U.S. billionaire George Soros has bought a stake in Manchester United, the British football club that made its Wall Street debut earlier this month, according to a filing with U.S. regulators on Monday.

Soros' investment firm bought approximately 3.1 million class A shares, or 7.85 percent of the total Class A shares, a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) revealed.

The U.S insurance giant Aetna will acquire managed health care company Coventry in a transaction valued at $7.3 billion, the two companies announced early Monday.

Under the terms of the agreement, which has been approved by the board of directors of each company, Coventry stockholders will receive $27.30 in cash and 0.3885 Aetna common shares for each Coventry share, according to a statement issued by the two firms.

Honda wants to silence its critics when it rolls out the new Accord this week.

The automaker, chastened for cheapening the Civic compact earlier this year, says that won't happen with the midsize Accord.

U.S. President Barack Obama hounded Mitt Romney on Saturday, saying his wealthy rival would pay only one percent in taxes on his vast wealth under a plan authored by his running mate Paul Ryan.

Obama escalated his effort to use the pick of the conservative Republican congressman last week to drive votes away from Romney in swing states, including New Hampshire, where he was campaigning Saturday.

Struggling carrier Air France regained altitude Friday, with its stock rising well more than three percent after a key pilots' union endorsed a draft agreement that paves the way for a restructuring plan.

Shares in Franco-Dutch airline Air France-KLM closed with a gain of 3.72 percent at 4.40 euros on the Paris stock exchange, which was 0.23 percent higher overall.

New home prices in more Chinese cities rose in July than in the previous month, the government said Saturday, amid cautious optimism the country's property market may be bottoming out.

Prices in 50 out of the 70 Chinese cities tracked by the government increased in July from June, the National Bureau of Statistics said in a statement. That represented a doubling from 25 in June.

The Syrian economy has been hit hard by more than 17 months of revolt but may still hold on despite international sanctions with the help of friendly countries such as Russia, Iran and Iraq, experts say.

All economic indicators in Syria, where President Bashar Assad is trying to crush an uprising against his rule, are in the red: the economy is contracting, inflation rates have skyrocketed, unemployment has risen and the current account deficit continues to increase.

U.S. regulators are investigating claims Deutsche Bank and other global banks funneled billions of dollars for Iran, Sudan and other sanctioned nations, The New York Times reported Saturday.

The probe is still in its very early stages, law enforcement officials told the Times, adding that Deutsche Bank was not believed to have moved funds on behalf of Iranian clients through its U.S. operations after 2008.

The Eurozone’s current account surplus grew to 12.7 billion euros ($15.7 billion) in June from 10.3 billion euros the previous month, European Central Bank data showed on Friday.

The current account on the balance of payments, which includes imports and exports in both goods and services plus all other current transfers, is a closely tracked indicator of the ability of a country or area to pay its way in the world.

Syria's chief economic negotiator this weekend will pay his second visit to Moscow in two weeks for talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, the country's ambassador said on Friday.

Deputy Prime Minister Qadri Jamil will probably arrive in Moscow on Saturday and meet Lavrov either on Monday or Tuesday, Syrian Ambassador Riyad Haddad was quoted as saying by Interfax.