IBT Staff Reporter

Canadian stocks were slightly higher on Monday, as gains by energy and mining issues offset lower financials, while investors largely shrugged off last week's euro zone ratings downgrades.

Use of microblogging in China quadrupled in 2011 compared with the previous year, with nearly half of all Chinese Internet users now taking to the near-instant service to gather news and spread views, a government Internet think tank said Monday.

Ontario's economy expanded 0.7 percent in the third quarter, reversing a 0.2 percent decline in the second quarter and steering Canada's manufacturing heartland away from another recession.

WestJet Airlines Ltd may launch a short-haul airline as early as next year to serve smaller cities and towns in Canada, a challenge to its main rival Air Canada in a market that analysts say has room for a competitor.

Montreal's Max Pacioretty scored twice as the Canadiens rose to the occasion with a 4-1 victory over the NHL-leading New York Rangers on Sunday.

The Canadian government's withdrawal from the Kyoto Protocol is illegal, alleges a suit to be filed in federal court by a law professor and former Canadian MP on Friday.

Twelve people were killed on Monday in Syria where a peace plan monitored by Arab observers has failed to douse a 10-month-old struggle between President Bashar al-Assad and his foes.

European shares and the euro gradually recovered on Monday from early losses triggered by the mass downgrade of euro zone sovereign ratings last week, but they still looked vulnerable amid rising fears of a disorderly Greek debt default.

Silent-era film The Artist and family drama The Descendants were the top film picks at the Golden Globe Awards on Sunday in a loose-lipped awards show that even had host Ricky Gervais walking onto the stage with a drink in his hand.

Olympus Corp should be the easiest of takeover targets: a profitable business with its share price in tatters, its management in utter disgrace and its balance sheet in need of fresh capital. But not in Japan.

Online shoe retailer Zappos told customers this weekend that it has been the victim of a cyber attack affecting more than 24 million customer accounts in its database.

Greece's private sector creditors warned on Monday that the Athens government must urgently break a deadlock in debt swap talks triggered by unreasonable demands from international lenders if is to avoid a disorderly default.

Greece must urgently break a deadlock in debt swap talks triggered by unreasonable demands from its partners, the head of a group of representing its private sector warned on Monday, as Athens raced against the clock to prevent an unruly default.

Rescuers resumed a search of the hulk of a giant cruise liner off the west coast of Italy on Monday after bad weather forced them to halt operations, but hopes were fading of finding more survivors.

Greece must urgently break a deadlock in debt swap talks triggered by unreasonable demands from its partners, the head of a group of representing its private sector warned on Monday, as Athens raced against the clock to prevent an unruly default.

Friends and relatives of passengers who were on board a capsized Italian cruise liner carrying more than 4,000 people have turned to social media to search for loved ones and vent their anger and shock at the disaster in which at least six people died.

Bank of America Corp Chairman Chad Holliday on Monday said he supports chief executive officer Brian Moynihan 100 percent.

Top executives at Deutsche Boerse and NYSE Euronext sent a letter to European Commissioners emphasizing the European nature of a combined company, in a bid to salvage their deal after antitrust regulators threatened to block it.

Greece must urgently break a deadlock in debt swap talks triggered by unreasonable demands from its partners, the head of a group of representing its private sector warned on Monday, as Athens raced against the clock to prevent an unruly default.

Top executives at Deutsche Boerse and NYSE Euronext sent a letter to European Commissioners emphasizing the European nature of a combined company, in a bid to salvage their deal after antitrust regulators threatened to block it.

European shares and the euro gradually recovered on Monday from early losses triggered by the mass downgrade of euro zone sovereign ratings last week, but they still looked vulnerable amid rising fears of a disorderly Greek debt default.

Former Chief Executive Officer Frank Dunn, former Chief Financial Officer Douglas Beatty and former Controller Michael Gollogly are accused of altering financial results for the telecommunications company in order to reap millions of dollars in bonuses.

Samsung Electronics Co said on Monday its U.S. operation plans to sell around $1 billion in bonds, its first major overseas debt sale in more than a decade, to fund its chip plant operations.

Internet giants Google and Facebook told an Indian court on Monday that it is not possible for companies to block offensive content that appears on their websites, in a case that has stoked fears about censorship in the world's largest democracy.

Greece sent senior officials to Washington on Monday for meetings with the International Monetary Fund as it raced against the clock to break a deadlock in debt swap talks that has raised fears of an unruly default.

Hackers disrupted online access to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, El Al Airlines and three banks on Monday in what the government described as a cyber-offensive against Israel.

President Barack Obama is statistically tied with Mitt Romney in a general-election matchup, but several factors favor his re-election, according to a Fox News poll released Monday.

Brazil's Embraer expects to sell its Super Tucano light attack aircraft to more NATO nations after clinching an order from the United States that lifted the company into the upper echelons of global defense contractors, a top executive told Reuters.

European shares and the euro recovered from early losses on Monday in the wake of a mass downgrade of euro zone sovereign ratings, but trading was choppy with U.S. markets closed and the outlook for Greek debt talks uncertain.