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NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - Millionaires down on their luck now have a place to sell their mega-yachts, super-cars and family jewels without having to resort to the pawn shop.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran has charged three detained U.S. citizens with espionage, the official IRNA news agency quoted a prosecutor as saying on Monday, but Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said there was no evidence to back the charges.

In the hopes of sustaining the real estate market's recent momentum, Uncle Sam has made more than two-thirds of current homeowners and nearly all first-time buyers eligible for thousands of dollars in tax perks when they purchase a house. President Obama signed the Worker, Homeownership, and Business Assistance Act of 2009 into law Friday, a day after the House of Representatives approved it by a 403-to-12 vote. The legislation includes language that significantly expands the popular first-time home buyer tax credit that was enacted in February. ...

NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - Florida, with four of the five most treacherous metropolitan areas for walking, is the most dangerous state in the United States for pedestrians.

MOBILE, Alabama (Reuters) - A weakening Tropical Storm Ida lashed the U.S. Gulf Coast with drenching rain and high surf on Tuesday as it moved ashore after shutting down almost 30 percent of Gulf of Mexico energy production.

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Britney Spears has done it again, hitting the headlines during her first Australian tour over a row about lip-synching and a lacklustre performance that her tour promoter said had left her "extremely upset."

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - General George Casey, Army chief of staff, on Sunday became the latest U.S. military official to advocate sending more troops to Afghanistan as President Barack Obama nears a decision on a new strategy.

If you've been frustrated in trying to get your kids vaccinated against H1N1 flu, you're not alone: Two thirds of parents who have sought vaccine for their children have failed to find it, according to a Harvard School of Public Health survey out today. That's no small deal, because 41 percent of the parents polled said they have tried to get their children vaccinated against swine flu. Hearing that big Wall Street firms Goldman Sachs and Citigroup got H1N1 vaccine doesn't do much to reassure worried parents that the system is directing vaccine to the kids who need it the most. ...

DORKING, England (Reuters) - The pickers working their way along the hillside, clipping bunches of small, dark purple grapes from the rows of vines and dropping them into plastic buckets are harbingers of a warmer planet.

You know about the bailouts, the stimulus plan, cash for clunkers, and moola for mansions. But for all the anxiety they've caused, those government giveaways are just a tiny part of a mushrooming problem.

BUCHAREST (AFP) - Once the butt of jokes the world over, communist-era East European goods from sweets, to rustic washing machines and clunky cars are all the rage again.

I get a lot of mail at Ask a Manager from people consumed with fury over habits their coworkers have-habits that I bet most of those coworkers aren't even aware of.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Never mind the recession. Workers can still find ways to do less and get away with it, says the author of a tongue-in-cheek look at the workplace, "How to Relax Without Getting the Axe."

Whether it's over or not, the recession has made retirement at age 65 more difficult. New analysis from the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College found that 51 percent of Americans have a high risk of not being able to maintain their current lifestyle in retirement, up from 44 percent in 2007. "If they retire at age 65, they will not be able to maintain the same standard of living as they did before," says the center's director, Alicia Munnell, about the households at risk. ...

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Vatican said on Monday its plan to allow married Anglican priests to convert to Catholicism does not signal any change to its age-old rule of celibacy for the overwhelming majority of Catholic priests.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Pay and venue were the focus of a jury's early deliberations on Monday in the trial of two former Bear Stearns hedge fund managers accused of fraud over dealings in mortgage-backed securities early in the financial crisis.

BERLIN (Reuters) - World leaders hailed the ordinary people who helped bring down the Berlin Wall and said the historic events of 20 years ago showed nations were capable of rising to new challenges, from terrorism to climate change.

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - The future of US supergroup Aerosmith was shrouded in uncertainty Monday after unconfirmed reports that flamboyant frontman Steven Tyler had quit the band.

The Saturday-night passage of the House health reform bill has left a bad taste in the mouths of reproductive-rights advocates. They're opposed to the last-minute addition of a controversial amendment that specifically prohibits abortion coverage in plans funded by the federal government. In an E-mail sent out about an hour before the reform bill passed, Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards called the amendment "an unacceptable addition to the healthcare reform bill that, if enacted, would result in women losing health benefits they have today. ...

The Starting Point is a snapshot of the news stories that occurred overnight. Look for updates throughout the day on Yahoo! News and in the news box on Yahoo.com.

Washington - In pursuit of an economic recovery, President Obama has argued that we must transition from an "era of borrow-and-spend to one where we save and invest." It is an appealing concept, especially as the disappearance of surplus assets and historic levels of debt helped transform a garden-variety business cycle recession into a historic collapse.

This holiday season, skip the mall. If you have kids in college, help give them a leg up financially, and teach them how to grow their money over time. Here are three ideas:

NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - Rihanna joined U.S. first lady Michelle Obama, British fashion designer Stella McCartney and nine others on Monday to be honored as "Women of the Year" after the R&B singer took a public stand on domestic violence.

BERLIN (AFP) - Tens of thousands thronged the route of the Berlin Wall on Monday for emotional celebrations to mark 20 years since its fall, but Chancellor Angela Merkel said Germany still bears the scars of division.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Amgen Inc was sued on Friday by 14 U.S. states and the District of Columbia, which accused the giant biotechnology company of offering kickbacks to medical providers to boost sales of its anemia drug, Aranesp.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama held unusually low-profile talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday that failed to provide any sign of progress toward reviving Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama said on Monday he plans to raise the issue of the yuan currency with Chinese officials when he meets with them in Beijing next week.

TAIPEI (AFP) - Taiwan's President Ma Ying-jeou called Sunday for more university classes to be taught in English if the island is to attract talented foreign students.

SAN SALVADOR (Reuters) - The death toll from flooding and mudslides in El Salvador triggered by the passage of Hurricane Ida jumped to 124 people, Salvadoran President Mauricio Funes said in a national radio broadcast.

KARACHI (AFP) - Pakistan's traditionally lavish weddings have lost their sparkle this matrimonial season thanks to rising prices of gold and festive essentials in a limping economy overshadowed by Taliban attacks.