IBT Staff Reporter

The European Union agreed on Monday to set up a military mission in Uganda to train Somali government forces who are fighting an Islamist insurgency.

The landlords who acquired a massive apartment complex in Manhattan in 2006 for a record sum have decided to give up control of the property to their lenders, as the biggest residential real estate deal in U.S. history has collapsed after a missed debt payment.

Haiti could start relocating nearly half a million homeless earthquake survivors from its ruined capital this week, the government said on Monday, as foreign donors mapped out a long-term rebuilding plan.

Power company Duke Energy said its commercial business unit, Duke Energy Generation Services (DEGS), agreed to buy a 14 megawatt Blue Wing Solar Project from juwi Solar Inc, a unit of Germany's juwi Holding AG.

Solar company Conergy paved the way for striking a refinancing deal by the end of March thanks to a breakthrough settlement with wafer supplier MEMC, its CEO told Reuters on Monday.

The S&P 500 index is up 7.33 points or 0.67 percent in early afternoon trading. The basic materials sector leads the rally, with the Dow Jones U.S. Basic Materials Index is up 1.3 percent and the Dow Jones U.S. Oil & Gas Index up 1 percent.

Internet company AOL Inc said on Monday it bought a video production company StudioNow Inc for $36.5 million in cash and stock to expand its technology to create original online programing.

U.S. stocks edged higher in choppy trade on Monday as investors scooped up shares beaten down in last week's sell-off, including materials and technology stocks, but caution persisted over plans to curb bank risk-taking.

Paraguayan soccer player Salvador Cabanas is in serious condition at a hospital in Mexico City after been shot in the head early Monday, Miguel Angel Mancera, the city's attorney general told Mexico's Primero Noticias news.

Outside their wrecked headquarters, Radio Caraibe's presenters broadcast from a makeshift studio spilling over a pavement in Haiti's quake-hit capital, supplying news and messages about aid and victims.

Sales of previously owned homes suffered a record drop last month as the boost from a popular tax credit waned, raising doubts the housing market recovery can be sustained without government support.

Seventeen Senators, four of them Democrats, have declared that they will vote against Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke's confirmation for second term, according a Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones survey.

Hopes tiny Dutch car maker Spyker can yet rescue Sweden's failing Saab automobile brand and the 3,400 jobs that depend on it flickered back into life on Monday.

The sci-fi Avatar is the box-office champ for the sixth week in a row and is safely on its way to becoming the highest-grossing movie of all time, dethroning Titanic.

General Motors Co Chairman and acting Chief Executive Ed Whitacre will take the CEO role on a permanent basis, CNBC reported on Monday.

U.S. businesses plan to increase hiring and capital spending in the first half of this year, a survey showed on Monday, steps that could give the economic recovery further impetus.

From Blackberry's to televisions, more and more devices are including wireless technology to connect the devices to the Internet.

Microsoft Corp Chairman Bill Gates on Monday said the Internet needs to thrive in China as an engine of free speech and described official online censorship by Beijing as very limited.

Spyker Cars said on Tuesday its talks with General Motors over buying its ailing Swedish carmaking unit Saab must end soon, as swirling speculation about a last-ditch deal sent its shares to 12-month highs.

General Motors Co acting Chief Executive Ed Whitacre will take that role on a permanent basis, a person familiar with the matter said on Monday.

U.S. stocks rose on Monday, set to snap a three-session sell-off that wiped out index gains for the year, as U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke edged closer to winning support for a second term.

A group led by Tishman Speyer Properties LP is giving up control of the Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village apartment complex in Manhattan to creditors, marking the collapse of one of the largest transactions during the U.S. real estate boom.

An Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737-800 airliner with 90 people on board crashed into the sea shortly after leaving Beirut in bad weather early on Monday.

Sam's Club, the warehouse club division of Wal-Mart Stores Inc is cutting roughly 11,200 jobs, or about 10 percent of its workforce, as it outsources in-store product demonstrations and eliminates positions used to recruit new business members.

European Union regulators opened an antitrust investigation on Monday into a planned $116 billion (71.8 billion pounds) iron ore production joint venture between BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto.

The commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan said he hopes increased troop levels will weaken the Taliban enough for its leaders to accept a peace deal.

Oil prices slipped slightly on Monday to approach a one-month low near $74 a barrel on continuing signs of weak demand and concerns over a U.S. proposal to tighten bank trading rules.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Monday he saw growing support for some form of international levy on banks to fund support for the industry.

Three large car bombs rocked well-known Baghdad hotels on Monday, killing at least 36 people and ending a 1-1/2-month lull in coordinated assaults on the Iraqi capital as the country heads into a March election.