NEW YORK

Samsung Electronics Co, Sharp Corp and five other makers of liquid crystal displays agreed to pay $539 million to settle claims they conspired to fix prices and stifle competition for LCD panels in televisions, notebook computers and monitors, according to a court filing.

Matthew McConaughey proposed to Camila Alves on Christmas Day, tweeting a cute picture of the longtime couple as they kissed by the Christmas tree. But who, exactly, is McCaughey's fiance? Is it true her mother doesn't approve of McConaughey? Here are five things to know about Camila Alves, from the couple's past to Alves' designer label and modeling career.

New York advertising executive Madonna Badger lost her three children and parents in a fire that burnt her Stamford, Conn., waterfront home to the ground on Sunday.

Cheap, tasty champagne is one of the essentials of any New Year's Eve party, but selecting from the litany of bottles bearing words like brut and dry is often like rolling the dice.

Justin Bieber seems to have caught the Christmas spirit of giving this year as he gave his best friend Ryan Butler a convertible Mustang on Sunday.

Shoppers found a mixed bag of bargains and so-so deals on Monday, as a day off for many Americans lured some out for what was likely to be the third-busiest shopping day of the holiday season.

To reduce/eliminate climate change, the U.S. must sub nuclear power for coal at electric power generating plants, until more-advanced energy forms are available. And France is a good model to follow: it generates almost 79 percent of its electricity from nuclear technology and has successfully reprocessed nuclear fuel for decades.

The parents of Madonna Badger, whose Connecticut house was engulfed by fire on Christmas Day, would have celebrated their 49th anniversary on Monday, a family friend told The New York Times.

Retailers were bracing for a busy day on Monday, as a day off for many Americans and warm, dry weather were expected to entice shoppers looking for deep discounts.

Jennifer O'Neill, 41, alleges that Lady Gaga, 25, owes her hundreds of thousands of dollars in back pay. Lady Gaga, whose real name is Stefani Germanotta, apparently employed O'Neill for 13 months in 2010 as her personal assistant during the pop icon's 2010 Monster Ball world tour.

The performance turned in by Thomas Horn, who plans 10-year-old Oskar Schell is an Oscar-worthy effort. Schell, who was chosen for the role despite no previous acting experience other than winning $30,000 at the age of 12 on the Jeopardy! Kids Week program, reminds us that children so often has the same difficulty navigating themselves and the troubled world around them that we all do.

Actress Helen Mirren, 66, went topless for New York magazine last June and people are still searching for her photos.

A 47-year-old mother lost her three children in a Christmas morning house fire in an upscale Stamford neighborhood in Connecticut that has left five people dead.

Both Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich have been ousted from the primary after failing to collect enough valid signatures to run, and while Perry's campaign has been over for months, the loss of Super Tuesday state Virginia for Gingrich is a devastating blow. Months after he was declared dead-on-arrival, is Gingrich's comeback already over?

NORAD teamed up with Google Earth once again in 2011, tracking Father Christmas' progress around the world as volunteers fielded 100,000 calls. As NORAD reports a record holiday, find out how the Santa Tracker got started, and check out 2011's best Google Earth videos tracking Santa's progress, from the Great Wall and Taj Mahal to Hilo, Hawaii.

Kim Kardashian's Sexiest Looks of 2011: Her Best Before and After Divorce [PHOTOS]

The UPS driver who flipped the middle finger and threw a package last week all while being caught on video was fired, according to the courier company.

Sometimes, New York feels like its own country. Even as the rest of the U.S. struggles in the face of a down housing market, the New York of 2011 saw skyscrapers charge ever upwards, with pricing inevitably following. It is truly the global city, with developers, buyers and architects from around the world gathering to shape the future. Here are five of the biggest developments of 2011.

New York's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) has devoted for the first time a complete display of the major artworks of abstract expressionist artist Willem de Koonong, who is regarded as one of the most prolific artists in the 20th century.

AMR Corp's American Airlines has been given approval by a U.S. bankruptcy judge to buy 32 Boeing planes.

Louis Vuitton has filed a lawsuit in federal court in New York after alleging that a hand bag featured in the movie, The Hangover II, is fake.