LONDON (Reuters) - European shares took a breather from last week's sell-off and the single currency steadied on Monday, but investors were wary after a weekend meeting of Group of Eight leaders failed to ease concerns about the risk of Greece exiting the euro. The FTSE Eurofirst index of top European shares edged up 0.2 percent at 972.09 points after losing 5.1 percent last week to reach its lowest level in five months. ...

DUBAI (Reuters) - United Nations nuclear chief Yukiya Amano started talks with senior Iranian officials on Monday, Iranian media reported, on his one-day visit to Tehran that diplomats say could lead to an agreement for further inspections of Iranian nuclear sites. Hours after his pre-dawn arrival in Tehran, Amano met the head of Iran's nuclear energy organization, Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani, ISNA news agency reported. The International Atomic Energy Agency chief is also scheduled to meet Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili and Iranian foreign minister, Ali Akbar Salehi during the day. ...

The top U.S. envoy for North Korea is warning Pyongyang that any nuclear test will be met with "swift and sure" international punishment.

The head of the U.N. nuclear agency arrived Monday in Tehran on a key mission that could lead to the resumption of probes by the watchdog on whether Iran has secretly worked on an atomic weapon.

Overnight clashes in Beirut between Sunni Muslim groups that support and oppose the regime in Damascus left one person dead and 10 wounded as fears rose further of a spillover from the Syrian conflict, Lebanese security officials said Monday.

From a park near Albuquerque, to the top of Japan's Mount Fuji, to the California coast the effect was dramatic: The moon nearly blotting out the sun creating a blazing "ring of fire."

Bargain-hunting helped Asian stock markets edge upward Monday, but gains were limited as investors remained unconvinced that the world's major economies nailed a solution to the European debt crisis following a summit in Washington.

A Chinese conglomerate announced Monday it will buy a major U.S. cinema chain, AMC Entertainment Holdings, for $2.6 billion in China's biggest corporate takeover in the United States to date.

A Chinese conglomerate announced Monday it will buy a major U.S. cinema chain, AMC Entertainment Holdings, for $2.6 billion in China's biggest corporate takeover in the United States to date.

A German official says Berlin continues to oppose the idea of jointly-issued bonds for the eurozone, which France's new president had suggested could be used to fund economic growth.

The July 29, 2008, phone call between two titans of Wall Street began with the old friends exchanging mild pleasantries, but then quickly turned serious and — by the government's account — criminal.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The chief executives of Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd come face to face on Monday in court-directed mediation in the United States over a dispute in which the iPhone maker claims the Korean firm has "slavishly" copied some of its products. Apple's Tim Cook and Samsung's Choi Gee-sung have been instructed by a federal judge to appear for mediation in San Francisco to help resolve the bitter patent litigation between the two firms. The U.S. ...

BEIRUT (Reuters) - At least two people were killed in Beirut in heavy clashes early on Monday between rival Sunni Muslim gunmen, the latest violence fuelled by tensions over the uprising in neighboring Syria. Gunmen firing rocket-propelled grenades and machineguns clashed in the Lebanese capital's Tariq al-Jadideh district in some of the fiercest battles since sectarian fighting four years ago brought Lebanon back to the brink of civil war. The violence followed the killing of two members of a political alliance opposed to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Sunday in the north of Lebanon. ...

SHANGHAI/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Chinese Internet entrepreneur Jack Ma is buying back up to half of a 40 percent stake in his Alibaba Group from Yahoo Inc for $7.1 billion, in a deal that moves the Chinese e-commerce leader closer to a public listing. Under the agreement, Yahoo will sell half its stake in Alibaba for at least $6.3 billion in cash and up to $800 million in new Alibaba preferred stock. ...

Struggling Internet company Yahoo Inc. has secured a lifeline after agreeing to sell half of its prized stake in Chinese e-commerce group Alibaba for about $7.1 billion, with most of the cash going to shareholders.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin will unveil a government dominated by loyalists on Monday, leaving Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev limited scope to pursue his reform agenda and entrenching the Kremlin's grip over the economy's commanding heights. Medvedev, 46, named premier after Putin returned to the Kremlin on May 7, has pledged to launch pro-growth policies and a privatisation drive to wean Russia's $1.7 billion economy off its dependence on oil. ...

Lucio Adan Nelson dozed on a riverboat ferrying him home from a visit with his mother when helicopters appeared overhead and started shooting. He and about a dozen other passengers traveling in the middle of the night jumped into the water for cover.

FRANKFURT, Germany (Reuters) - The head of General Motors unit Opel will face workers' concerns on Monday over reported plans to shut one of its four German plants as the automaker pulls production of the Astra, its best-selling model, from the country. Opel's Chief Executive Karl-Friedrich Stracke is due to address workers at Germany's Bochum plant, which a source close to negotiations has said is the most likely to be shut. ...

ATHENS (Reuters) - The charismatic Greek leftist who could determine the fate of the euro begins a tour of European capitals on Monday carrying a single message: it's time to talk. In an interview on the eve of his first visit abroad since his surprise rise in a May 6 election, Alexis Tsipras veered occasionally into the combative rhetoric that has seduced disaffected Greek youth and alarmed Brussels and Berlin. But he also stressed repeatedly that he wants negotiations to keep Greece in the euro. ...

Santo Domingo (Reuters) - Early results from presidential elections in the Dominican Republic show ruling party candidate Danilo Medina headed for victory 12 years after he lost in a landslide to opposition candidate Hipolito Mejia. With almost 75 percent of votes counted, Medina and the ruling Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) held a 4 percentage point lead (51 percent - 47 percent) over Mejia, the candidate for the opposition Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD), according to official election results. ...

Millions of early risers in Asia turned their attention skyward to view a rare "ring of fire" eclipse as it crossed their skies Monday morning.

SHANGHAI/BEIJING (Reuters) - One of China's most conspicuously reform-minded leaders has stepped back into the spotlight after the nation's biggest political convulsion in a generation, positioning himself to gain from the fall of populist politician Bo Xilai. Wang Yang, leader of Guangdong province and well known for his deft handling of recent civil unrest there, is the first of three provincial-level party bosses who stand to benefit after a murder scandal snuffed out Bo's career last month. ...

Twenty-two states and the District of Columbia are backing Montana in its fight to prevent the U.S. Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United decision from being used to strike down state laws restricting corporate campaign spending.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Barely a day went by at the insider-trading trial of multimillionaire hedge-fund founder Raj Rajaratnam a year ago without mention of Rajat Gupta, a boldface name in business and charity circles. On Monday in the same federal court in New York, it will be Gupta's turn to go on trial. The former Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Procter & Gamble board member is accused of leaking stock secrets to Rajaratnam, his erstwhile friend and business associate who was convicted and is now in prison. ...

On paper at least, European leaders agree: They need stronger growth measures to help their economies expand out of their 2½-year-old government debt crisis. Figuring out exactly what those new steps might be will be the hard part.

MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Australia's top airline Qantas Airways said on Monday it is eliminating 500 jobs by merging maintenance facilities to save up to A$100 million ($98.4 million) annually, as high fuel costs and weak demand take a toll on airline profits. Qantas, which is emerging from a costly industrial dispute, said in statement it will stop heavy maintenance in Tullamarine in Melbourne and concentrate on centers in Brisbane and Avalon, resulting in the job cuts. It had, in February, flagged another 500 job cuts for the group. ...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng soaked up the sun in New York City on Sunday as his children played in a garden, a break in a day of meetings to arrange his studies at New York University. "(Chen) said he hadn't sat in the sun for many, many years," said Jerome Cohen, a China law expert and professor at New York University's law school, where Chen will study. "He wanted to go out in the garden ... his kids went out first and then he went out," Cohen, who has become a confidante of Chen's, told Reuters. ...

(Reuters) - The Nasdaq is planning to revamp its systems for handling stock offerings after acknowledging that technology problems had affected trading in millions of newly issued Facebook shares on Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported. Individual investors were left in the dark for hours on Friday about whether their buy and sell orders for Facebook shares had actually been executed, in the latest of a series high-profile exchange glitches. ...

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, the Libyan convicted of the 1988 bombing of a PanAm flight over Lockerbie, died of cancer on Sunday aged 60, leaving many questions on the attack and its aftermath unanswered. Megrahi, who said he was not responsible for bringing the jumbo jet down on the Scottish town and killing 270 people, was found guilty in 2001 but was freed in 2009 and returned to Libya because he had terminal cancer and was not expected to live long. ...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Newly issued shares in Facebook Inc may have a hard time in the coming week if lead underwriter Morgan Stanley stops supporting the stock and managers lower down in the IPO book who were hoping for an early surge decide to get out before going underwater. Facebook on Friday sold 421 million shares of stock in a deal that valued the company at more than $100 billion. But investors, expecting a first-day pop in price, instead saw it close just 0.6 percent above the IPO price at $38.23. ...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Newly issued shares in Facebook Inc may have a hard time in the coming week if lead underwriter Morgan Stanley stops supporting the stock and managers lower down in the IPO book who were hoping for an early surge decide to get out before going underwater. Facebook on Friday sold 421 million shares of stock in a deal that valued the company at more than $100 billion. But investors, expecting a first-day pop in price, instead saw it close just 0.6 percent above the IPO price at $38.23. ...

(Reuters) - A pledge by leaders of industrialized nations to help the troubled world economy is unlikely to herald quick new action by Europe on its debt crisis, meaning more uncertainty for nervous financial markets. The Group of Eight economies stressed on Saturday that their "imperative is to promote growth and jobs", as they also recognized problems among European banks and gave verbal backing for Greece to stay in the euro. Still, despite U.S. calls for immediate moves to boost growth, no sign emerged that Germany would soften its stance on austerity as the cure for Europe's debt ...

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The chief executives of Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd are used to running the show at their global tech empires, but they will be in for a different experience when they arrive at a San Francisco federal courthouse on Monday. Apple's Tim Cook and Samsung's Choi Gee-sung, whose companies are embroiled in bitter patent litigation, have been instructed by a federal judge to appear for court-supervised mediation. A joint court filing in April said that "as directed by the Court, Apple and Samsung are both willing to participate" in the discussions. ...

(Reuters) - Shares in social media company Facebook Inc could fall below the initial public offering price of $38, Barron's wrote in its May 21 edition. Facebook saw its shares rise a scant 0.6 percent to $38.23 on Friday in the first day of trading. The stock stayed above the $38 IPO price, supported in the market by the deal's underwriters. But Barron's said the "big question" this week will be whether they continue to do so. ...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Normally a big decline would set up Wall Street for a technical rebound. But that may not be the case this week, even after the market posted its worst weekly loss for the year and the S&P fell for six straight sessions. With the corporate earnings season drawing to an end and recent U.S. economic data raising doubts about the pace of growth, the S&P 500, which is down 7.3 percent so far in May, could decline further this week as concerns about the financial health of Europe persist. ...