.

Cuban President Raul Castro said he remains ready to talk about everything and anything with the United States but that Cuba’s political system was not on the negotiating table.

Billions of dollars are spent every year in the United States in an attempt to control invasive species. Plants and animals brought legally and illegally into the US have created extensive damage to the ecosystem and the economy.

United States and China are committed to fighting protectionism, said US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner following two days of high-level talks. The two countries share an interest in ensuring that trade remained open and rules-based.

The relationship between United States and China will shape the 21st Century, said President Barack Obama as top officials met Monday in Washington for talks. Co-operation, not confrontation was the way forward, he said, with climate change, security and the economy all areas where common ground existed.

Ford, the only one of the Big Three United States carmakers not to have gone bankrupt, has reported a quarterly profit of 2.3billion US dollars. However, the profit was largely due to one-off gains related to debt restructuring, with demand for new cars remaining weak.

The United States unit of the world's largest meat processor, Brazilian JBS SA, filed for an initial public offering of up to 2 billion US dollars on Wednesday, making it the largest planned offering in the US IPO pipeline.

In anticipation of his Semiannual Monetary Policy Report to the United States Congress on July 21st, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke wrote a column which basically is a synthesis of his presentation before the Committee on Financial Services from the US House of Representatives.

Brazilian Foreign Affairs Minister Celso Amorim phoned last weekend US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who was in New Delhi, India, to express concern about the slow pace and handling of the negotiations for the reinstatement of the democratic order in Honduras, reports Folha do Sao Paulo.

The total exposure of the US government to the financial crisis could reach 23.7 trillion US dollars, according to a watchdog report. Neil Barofsky, overseeing the Troubled Asset Relief Programme (Tarp), made the estimate in prepared remarks to a House of Representatives committee. The US GDP for 2008 was estimated in 14.3 trillion US dollars.