IBT Staff Reporter

A powerful solar flare has triggered the largest space weather storm in four years, could be equivalent to a global hurricane Katrina that would cost up to $2 trillion dollars in damage to communications satellites, electric power grids and GPS navigation systems, scientists said yesterday

Students seeking to enroll in basic foreign language courses at the University of California Berkeley will have 30 additional offerings to choose from in academic year 2011-12, thanks to an infusion of over half a million dollars in foreign language education.

Apple will release new MacBook Pros to celebrate Steve Jobs' birthday, according to reports citing many insiders.

BHP Billiton agreed to acquire all of Chesapeake Energy's interests in the Fayetteville Shale play in central Arkansas for $4.75 billion, marking its entry into the US shale gas business.

Shares in Australian banks and insurers fell between 1.4 and over 2.7 percent after a strong quake hit New Zealand's second-biggest city of Christchurch on Tuesday for the second time in five months.

Just ahead on Monday's President's day, a USA Today/Gallup polled 1,015 adults from February 2-5, 2011 to determine who was the preferred President. Each poll participant was at least age 18 and older, living in the continental U.S., and selected randomly.

Amid concerns over Seagate's next-generation hard drive come questions on the future of data storage.

After the Egyptian government shut off the Internet attention has turned to Libya and Bahrain, both of which have had some of the worst unrest in the last week.

Various members of the United States Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee recent defended their cyber security bill saying it didn't promote the notion of a kill-switch.

From John Lennon in 1973 to Lady Gaga a few weeks ago, the list of alleged copy-cats is long.

The March opening race of the Formula One season in Bahrain was cancelled on Monday, as the country's opposition prepared to press for change in country's Sunni leadership, backed by protesters camped out in streets.

Vatican talks with a controversial Catholic splinter group are nearing an end without any accord on reintegrating the ultra-traditionalists, including a bishop whose denial of the Holocaust has embarrassed Pope Benedict.

U.S. drone strikes killed at least 11 people on Monday in tribal regions along Pakistan's western border, local officials said.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday acknowledged a bitter defeat in a state election in Hamburg, which could reverberate in six more votes this year and in her response to the euro zone crisis.

A suicide bomber killed at least 30 people in a government office in northern Afghanistan on Monday, officials said, with violence spiralling across the country even before an expected spring offensive.

Pakistan said on Monday it was taking steps to keep a U.S. consulate worker, imprisoned in a local jail for shooting two Pakistanis, safe from harm in a case that has unleashed a diplomatic storm.

South African papermaker Mondi posted a fourfold surge in annual profit, helped by recovering demand for paper and packaging, and said it would hike prices to cushion the impact of rising costs.

Truworths, South Africa's biggest listed clothing retailer, posted a 19 percent rise in first-half profit as lower interest rates boost consumer spending and said it was considering M&A or buying back shares.

Nigerian Central Bank Governor Lamido Sanusi said on Monday he did not believe that the naira was over-valued and criticised advice from the IMF, which last week recommended greater exchange rate flexibility.

Australia's Paladin Energy Ltd said on Monday it had resumed production at its uranium mine in Malawi after a four-day shut-down caused by a fuel shortage.

South Africa's rand was little changed from last week's closing levels against the dollar on Monday, with central bank intervention helping stem gains in the currency despite support from stronger commodity prices.

Petroleum distributor Shell Mauritius Ltd said on Monday that parent Royal Dutch Shell planned to sell three quarters of its stake in the company to two joint venture partners.

Dell is bringing cloud-based services to the health care sector.

Stratex International Plc plans to start drilling for gold and silver in the second quarter of this year in northern Ethiopia, the London-listed gold exploration firm said on Monday.

Sudan has appointed private sector businessmen to help manage its state oil firm Sudapet, which owns stakes in all of Sudan's oil blocks, to improve the company's efficiency and widen its scope, the oil minister said.

South African truckers ended their week-long strike on Monday after accepting an above inflation salary increase of 9 percent, union officials and employers said.

Egypt's public prosecutor on Monday moved to freeze the foreign assets of Hosni Mubarak, the first sign that the deposed president would be held to account by the rulers to whom he handed power 10 days ago.

Zimbabwe has arrested dozens of activists on charges of plotting protests against long-serving President Robert Mugabe similar to those that toppled the leaders of Egypt and Tunisia, police said on Monday.

Libyan warplanes were bombing indiscriminately across Tripoli on Monday, a resident of the Libyan capital told al Jazeera television in a live broadcast.