IBT Staff Reporter

American teenagers who skip breakfast are more likely to be overweight than those who eat a morning meal, according to a study which researchers say may be linked to rising obesity among adolescents.

Wheat increased on Monday over concerns that severe weather conditions will hurt the crops.

U.S. stocks edged lower Monday for a third day after analysts reduced earnings estimates for securities firms while manufacturing report was not as bad as forecast, while a separate report on construction showed a steep weakness in spending on non-residential projects.

Venezuela and Ecuador sent troops to their borders with Colombia and downgraded diplomatic ties after their Andean neighbor bombed Colombian rebels inside Ecuador in an attack Caracas said could spark a war.

HSBC's profits rose 10 percent last year as buoyant growth in Hong Kong and elsewhere in Asia helped Europe's biggest bank absorb $17.2 billion in bad debts as the U.S. housing crisis deepened. Hong Kong profits rose 42 percent while Asia earnings grew by 70 percent. North America was managed a small gain.

China's top filmmaker Zhang Yimou said Hollywood director Steven Spielberg's resignation as an adviser to the Beijing Olympics was quite regrettable, but would not affect the Games, the China News Service said.

Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger only survived an assassination attempt by Hells Angels members nearly 40 years ago because a boat carrying his would-be killers was swamped in a storm, according to a new BBC documentary.

Australian miner Oxiana Ltd launched an agreed A$6.1 billion ($5.7 billion) takeover offer for Zinifex Ltd on Monday, looking to diversify to benefit from booming global minerals demand.

German carmaker Volkswagen said on Monday it would raise its stake in Swedish truck maker Scania to 68.6 percent, a move that may lead to a merger of Scania and German truck maker MAN.

Facebook, the social network site that has enjoyed spectacular international growth in the past year, despite being published only in English until recently, said on Monday it was offering a German version.

China Mobile, the world's largest mobile phone operator, said on Monday it had not officially entered into talks with Apple Inc to bring iPhones to the mainland, but was interested in doing so.

Microsoft Corp, faced with Web rivals looking to poach its business customers, said on Sunday it plans to broaden the availability of its online services for e-mail and collaboration software. Last year, Microsoft started subscription-based online services to run its Exchange corporate e-mail program and SharePoint collaboration software on Microsoft's own computer systems as an alternative to customers buying their own hardware to run licensed software.

The U.N. Security Council is expected to adopt a third round of sanctions against Iran for its nuclear program on Monday, but diplomats said this might be the first round that is not approved unanimously.

Western observers criticized Russia's weekend presidential election on Monday saying it was not fully fair or democratic, but said its outcome broadly reflected the will of the people. President Vladimir Putin's hand-picked candidate, Dmitry Medvedev, won the ballot by a landslide on Sunday. Russia's liberals criticized the election as a farce, saying it was stage-managed by the Kremlin from the outset.

Union workers at auto supplier American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings Inc., on their fifth day of a crippling strike, are ready to bargain with the company, a union leader said on Saturday.

E-mail messages from Microsoft executives released this week reveal technical and marketing struggles the company faced in launching the Windows Vista operating system last year.

You may want to think twice before you let snow drops fall on your tongue the next you're out in the snow.

U.S. study revealed that taking daily supplements of vitamin E during a long-term period can increase cancer risk by 28 percent.

Online auction leader eBay Inc warned in an annual report on Friday that it faces difficulty getting former customers to return, adding to the normal challenge of attracting new users to its sites.

Northrop Grumman and Airbus parent company European Aeronautic Defence & Space Co. have won a contract which could be worth up to $40 billion to build air refueling tankers for the U.S. Air Force.

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett, told shareholders in an annual letter to expect a downturn in 2008 for Berkshire Hathaway profit despite a strong 2007.

China's securities regulator has approved to launch three new mutual funds on Friday.

A Million is great in most places, but in America...

Retailers want a piece of your tax rebate. They're devising plans to get some of more than $150 billion.

Treasuries rose on Friday, sending two-year yields to the lowest level in nearly four years, on new economic data which led investors to raise their expectations for a recession.

The beleaguered dollar found no reprieve against the majors, with the accelerated selling pushing the currency to fresh all-time lows against the euro, Swiss franc, 24-year lows versus the Aussie and 3-year lows versus the yen.

Bizarre little creatures that look like walking eyeballs and a puzzle-cracking professor may not seem to have much in common at first glance. But they are the stars of two new vastly different hand-held video games that are winning praise for the ways they combine different genres to produce quirky new experiences.

American International Group, on the heels of reporting its largest-ever loss, said on Friday the subprime crisis had thrown it into uncharted waters that were likely to remain choppy through 2008.

Kenyan elders may impose a fine on U.S. presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton, payable in livestock, after a photo of her rival Barack Obama in robes dragged their people into the race for the White House.