IBT Staff Reporter

China sentenced a man to death and jailed another 28 people for up to life on Tuesday for their roles in a massive slavery and child labor scandal involving scorching brickworks.

Publisher Houghton Mifflin Co. said it agreed to buy Harcourt, the education arm of rival Reed Elsevier Plc for $4 billion.

News Corp. has reached a tentative deal to buy Dow Jones & Co. Inc., parent company of the Wall Street Journal, for $5 billion, the Journal reported late Monday. The Dow Jones board will meet on Tuesday to consider the $60-a-share offer after negotiators reached an agreement in principle Monday afternoon.

SunRocket Inc., the second largest supplier of Internet phone services shut down its business on Monday without notifying its customers, which total more than 200,000.

Barclays is planning to sweeten its offer for ABN AMRO after a consortium of rivals led by Royal Bank of Scotland revised its bid for the Dutch bank, the Financial Times said on Tuesday.

More than 10,000 people huddled in evacuation centers in northwest Japan on Tuesday after a strong earthquake the previous day killed nine people and injured more than 1,000.

The broader U.S. stock market fell on Monday on worries that troubles in the subprime mortgage market may spread, but optimism about earnings at multinational companies pushed the Dow to nearly 14,000. Energy stocks fell, led by ConocoPhillips, because of concern about dwindling profit margins for gasoline.

Industrial metal lead extended its recent hot streak on Monday, hitting another high, while steel additive nickel was hit by reports of lower use, fund managers and analysts said.

Oil slipped on Monday as traders took profits and refinery restarts in the United States eased worries of a summer gasoline crunch.

Foreign media have fuelled unfounded fears about Chinese products, the nation's top quality official has said, as China blocked a U.S. protein powder shipment while the two countries sparred over safety worries.

U.S. crude price could top $90 a barrel this autumn and hit $95 by the end of the year if OPEC keeps oil production capped at current levels, Goldman Sachs said in a report issued on Monday.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix whisked its way to No. 1 at movie box offices with weekend ticket sales of $77.4 million and a five-day total of just over $140 million, according to studio estimates on Sunday.

For the BBC and commercial broadcasters across Britain, their problems right now are all summed up in one word -- trust.

Rock star Prince gave his latest album away free on Sunday with a British tabloid, to the fury of music retailers.

A unit of private equity giant Blackstone Group will buy knee and ankle brace maker DJO Inc. for $1.3 billion, the companies said on Monday.

Some 120,000 barrels a day of new high-quality, low-sulphur oil will start flowing from Asian fields this quarter, putting strong regional crude differentials under some pressure and boosting light product yields.

It's costing a small fortune to keep the secret safe, as security measures increase ahead of this week's book release.

The hedge fund run by activist investor William Ackman said on Monday it now owns a 9.6 percent stake in Target Corp., adding the discount retailer to its small list of closely watched investments.

Wireless telecommunications company Vodafone Group Plc denied a report that it was considering a $160 billion bid for Verizon Communications Inc., a move that would consolidate ownership of their wireless joint venture.

IHOP Corp. said on Monday it plans to buy Applebee's International Inc. for $25.50 per share, as the newly restructured company seeks growth outside its iconic pancake chain. The companies said the all-cash deal, which represents a 4.6 percent premium to Applebee's closing price on Friday, was worth $2.1 billion.

McDonald's Corp. said on Monday it expects to report quarterly earnings above Wall Street estimates on its strongest quarterly sales in three years.

The owner of Dubai stock exchange is preparing an offer for Nordic stock market group OMX, rivaling the proposed $3.7 billion merger between OMX and U.S. group Nasdaq, Telegraph.co.uk reported on Sunday.

Asian shares mostly eased on Monday with South Korea retreating from record highs on fears the government may move to cool the market, while Brent crude was about $1 away from its highest level due to supply worries.

Ford Motor Co. is considering selling its Volvo Cars business as it assesses the future of its European operations, a source familiar with the matter said on Sunday.

The takeover battle for ABN AMRO heated up on Monday with the Royal Bank of Scotland consortium boosting the cash element of its 71.1 billion-euro ($98 billion) offer. The offer is above a rival all-stock bid from Britain's Barclays that is worth about 64 billion euros, which has been recommended by ABN's board.

The dollar weakened against major currencies on Monday, plumbing fresh multi-year depths against higher-yielding units as bearish sentiment toward the greenback and the outlook for U.S. interest rates gripped markets.

Mattel Inc., the largest U.S. toy maker, said on Monday second-quarter profit rose 15 percent, helped by strong sales of its Wheels toys and Barbie dolls abroad.

Nora Bannerman checks the pristine white uniforms made for American pharmacist Walgreens in her factory in the humid heart of the Ghanaian capital Accra.

Christopher Bancroft, part of the family that controls Dow Jones, is trying to block a takeover by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., a source familiar with the situation said on Monday, confirming a story reported in the Wall Street Journal.