NEW YORK

The economy showed signs it was decelerating, with an index of service activity pointing to slower growth in November while new orders for factory goods declined in October for the second straight month.

Stocks rallied more than one percent on Monday, building on the previous week's gains, as optimism grew an agreement between French and German leaders would break new ground to resolve the Eurozone debt crisis.

Jessica Simpson is impatient to find out the sex of her baby with NFL fiancé Eric Johnson, but the singer turned businesswoman is convinced the baby is a girl. The pair will take a pregnancy test today to confirm (and Johnson thinks it's a boy), but Simpson has already decided to put him in tutus if the baby's sex is male.

Shares of specialty software vendors like MicroStrategy and Qlik Technologies rose sharply early Monday as investors contemplate Oracle’s retaliation for SAP’s $3.4 billion bid for SuccessFactors.

An upstate New York high school suspended an unspecified number of students last week following the police department's closure of the bullying-suicide case of gay teen Jamey Rodemeyer.

Boxing great Miguel Cotto peppered his opponent Antonio Margarito's right eye all night long on Saturday.

Citing people familiar with the matter, The Wall Street Journal said the new Lehman board will be made up of seven experts in restructuring, real estate and derivatives but they don't have ties with Lehman. They'll reportedly oversee liquidation of billions of dollars in assets so that money can be dispensed among Lehman's many creditors.

Crude oil prices gained in European trade Monday on fears that growing tensions between Iran and Western powers may threaten crude supply from the Middle East.

A new reference book on the ill-fated passenger vessel Titanic that hit an iceberg and sank in the Atlantic Ocean in 1912 suggests that the iceberg was spotted well in time and that a mere delay of 30 seconds in averting the ship led to her fatal end.

Red Hat, Inc. (NYSE:RHT) continues to gain market share against Microsoft, Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT), SUSE Linux and Oracle Solaris in the cloud computing space, according to a Wall Street analyst.

Michael Kors Holdings Ltd., the luxury fashion and accessories brand, has announced its decision to prepare an Initial Public Offering (IPO), in New York, hoping to raise about $900 million.

Sony Pictures is steaming over the New Yorker's plan to review David Fincher's The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo on Monday. That will be eight days in advance of the December 13 embargo that the studio imposed on all critics and journalists who attended early screenings of the long-awaited film.

What do Vladimir Putin, a real Don, and Herman Cain, a real Godfather Pizza Don, have in common? The connection is psychological, maybe even Dostoevskian. But it isn't about depression, unless it's ours, the voting public. It's about delusion.

Singer and LGBT activist Cyndi Lauper has been busy for the last several days promoting awareness for AIDS since World AIDS Day, which takes place annually on Dec. 1.

The Galaxy Nexus continues to tease U.S. hopefuls after the phone appeared with Verizon's logo at the Samsung Experience in New York City on Saturday.

Diana Taylor, who is the girlfriend of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and is a Sotheby's board member, has threatened to resign if any demands of the auction house's art handlers are met.

Puerto Rico's Miguel Cotto avenged his controversial loss to Mexico's Antonio Margarito three years ago when he won Saturday to retain his World Boxing Association super-middleweight world title at Madison Square Garden in New York.

The year 2011 saw some brilliant performances by actresses. Roles, which demanded an adaptability and sensitiveness of characterization, were beautifully brought to life by them.

Manager Andre Villas-Boas addressed the duo's status.

Rosie Coker, Daniel Radcliffe's girlfriend, may be heading down the aisle soon. But who is Rosie Coker?

Facebook, the social-networking giant that is preparing to go public, said it plans to hire thousands of employees over the next year to keep up with what it expects to be rapid growth.