NEW YORK - WARREN Buffett is again raising money for charity by auctioning a chance to dine with him, though it remains to be seen if the global recession keeps the winning bid below last year's record US$2.11 million (S$3.07 million).

The world's second-richest person is auctioning lunch for a 10th straight year to benefit the Glide Foundation, a nonprofit in San Francisco's Tenderloin district that offers housing, job training, health and child care, and meals for the poor.

NEW YORK - A "DISTRESSING SLOW" US housing recovery, with inflation-adjusted home values expected to decline over the next five years, makes it unlikely that housing wealth will drive consumer spending in the next decade, a Reuters/University of Michigan survey found.

Consumers are apt to maintain their renewed emphasis on savings and paring debt, Richard Curtin, director of the survey, said in a June home price update on Friday.

THE HAGUE - FORTIS Holding and its former partner, state-owned Fortis Bank Netherlands, clashed in court Friday over the redemption of shares worth 362.5 million euros (S$735 million).