IBT Staff Reporter

U.S. industrial shares lifted the Dow and the S&P 500 on Monday to new 15-month highs after China bolstered expectations the world economy would strengthen, but Nasdaq fell on profit-taking in tech stocks.

It's not nearly as famous as Amsterdam in this regard, but prostitution is legal in Costa Rica, and it's become quite a big destination for sex tourism.

Heineken NV will buy the beer business of Mexico's FEMSA in a $5.7 billion deal that boosts the Dutch brewer's emerging-markets presence and cements an alliance with one of Latin America's biggest drinks firms.

U.S. technology stocks fell on Monday as investors took profits after the Nasdaq hit a 16-month high on Friday, while shares of industrials buoyed the broad market after strong Chinese economic data.

Microsoft Corp. has pulled almost every version of Office from its own online store in compliance with a court order after a patent dispute with Canadian firm i4i. As of mid-day today, the only edition available from the Microsoft Store was Office Ultimate 2007, a $670 full-version suite.

Top automotive industry executives gathered at the media preview for the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, starting on Sunday.

Ford Motor Co. shares climbed on Monday as the company won the North American Car and Truck of the year awards for the 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid and the 2010 Ford Transit Connect, respectively, at the 2010 Detroit Auto Show.

U.S. automakers and officials at the Detroit auto show struck an optimistic yet cautious tone on Monday as they sought to put a toxic year of slumping sales and massive government aid behind.

China's auto market, which overtook the United States as the world's largest earlier this year thanks to a raft of policy incentives, has been a major bright spot amid a global industry downturn.

Ford Motor Co's (F.N) chief executive on Monday called the company's outlook for U.S. auto industry sales conservative, and said the automaker believes an upswing in December bodes well for its forecasts.

Major powers may soon meet to discuss Iran's nuclear program, the State Department said on Monday, adding the talks could take place when U.S. Undersecretary of State William Burns travels to Moscow and Madrid this week.

The Obama administration is considering imposing a fee on banks to help recover some of taxpayers' costs of bailing banks out from the financial crisis, according to multiple reports on Monday.

Citigroup Inc said on Monday that Teresa Terri Dial was stepping down as head of its North American consumer bank, just months after an outside review reportedly questioned her management skills.

General Motors Co sent its clearest signal yet on Monday that none of the bidders for Saab had submitted an offer that would prompt the automaker to reverse a decision to shut down the Swedish luxury brand.

McMoRan Exploration Co and its partner Energy XXI Ltd unveiled a gas discovery in the shallow waters of the Gulf of Mexico, sending their shares soaring and rekindling excitement about the region's potential as a major energy source.

Eastman Kodak Co and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd will license one another's digital camera technology, settling a lingering dispute between the two companies, Kodak said on Monday.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said that online privacy is no longer the social norm as users of social networking sites like Facebook become more comfortable sharing information on the Internet.

Britain's first commercial wind farm will be repowered, replacing its aging turbines with more efficient ones under an 11.8 million pound ($19.1 million) deal announced by Good Energy Group plc on Monday.

Ford Motor Co. introduced the new-generation Ford Focus at the 2010 North American International Auto Show in Detroit Monday morning and said it expects to sell an all-electric version of the vehicle in 2011.

Chinese photovoltaic (PV) cell maker Solarfun Power Holdings Co Ltd said its unit, Jiangsu Linyang Solarfun Co Ltd, has received three contracts to supply 12.65 megawatt (MW) PV modules to projects in China.

They've never known a world without the Internet, but they still prefer to meet their friends offline.

New York's attorney general asked eight major U.S. banks to turn over data on planned bonuses for 2009, amid a growing public outcry over payouts in light of the industry's role in the near-collapse of the financial system and recession.

TransAlta Corp said on Monday it is planning a C$100 million ($97.1 million) expansion to its New Brunswick wind farm after winning a 25-year power supply contract in the Atlantic Canadian province.

Stocks were treading water on Monday after a week of gains as investors waited for the start of an earnings season that will show whether profits and outlooks will be strong enough to extend stocks' advance.

Most notably, such companies want to cut or delay massive taxes that would raise tens of billions of dollars over the next 10 years to fund the healthcare reforms.

PARIS Alcatel-Lucent formed a consortium of telecoms operators, chip makers, and university labs aimed at inventing new technologies to reduce the electricity consumption of communication networks by a factor of one thousand.

U.S. stocks paused on Monday after a week of gains as nervous investors braced for the start of earnings reporting, worried if profits and outlooks will be strong enough to extend the market's advance.

As Obama's fellow Democrats in the House of Representatives and the Senate struggle to merge their healthcare bills into one, the president used his weekly radio address to try to ease lingering public doubts over his top legislative priority.

Japanese schoolchildren often hold hanseikai, or reflection talks, to discuss what they did wrong during a play or a sports meet.