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ruguay star Diego Forlan said Monday that he is leaving Atletico Madrid and is set to join Serie A Inter Milan.

Forlan, who scored two goals in the final as his country lifted the Copa America this summer, has been with Atletico since 2007, but a posting on the club's official website confirmed his departure.

Forlan, who appeared at a news conference with Atletico president Enrique Cerezo, said the La Liga club would always be in his heart.

But added: "At the age of 33, going to a club like Inter is not an opportunity that comes up often.

"I am happy with the decision that I have taken, it is normal that some players come and others go," Forlan added.

ontroversy struck the world athletics championships in Daegu for the second straight day as Cuba's Dayron Robles was disqualified Monday after winning the men's 110m hurdles final.

Robles, defending the title he won in Berlin two years ago, crossed the line first in 13.14 seconds, ahead of American Jason Richardson (13.16) and 2004 Olympic champion Liu Xiang of China (13.24).

But the Cuban was judged to have made contact with Liu to impede him as they came off the final hurdle.

"Robles has been disqualified by the track referee under rule 163.2 for obstruction on the track," said an statement from world governing body, the IAAF.

Cuba launched an appeal against the decision, but it was dismissed, leaving Richardson to take a surprise gold, former world record holder Liu was elevated to silver with Britain's Andy Turner up to bronze.

(CNN) -- Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova crashed out and Maria Sharapova survived an almighty scare on the opening day of the U.S. Open Monday.

Kvitova, who beat Sharapova in the final at Wimbledon, exited to Romanian Alexandra Dulgheru in straight sets, 7-6 6-3.

Sharapova, second favorite behind Serena Williams to win the final grand slam of the season, flirted with defeat before seeing off British teenager Heather Watson, 3-6 7-5 6-3.

19-year-old Watson led by a set and a break before Sharapova fought back to force a decider.

An early break gave the Russian third seed the cushion to wrap up victory, but it was hardly a convincing performance.

Kvitova had been set to open on the main Arthur Ashe stadium court, but organizers switched her to the smaller Louis Armstrong court as they made changes to the schedule after Tropical Storm Irene blew through New York over the weekend.

Barcelona began the defense of their La Liga crown with a convincing 5-0 win over Villarreal in the Nou Camp Monday night.

Goals from new recruits Cesc Fabregas and Alexis Sanchez followed an opener from the promising Thiago Alcantara.

Lionel Messi then added a double for Pep Guardiola's all-conquering team who have already added to their trophy cabinet with victories in the Spanish Super Cup and European Super Cup before the start of their league campaign.

Arch-rivals Real Madrid opened their title bid with a 6-0 rout of Real Zaragoza Sunday and Barca were just as impressive once youth team graduate and Spanish under-21 international Thiago had set them on the way with a 25th minute opener.

(FT) -- German "bad bank" agencies holding billions of euros of Greek debt have still to decide whether to join a bond swap designed to cut Athens' refinancing burden as part of an EU bail-out.

Two of the German banks that are among the country's largest holders of Greek bonds have also to commit themselves to the €135bn debt swap plan set to be launched next month.

The uncertainty over which institutions will support the deal comes as Greece is warning that the swap might not go ahead if fewer than 90 per cent of private investors agree to participate.

Some of Germany's biggest holders of Greek debt are agencies set up with public sector support to wind down toxic and unwanted assets that had to be unloaded from stricken banks' balance sheets during the financial crisis.

About €7.4bn of Greek sovereign debt is held by FMS Wertmanagement, a "bad bank" to which €175bn in assets were transferred from Hypo Real Estate, a property lender.

Erste Abwicklungsanstalt, to which assets from WestLB were transferred, has a further €1.1bn of Greek public sector exposure.

Because the agencies are not banks and are backed by public sector guarantees, the extent to which they may take part in the bond swap aimed at private creditors remains unclear, in spite of their large holdings.

FMS holds more than twice as much Greek debt as Commerzbank, which is Athens' biggest private-sector German creditor.

EAA has taken a 21 per cent writedown on its Greek holdings, in line with advice from a German accounting body following the announcement last month of the private-sector restructuring offer, which is being co-ordinated by the Institute of International Finance, a global banking sector lobby group.

However, EAA has said it "remains to be seen whether or to [what] extent EAA will participate?...?in the IIF offer of private creditors and suffer losses from the restructuring of Greece's liabilities".

(FT) -- Solid first-half profits at China's state-owned oil companies have paved the way for further expansion overseas as the country's oil needs continue to rise.

Sinopec, the world's second-largest oil refiner, said on Sunday it intended to raise up to Rmb50bn ($7.8bn) through the sale of bonds and convertible bonds to fund projects, boost working capital and pay debts. The instruments will be issued or placed with existing shareholders, Sinopec said.

The fundraising plan accompanied the company's announcement of a 12 per cent rise in net profit, to Rmb41bn, in the first half of the year, beating analysts' expectations.

Results were rosier still for offshore producer Cnooc, which reported first-half net profit of Rmb39bn, up 51.4 per cent, despite production disruptions from a recent oil spill.

PetroChina, the listed subsidiary of China's largest oil and gas producer CNPC, reported net profit of Rmb66bn for the first half, up 1 per cent from a year earlier, the weakest profit growth among its peers. Profits at both PetroChina and Sinopec were dented by Beijing's price controls on fuel, which capped gasoline and diesel prices this spring even while Brent soared above $120 a barrel.

Analysts agreed Chinese oil companies were likely to sustain their interest in overseas acquisitions as they seek to grow their production base.

(CNN) -- On Oyu Tolgoi -- "Turquoise Hill" -- the biggest business venture in Mongolia is taking shape.

The copper resources aren't new to locals -- after all, for thousands of years locals dug out copper to melt down into things like arrowheads, CNN's Stan Grant reports.

But the massive Gobi Desert copper and gold mine -- a joint venture with foreign mining conglomerates Ivanhoe and Rio Tinto -- is expected to account for one-third of the nation's total economic output by 2020 and boost the average earnings of Mongolia by 60%.

The numbers are staggering. The development phase runs to nearly $5 billion. The mine is projected to produce to 450,000 tons of copper and more than 300,000 ounces of gold. Developers claim there's enough here to mine for the next 50 years or more.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Hurricane Irene left 27 people dead, 3 million customers without power and potentially billions of dollars in damage from flooding and wind.

But the economic damage could have been a lot worse, experts said.

"It was much less bite than bark," said Matt Carletti, specialty insurance analyst at JMP Securities. "Rounding up, it's a $10 billion event, not 20 or 30 or 40."

Hurricane damage could total $7 billion, according to Kinetic Analysis Corp., which estimates the impact of natural and man-made disasters on the economy. Less than half of that -- some $3 billion -- will be covered by insurance, the company said.

Eqecat, a catastrophe risk-modeling firm, said that South and North Carolina suffered between $200 million and $400 million in insured losses. And the Caribbean -- including the Bahamas, Turks and Caicos and Puerto Rico -- suffered damage ranging from $300 million to $600 million.

"Certainly, the storm was, in terms of damage and losses, less than expected," said Jose Miranda, director of client advocacy for Eqecat. "The fact that the storm hit the U.S. coast three separate times served as the number one factor why it weakened as it moved up the East Coast and mitigated losses."
Damage estimates roll in

As of Monday morning, Vermont seemed to bear the brunt of flood damage from the hurricane, with some towns in the southern part of the state entirely covered by water.

(FT) -- Diamonds have emerged as a haven investment alongside favourites gold and the Swiss franc, with surging demand from Asian buyers driving prices of the precious stones.

Consumption from China and India has helped boost prices nearly 50 per cent since the start of 2010 -- mostly in the past six months -- and pushed them to historic highs, according to industry price lists and gem traders in Antwerp, the global capital of the diamond business.

The value of top-quality polished diamonds of 5 carats, or 1 gramme, has risen to about $150,000 a carat, up from about $100,000-$120,000 a year ago, according to PolishedPrices, which compiles data on the wholesale market. Other categories of polished and rough diamonds have also risen.

Rough-diamond prices were hit hard during the credit crisis, but saw support in 2009 after the leading producers, including De Beers of South Africa, held back supplies to push prices up.

"Constrained supply, particularly for large, high-value stones, looks set to continue for the foreseeable future," said Jon Bergtheil, analyst at Citigroup.

The production cuts depleted inventories, which, combined with the surge in Asian demand, have contributed to record prices, industry executives said.

"In Asia the emerging middle classes are buying their first diamonds," said Pooja Kotwani, the India managing director of Rapaport, a diamond services company. "They are moving from a traditional gold band to a diamond-set ring. This is having a huge effect."

Diamond traders said that the price increase was having an unexpected knock-on effect for grooms in the US and Europe, who are opting for smaller, odd-shaped and cheaper gems for their brides.

(FT) -- European officials rounded on Christine Lagarde on Sunday, accusing the managing director of the International Monetary Fund of making a "confused" and "misguided" attack on the health of Europe's banks.

Ms Lagarde, the former French finance minister who replaced Dominique Strauss-Kahn as head of the IMF in July, used her address at an annual meeting of central bankers in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, to call for an "urgent" recapitalisation of Europe's weakest lenders, saying that shoring up the banking system was key to cutting "chains of contagion" across the region.

But officials said Ms Lagarde's comments missed the point of banks' current difficulties. "The key issue is funding," said one experienced central banker. "Banks in some countries have had trouble securing liquidity in recent weeks and that pressure is going to mount. To talk about capital is a confused message. Everybody -- politicians, regulators, other officials -- is quite concerned."

Officials, nervous that Ms Lagarde's statement would further spook bank investors, said they planned to urge the former French finance minister to clarify her statement.

European politicians and regulators are still struggling to come up with a mechanism that will calm investors' skittishness about banks' exposure to sovereign debt across the southern eurozone. A high-profile pan-European "stress test" of bank balance sheets has failed to allay investors' concerns about their ability to withstand a default by a European government, or a severe deterioration in their credit portfolios across the region.