IBT Staff Reporter

Millions of children in Mexico returned to school on Monday to freshly cleaned and disinfected classrooms following more than two weeks of closure caused by the swine flu outbreak.

High-profile New York lawyer Marc Dreier pleaded guilty on Monday to criminal charges of running a $400 million investment fraud involving fake promissory notes, and a judge released him into house arrest until sentencing.

The United States said Monday that it would provide $4.9 million in emergency aid to help the refugees displaced by the current anti-Taliban offensive in northwest Pakistan.

Palm is expected to launch its highly anticipated Palm Pre smart phone on June 7 and it will also be the first major phonemaker to integrate wireless charging into its products

Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas asked Prime Minister Salam Fayyad Monday to form a new government including Abbas' Fatah party and left-wing organizations.

On Monday, NASA astronauts said they will send tweets you from outer space to answers question and give updates from its space shuttle mission.

High-profile New York lawyer Marc Dreier pleaded guilty on Monday to criminal charges of running an investment fraud in the hundreds of millions of dollars involving fake promissory notes.

Hedge fund manager William Ackman introduced shareholders on Monday to his five nominees for the Target Corp board, promising their expertise could make the retailer a better company.

Saya the teacher doesn't mind being poked or pinched, or if the students play in class: she's an android designed to show children that science and technology can be fun subjects.

GenCorp’s Aerojet on Monday said it has launched the last STS-125 Spaced Shuttle Atlantis mission with its engines to service Hubble Space telescope and will be used for landing.

Over the following weeks 450 selected drivers will be driving the first highway legal Mini E car - the all electric zero emissions version of Mini Cooper - as part of a leasing program.

For the time being, Miss California, Carrie Prejean will be keeping her crown but not her duties as, according to pageant organizers, has violated her contract. Her fate is expected to be announced on Tuesday by Miss USA owner Donald Trump.

Ford Motor Co.’s need for cash to make mandatory payments scared off investors on Monday, sending shares down more than 9 percent in regular and after-hours trading.

With La Belle, Villeroy & Boch offers a premium product that displays a strong trend towards modern interpretation of classics from previous eras. The design of the collection incorporates romantic style elements such as curved ornaments and blossom tendrils, yet displays them in a contemporary manner.

A U.S. soldier opened fire on fellow troops at a counseling center on a military base Monday, killing five before being taken into custody, the U.S. command and Pentagon officials said.

The International Monetary Fund slashed its 2009 economic growth forecast for the Gulf region by more than half to 1.3 percent as the three largest oil-exporting economies, including Saudi Arabia, shrink in a global slowdown.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Monday replaced the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan and picked a former special forces commander to oversee President Barack Obama's military strategy against a growing Taliban insurgency.

The potential for changes in the blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average remains high, according to the head of the index's oversight committee, the same day the head of General Motors said bankruptcy had become more likely.

Southern California Edison, a utility of Edison International, is looking for approval to purchase 90 megawatts of power from a wind farm in Idaho assisted by Goshen, a firm owned by BP Wind Energy; and Ridgeline Energy LLC.

Consumers in debt can be given the chance to regain their older, lower rates if they pay their bills on time for six months, a compromise reached by lawmakers seeking changes in federal law governing the credit card industry.

Stocks fell on Monday as investors booked profits in financials after a two-month run-up and news of several banks' share offerings heightened worries about their dilutive impact on current shareholders.

The new strain of H1N1 flu that has killed 56 people in Mexico and has been carried around the world by travelers acts more like a pandemic strain than regular seasonal flu, researchers reported on Monday.

Chrysler's 16,000 salaried retirees will start their fight this week for their benefits in the automaker's bankruptcy restructuring, with the potential to create a public relations headache for the company.

The new H1N1 virus shows no signs of sustained person-to-person spread outside of North America and so has not yet tipped over into a pandemic, a top World Health Organization official said on Monday.

Four big U.S. banks on Monday said they would sell $6.55 billion of common stock and repay funds from the government's bank bailout program, after federal stress tests showed they can weather a deep recession without new capital.

The Obama administration cannot start dealing with the short-term challenges presented by the deficit until it gets the economy moving, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said on Monday.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on Israel on Monday to fundamentally change its policies on settlements and prove its commitment to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The U.S. space shuttle Atlantis blasted off from its Florida launch pad on Monday just after 2p.m. ET on a mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope, an important tool for scientists probing the origins of the universe.

The U.S. economy shed a further 539K jobs in April, bringing the number of jobs lost since the turn in labour market conditions in January last year to 5.6 million. On the positive side, this was the slowest pace of monthly job losses since October last year.