NEW YORK

Hurricane Irene has left the U.S. East Coast but the update in the aftermath reveals a path of destruction, as the storm plodded along 1,100 miles of coastline while inflicting whipping and drenching impact. Clean will likely take months, and damage could near $20 billion on all.

While it is still early in the recovery process for Hurricane Irene, given weaker-than-expected wind speeds, particularly for the New York metro area landfall, FBR Capital Markets believes it is safe to say that loss expectations are lower than many investors thought last Thursday and Friday when forecasts shifted to show a more inland path for the storm.

Following Irene's fury, America's largest metropolitan city is back in business on Monday as most subways and buses resumed service. Commuter traffic is lighter than normal as many in the region still lack power and others who fled remain out of town, but it was a quick turnaround for New York.

Hurricane Irene's path over the weekend caused havoc by taking at least 21 lives across the United States. The hurricane has also forced Samsung to delay its Galaxy S2 smartphone, which was expected to come to the U.S. on Aug. 29.

A U.S. and European push to impose U.N. Security Council sanctions on Syria for its bloody crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators is meeting fierce resistance from Russia and China, U.N. diplomats said.

Stock index futures pointed to a higher open on Wall Street on Monday, with futures for the S&P 500 up 1 percent, Dow Jones futures up 0.8 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures up 1 percent at 0930 GMT (5:30 a.m. ET).

The top after-market NYSE Losers on Friday are: Strategic Hotels & Resorts, Quanta Services, KBR, Chicago Bridge & Iron, Pier 1 Imports, Kronos Worldwide, UDR, Alere, Nucor and Temple-Inland.

The top after-market NYSE gainers on Friday are: Banco Santander, Brookfield Office Properties, Jaguar Mining, Sandridge Energy, Radioshack, Toll Brothers, General Growth Properties, Endeavour Silver Corp, Bank of America and CVR Energy.

The Libyan convicted in the 1988 bombing of a U.S.-bound airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, has been found in Tripoli and appears at death's door, CNN reported Sunday.

A new prognostic model may predict whether patients with advanced cancer are likely to survive for days, weeks or months, researchers say.

Hurricane Irene's impact on New York City proved not as severe as feared, since winds did not reach hurricane force, above 74 mph.

Conventional wisdom in legal circles has long held that Goldman Sachs (GS.N) might escape further large fines or criminal charges for its role in the 2007-2009 financial crisis after reaching a $550 million settlement with securities regulators in July 2010.

U.S. President Barack Obama on Sunday warned that flooding from Hurricane Irene could worsen as rivers flood their banks and said federal recovery efforts would last a few weeks.

Hurricane Irene swept through Manhattan on Sunday but reserved the worst of its fury for towns and suburbs up and down the northeastern United States where driving rain and flood tides inundated homes and cut power to millions.

More than 470,000 Long Islanders lost power due to Irene

Was the Hurricane Irene Path Evacuation and transit system shutdown ordered by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg wrong?

A final decision on whether to cut power to Lower Manhattan due to storm surges has not been reached, said New York power utility Consolidated Edison, or Con-Ed, said Sunday, but flooding in the area appeared to be less severe than expected.

In Washington, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) officials said it would take several days to begin complete cost estimates of damage caused by the storm, and to determine how long it will take be before transportation systems in the East Coast Boston-New York-Philadelphia-Washington corridor will be back to full service.

Granted, if Irene had crossed closer to Manhattan, I’d be singing a different tune.

New York has lifted an unprecedented evacuation order in place for Hurricane Irene and the New York Stock Exchange will open Monday, but New York area airports will not reopen until at least late Monday, officials said. New York's transit system including subways that serve eight million people each weekday were closed in advance of Hurricane Irene. Also, all New York area airports were closed. But the evacuation was lifted Sunday afternoon, and the New York Stock Exchange says i

Hurricane Irene had weakened to a tropical storm when it made landfall in New York City, with winds of 65 miles per hour. But further south, states were not so lucky. Power is out in many places and transportation is still hampered across much of the East Coast, and with major airport hubs downed, the ripple is affecting most of the world. Now focus turns to restoration and recovery as the weekend rolls in the business week. Join IBT staff as we live blog the recovery efforts and continued devel...