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World stock markets regained some vitality Tuesday as investors hung hopes on action from the Federal Reserve to keep the U.S. from sliding back into recession.

Oil prices rose to near $86 a barrel as traders scaled back expectations that Libyan oil would be quickly restored to world markets as fighting raged in Tripoli between rebels and forces loyal to Gadhafi. The dollar weakened against the yen and the euro.

European shares were higher in early trading. Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 1.5 percent to 5,171.26. Germany’s DAX gained 2.8 percent to 5,625.16 and France’s CAC-40 gained 2.7 percent to 3,132.43.

Wall Street was heading for a second straight day of gains, with Dow Jones industrial futures 1.4 percent higher at 10,997 and S&P 500 futures 1.7 percent higher at 1,142.10.

Global stocks have been volatile in recent weeks as investors swung between fears of a double-dip recession in the U.S. and hopes that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will announce some kind of action to help the economy during an annual economics conference in Wyoming on Friday.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 1.2 percent to close at 8,733.01 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 2 percent to 19,875.53. South Korea’s Kospi jumped 3.9 percent to 1,772.39.

Benchmarks in Singapore, Taiwan, India, Indonesia and the Philippines were also higher.

Chinese shares advanced for the first time in six trading sessions as investors bargain-hunted following the release of a survey suggesting better than expected manufacturing data for August.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index rose 1.5 percent 2,554.02 and the Shenzhen Composite Index added 1.8 percent to 1,144.05. Shares in cement and other building materials led the gains.

“A correction was due after investors overreacted to the selloffs in foreign markets days before, and also there was speculation that the manufacturing data could be better than earlier forecast,” said Cai Dagui, an analyst at Ping’an Securities, based in Shenzhen.

A “flash” manufacturing survey by HSBC showed Chinese output contracting, but improving from a 16-month low in July, rising to 49 fast cash advance.8 from 49.3 in July. The flash survey of purchasing managers includes 85 percent to 90 percent of the responses of a monthly survey on manufacturing trends that is usually released on the first of the month.

Investors also found relief in expectations that oil prices would fall if Libyan rebels gain complete control of the capital of Tripoli. A new government in Libya could clear the way for a return to oil production, which was halted six months ago amid a rebellion against the Gadhafi regime.

Falling oil prices also could help mitigate the effects of high inflation that has persisted across much of Asia, threatening growth prospects.

Rising metals prices, especially gold _ which ended Monday just shy of $1,900 an ounce _ boosted mining shares. Energy Resources of Australia Ltd. shot up 7.8 percent. Australia’s Fortescue Metals Group gained 4.1 percent. Zijin Mining Group Co., China’s biggest gold miner, rose 2.2 percent.

On Monday, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 0.3 percent to close at 10,854.65. The S&P 500 rose less than 0.1 percent to 1,123.82. The Nasdaq rose 0.2 percent to 2,345.38.

Bernanke’s speech Friday could have a major impact on markets, as it did last year when he hinted that the Fed was about to embark on a second round of bond buying known as quantitative easing to support financial markets and the economy.

The buying program ended in June. Some investors hope that Bernanke will reinstate bond purchases because of recent evidence of a weakening U.S. economy that triggered a stock market sell-off in August.

Benchmark oil for September delivery was up $1.46 to $85.88 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Crude rose $1.86 to settle at $84.12 on Monday.

In London, Brent crude for October delivery was up 15 cents per barrel to $108.57 on the ICE Futures exchange.

The euro rose to $1.4440 from $1.4373 late Monday in New York. The dollar weakened to 76.65 yen from 76.72 yen.

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Tiger Airways executives are holding crisis talks with an Australian air safety watchdog after the regulators grounded all Australian domestic flights of a Tiger subsidiary over safety concerns.

Monday’s meeting with Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority comes two days after it announced that Tiger Airways Australia’s entire domestic fleet was grounded for five business days. The move affects about 35,000 passengers.

The Australian safety regulators say the budget airline twice flew under the minimum allowed altitude. Singapore-based Tiger Airways Holdings Ltd. says the grounding will cost the airline 2 million Singapore dollars ($1.63 million) a week.

The airline says it is cooperating with the safety authority.

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Libyan authorities on Saturday accused NATO of killing 15 people in an airstrike that hit a restaurant and bakery in the east, though the alliance said there were no indications that civilians had died.

It was the latest outcry from Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi’s government blaming NATO for killing civilians amid a four-month uprising that has sparked a civil war. NATO insists it does all it can to avoid such casualties.

Meanwhile, rebel representatives said their fighters were coordinating around the country for the “zero hour” when their forces would reach the capital of Tripoli.

The rebels said they have been working to cut fuel supplies from Tunisian borders in an attempt to paralyze Gadhafi’s forces. Rebels also are making homemade bombs and trying to ferry other weapons to their comrades in Tripoli, a spokesman for an underground guerrilla group there said.

Libya’s state news agency quoted a military official in Gadhafi’s forces as saying that NATO warplanes hit a number of civilian sites Saturday in the oil town of Brega, including a restaurant and a bakery.

The official said 15 civilians were killed and 20 wounded in the strike. The JANA news agency also claimed five civilians were killed Friday in Brega as well.

A NATO official said alliance warplanes had hit several targets in the vicinity of Brega, but dismissed claims that the attacks had resulted in civilian casualties.

“We have no indications of any civilian casualties in connection with these strikes,” said the official, who spoke on condition on anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media on the record. “What we know is that the buildings we hit were occupied and used by pro-Gadhafi forces to direct attacks against civilians around Ajdabiya.”

NATO has acknowledged carrying out two raids near the strategic oil town. The alliance said Friday it hit multiple military command sites near Brega, which has been a frequent flashpoint between rebels and Gadhafi’s forces.

The alliance said Friday that government forces had moved into buildings in an abandoned area of Brega and started using them as military compounds to launch strikes on civilians, putting rebel-held cities such as Ajdabiya and Benghazi at risk.

Reports of civilian casualties have provoked intense anger among many Libyans in the west of the country under Gadhafi’s control.

Images of dead civilians, including young children, described by the government as “martyrs” can be seen frequently at pro-government rallies and on state-controlled television.

NATO is investigating whether one of its airstrikes may have slammed into a civilian neighborhood in Tripoli on June 19, killing several civilians.

A day later, alliance warplanes struck a family compound belonging to a close Gadhafi aide, killing what the Libyan government says was 19 people, including at least three children. NATO called the site was a “command and control” center, and said it regrets any civilian deaths that resulted from the strike.

Meanwhile, at least two explosions could be heard in the capital of Tripoli on Saturday, though it was not immediately clear what the NATO airstrikes may have hit.

The Libyan rebels began their uprising in February against Gadhafi, who has been in power since 1969. The conflict has turned into a civil war, and Gadhafi’s forces are accused of orchestrating deadly attacks on civilians.

The rebels have taken over much of the eastern half of Libya. They also control pockets in the west, including the vital port city of Misrata, about 125 miles (200 kilometers) from the capital.

A coalition including France, Britain and the United States began striking Gadhafi’s forces under a United Nations resolution to protect civilians on March 19. NATO assumed control of the air campaign over Libya on March 31 and is joined by a number of Arab allies.

On Saturday, the spokesman of the rebels’ western mountain military council confirmed that rebels are coordinating with individual cells and with an underground rebel guerrilla group known as the Tripoli Council. The main goals are to cut the fuel from Gadhafi forces, Gomaa Ibrahim said.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Tripoli Council said that their fighters have been carrying selective attacks on Gadhafi forces in the capital.

The spokesman, who requested anonymity for fear of reprisals, said that the rebels are coordinating for “the zero hour, when rebels from liberated cities enter Tripoli.”

“It will be a tremendous mission. The city is now besieged by 13 different security brigades, well armed and well equipped. Gadhafi has always said that his loyalists will sabotage the city if he falls. So this will be our mission: to mob it and clean it of mercenaries.”

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Delta Air Lines hastily changed its baggage fees for troops Wednesday after a YouTube video showed soldiers complaining that they had to pay $200 apiece to check extra bags as they made their way home from Afghanistan.

The video was posted Tuesday and was viewed almost 200,000 times before it was removed by the person who put it up. By Wednesday afternoon, a Facebook page called Boycott Delta for Soldiers had sprung up, and the airline was backpedaling and apologizing to the soldiers.

Nobel Prize-winning economist Peter Diamond withdrew on Monday his nomination for a seat on the Federal Reserve Board, complaining that Republicans who have blocked his confirmation for more than a year failed to understand the importance of his work on unemployment.

Diamond announced his withdrawal in an opinion article in The New York Times with the headline “When a Nobel Prize Isn’t Enough guaranteed unsecured personal loan.”

“Last October, I won the Nobel Prize in economics for my work on unemployment and the labor market. But I am unqualified to serve on the board of the Federal Reserve

Pakistan’s prime minister has named the members of a commission tasked with investigating the circumstances surrounding the May 2 U.S. raid that killed Osama bin Laden.

Pakistan was embarrassed by the al-Qaida chief’s discovery in a northwest garrison city. The military was especially humiliated by the Americans’ ability to carry out the operation and leave without detection.

Parliament demanded an independent commission instead of a military probe. The five-member panel’s mandate includes establishing the “full facts” regarding bin Laden’s presence in Pakistan, a statement Tuesday said personal loan for poor credit.

Its creation suggests the weak civilian government is seeking some leverage over the powerful security establishment.

The commission will be led by a judge and includes a retired general.

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The International Monetary Fund is urging Europe to push shaky banks to strengthen their finances as the best way to keep the debt crisis in Greece, Portugal and Ireland from hitting a growing eurozone economy.

The Washington, DC-based international organization says stress tests are a key opportunity to fix banks by forcing those found to be weak to raise new capital, which can be done by investors or government stumping in more money.

The issue is important to the rest of the economy because a number of banks hold Greek, Irish and Portuguese debt, complicating efforts to resolve those countries debt problems. A default or restructuring of that debt could hit banks so hard they wouldn’t be able to loan money to companies, spreading financial trouble to the wider economy.

The IMF estimates that the 17 countries that use the euro will see growth of 1.7 percent this year and 1.9 percent next year, if debt crises don’t derail the economy.

“Financial linkages between countries with sovereign debt troubles and the rest of Europe could potentially pose more risk to the outlook,” the IMF said in its regional economic outlook for Europe released Thursday.

With banks holding bonds from indebted countries, “a shock to confidence could spread quickly throughout Europe.”

The European banking regulator is running stress tests on banks, with results due in June. A set of tests last year was regarded as too easy to restore confidence in the system.

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American International Group attributed a first-quarter loss to the Japan earthquake and tsunami, the New Zealand earthquake and Australian floods.

The New York insurance company on Thursday reported a loss attributable to common shareholders of $543 million, or 35 cents a share, compared with net income of $359 million, or $2 payday loan.66 a share, a year earlier.

Its revenue fell to $17.44 billion from $18.56 billion last year.

AIG’s stock fell 85 cents to $30.79 in after-hours trading.

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Reinsurance Group of America reported $160.8 million in profits for the March quarter, up from $122.4 million a year earlier.

Profits per share were $2.18 in the recent quarter, up from $1.64 a year ago.

Premiums jumped 7 percent, including a 3 percent contribution from foreign currency exchange.  The company said claims were in line with expectations, despite the earthquakes in Japan and New Zealand no fax pay day loan. Those disasters cost the company $6.5 million in claims.

Reinsurance Group, based in Chesterfield, is among the largest global providers of life reinsurance.

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Scuffles between protesters and security guards marred BP’s first annual shareholder meeting since the Gulf oil spill, with shrimpers blocked from entering Thursday’s meeting to demand more compensation.

The protesters included five Gulf Coast residents who had planned to tell investors about the loss of their livelihoods and health problems after the spill. Outside the building, separate groups demonstrated over BP’s polluting tar sands project in Canada and labor disputes in Britain.

Diane Wilson, a fourth-generation fisherwoman from Seadrift, Texas, was arrested after evading security to enter the foyer of the building, where she covered herself in a dark syrup to represent oil.

“I’ve come all the way here from the Gulf Coast,” Wilson said. “My community is gone, and they won’t let me in.”

Inside the venue, hundreds of BP PLC investors who have watched the company lose a quarter of its market value _ some $55 billion _ over the past year and lost their dividend payments questioned board members about excessive executive pay packets and a lack of transparency on safety improvements.

But there was also support for BP’s board from some quarters, with new Chief Executive Bob Dudley frequently winning smatterings of applause for his comments, including his opening statement that “BP remains a great company with a great history and I believe a great future.”

“Not every company gets such an opportunity and we don’t intend to squander it,” he added, stressing the company’s three priorities post-spill as strengthening safety, winning back the company’s reputation and restoring long-term value for shareholders.

Dudley and his fellow board members are battling to convince some institutional shareholders that they have a firm grip on the company’s future after a year that began with the Gulf of Mexico disaster and is ending with a botched major oil exploration deal in Russia.

The company gained some critical breathing room on the Russian problem just hours before the meeting when Russia’s OAO Rosneft agreed to move the deadline to complete a $16 billion share swap with BP from Thursday to May 16.

The deal was to cement BP’s move forward from the Gulf spill and show it no longer needed to rely so heavily on the United States, where it is still barred from drilling in the Gulf. The initiative ran aground after a quartet of Russian billionaires, BP’s partners in the older TNK-BP venture, won an injunction in the London courts, claiming the new deal violates their own agreement with the London-based company.

Rosneft spokesman Rustam Kazharov declined to comment when asked whether the company planned to look for another partner to replace BP in the deal to explore the Russian sector of the Arctic.

In London, Dudley and Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg dodged questions from shareholders about why the company hadn’t consulted more fully with TNK-BP before announcing the Rosneft deal.

“I think we have to be realistic,” Svanberg said when asked if BP was confident of coming to an agreement with TNK-BP to lift the injunction. “We are in the middle of a process involving three parties and exactly how that will unfold I don’t think we should speculate here, but I assure you we will do what we can to land it in a good way.”

Dudley said BP had made a joint offer with Rosneft for TNK-BP, but said BP would not offer large amounts of shares to resolve the dispute, particularly as BP believed it had not violated its agreement with TNK-BP.

As a mark of respect for the upcoming anniversary of the Macondo well explosion, Dudley read out the names of the 11 men killed in the April 20 incident that has so far cost BP some $40 billion _ and former CEO Tony Hayward his job.

Outside the building, a rowdy group of local union members demonstrated over a dispute at a BP-owned factory in Hull in northern England, banging drums and blowing horns as they were watched by police.

More protesters did gain entry to the meeting and tried to access the stage during a discussion of the company’s controversial tar sands project in Canada. They were dragged away by security.

Byron Encalade, president of the Louisiana Oystermen Association and one of those denied entry, had said he wanted to object to the compensation process, claiming many oystermen have been denied payments or given insufficient payouts.

“We’ve not been made whole: our fishing grounds have been depleted, our oysters are dead and we’re not receiving the funds we need to support and sustain ourselves,” Encalade said. “BP says they are paying out all this money. Where is it?”

Dudley said management intended to recommend to the board the appointment of an external expert to implement the recommendations of an internal report into the spill _ as it did after the deadly Texas City refinery explosion in 2005 in which 15 people died.

“We’re finding it isn’t so easy to find someone. We want to make sure that person is independent and experienced,” Dudley said.

Dudley also acknowledged unhappiness with a lack of detail about safety improvements in the company’s annual report, agreeing information was “light” but would be stronger this year.

Before the meeting, Calpers, the biggest U.S. public pension fund, and the Florida State Board of Administration said they would join other smaller U.S. and European religious and ethical funds in voting against the reappointment of Bill Castell, the head of the safety, ethics and environment assurance committee. The two state pension boards together own some 0.4 percent of BP’s stock.

Pirc, the investor advice service, and the Association of British Insurers have issued warnings about excessive pay packages for two BP executives. Iain Conn, BP’s head of refining and Chief Financial Officer Byron Grote are receiving $505,000 and $621,000 for work not related to the oil spill.

Hayward also grabbed headlines with a $17.9 million pension, $1.6 million payoff and about $13 million in share options despite a series of public gaffes that led to his ceding the CEO post to Dudley.

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