IBT Staff Reporter

At the time of Michael Jackson's death last week, it was well-known that he was preparing for a 50-show concert series at London's O2 Arena later this month.

The downturn in global advertising is approaching its lowest point and, after a fall of 8.5 percent in 2009, the industry should see a mild recovery in 2010, a leading media agency predicted on Monday.

France and Russia on Sunday urged a debate about the world's reserve currencies, but China said the dollar would keep its pre-eminence for many years to come.

Stock markets rewarded companies such as Johnson & Johnson and Cisco who were brave enough to make acquisitions in the months after Lehman Brothers' collapse, a study released on Monday showed.

The death of former NFL quarterback Steve McNair, killed in a shooting incident Saturday morning, was ruled a homicide by police, who also said he was dating Sahel Kazemi, the woman who was also found dead next to him.

Two monorails collided at around 2 a.m. at the Transportation and Ticket Center, which is the hub for Walt Disney World's transportation system in Orlando.

Roger Federer won his 15th Grand Slam title, breaking Pete Sampras's record of 14 Grand Slam titles.

Flooding and heavy rain in southern China have forced 550,000 people to evacuate their homes and killed at least 15, Xinhua news agency reported on Sunday.

The Michael Jackson memorial in downtown Los Angeles on Tuesday is expected to draw a huge crowd, but the LAPD has warned that fans that don't have tickets, shouldn't come out to the memorial.

If the majority of Wall Street economists are right, the U.S. recession will end this quarter and the global recovery won't be far behind.

Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya departed on a flight for his country on Sunday, but the interim government that has defied international pressure over last week's coup said it would not let his plane land.

French investigators said on Sunday they had detected the signal from the flight recorders from a Yemeni jet that crashed last week with more than 150 people on board.

The global recession, shrinking advertising sales and fears that the Internet could render big media empires obsolete provide an ominous backdrop for executives at this week's Sun Valley conference.

Roger Federer beat Andy Roddick on Sunday to win the Men's Singles title at Wimbledon, setting the all-time record for victories at major tournaments.

Florida regulators seldom checked the Miami operations of Allen Stanford after giving the accused fraud master unprecedented freedom to send cash overseas and sell investment securities, the Miami Herald newspaper reported on Sunday.

On Saturday, Madonna paid tribute to Michael Jackson at O2 Arena in the U.K, with one of her dancers dressed as the late artist performing to a medley of Jackson hits.

World leaders are bound to express the hope that the worst of the global economic crisis is passing when they meet this week, but they are now under pressure, too, to manage a Chinese challenge to dollar supremacy.

Go East is a message being heeded by many Asian professionals in the United States and Europe who see brighter job prospects in a region that is expected to outperform the rest of the world for economic growth.

Former NFL quarterback Steve McNair was has died after a shooting in Nashville, Tennessee, authorities told CNN on Saturday.

Anti-G8 demonstrators clashed briefly with Italian police on Saturday in the first big protest ahead of next week's summit of the world's richest nations.

Search crews have located a large piece of debris from a Yemeni jet that crashed into the Indian Ocean off the Comoros islands last week and are working to retrieve it, the Yemeni transport ministry said on Saturday.

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon rebuked Myanmar's generals on Saturday for denying him a visit to see detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and said she should be allowed to take part in politics before 2010 elections.

More than half a million fans from around the world applied for 17,500 free tickets to Michael Jackson's public memorial service next week, organizers said on Friday as a massive security operation got underway.

Since the King of Pop died last Thursday of cardiac arrest, many news outlets and reporters have seized on his possible prescription drug use as a reason. It makes for a good story and, after all, the King of Pop did admit to an addiction to painkillers in his past.

Michael Jackson went from being Gary, Ind.'s most talented kid to one of the most recognizable human beings on the planet.

Sarah Palin, who surprised the U.S. political world last year by becoming Republican John McCain's vice presidential running mate, surprised again on Friday by announcing her resignation as Alaska's governor.

North Korea fired seven ballistic missiles on Saturday, South Korea's defense ministry said, in an act of defiance against the United States as Washington cracks down on the secretive state's weapons proliferation.

North Korea fired seven ballistic missiles on Saturday, South Korea's defense ministry said, in an act of defiance toward the United States on its Independence Day that further stoked regional tensions.

China said on Saturday its policy toward foreign acquisitions of domestic firms was fair, explaining that broader national concerns take precedence over the potential benefits to any single company.