UNITED STATES

Police in riot gear closed in before dawn Monday on anti-Wall Street activists who defied a midnight deadline to vacate an 8-week-old encampment outside Los Angeles City Hall, but the police later pulled back.

Hedy Lamarr may have been known for her astonishing beauty but it was her inventor streak that really stands out.

Gold prices surged Monday along with equities on hope that drastic action by France and Germany can save the Eurozone from its two-year-old sovereign debt crisis.

U.S. District Court Judge Jed S. Rakoff issued an acerbic order blocking the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's proposed $285 million deal with Citigroup that is "neither fair, nor reasonable, nor adequate, nor in the public interest."

Some 150 websites allegedly selling counterfeit goods including shoes, purses, sunglasses and sports jerseys have been seized, authorities said on Monday, coinciding with the Cyber Monday holiday shopping day.

While big U.S. banks assured investors they were financially healthy during the financial crisis, they also quietly approached the Federal Reserve for more bailout money. As of March 2009, the Fed committed $7.77 trillion to rescue the financial system, which is more than half the value of everything produced in the U.S. that year. The amount dwarfed the Treasury Department's better-known $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP.

(For other news from the Reuters Global Media Summit, click on http://www.reuters.com/summit/GlobalMedia11?pid=500)

The stark truth of the matter is that unless the private sector starts hiring en masse (including non-profit organizations), absent a surge in exports, it will be up to the public sector to provide stimulus to create jobs.

The judge hearing the Justice Department's challenge of AT&T Inc's plan to buy Deutsche Telekom AG's T-Mobile USA unit has postponed a status conference set for this week until early December, the court said in an order issued on Monday.

Sales of new homes rose in October and the supply of homes on the market fell to its lowest level since April of last year, showing some healing in the battered housing sector.

General Motors Co will allow Chevrolet Volt owners to drive other GM vehicles while U.S. regulators investigate the safety of batteries used in the Volt after crash tests produced fires.

A German regional court has opened the door to an investor law suit against credit rating agency Standard & Poor's over its assessment of Lehman Brothers securities before the collapse of the U.S. investment bank.

University of Utah Professor Grant Smith pleaded not guilty to allegations he viewed child pornography on a flight to Boston.

Stocks surged about 3 percent on Monday on hopes that fresh proposals may emerge out of Europe to help solve the region's debt crisis.

Verizon Galaxy Nexus rumors and puzzling Best Buy ads have left fans in the U.S. confused and frustrated about the phones release date, but Computer World claims to have finally found a credible source who leaked that pre-orders for the phone will start on Tuesday.

Improving market fundamentals will bolster the commercial real estate market in 2012, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR).

The world needs a far more ambitious plan to cut emissions of planet-warming greenhouse gases than the Kyoto Protocol, European Union climate negotiators said on Monday, calling for a global deal to be reached by 2015 and in place by 2020.

The former House Speaker has been on the defensive, rebutting criticisms that he is supporting amnesty for millions of immigrants, or that his policy would erect a magnet for undocumented immigrants, as former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney has charged. What was Gingrich really proposing? Here's the breakdown:

A judge on Monday rejected a proposed $285 million settlement between Citigroup Inc and the top U.S. market regulator over the sale of toxic mortgage debt and ordered a trial.

Apple, the world’s most valuable technology company, could double the number of iPads sold over the next year despite competition from new entrants, analysts say.

HTC's promise of competitive new models early next year may not be enough of a strategy shift to convince investors it can regain the innovative streak that catapulted it from an obscure contract maker to the world's No.4 smartphone brand.