Bargain-hunting helped Asian stock markets edge upward Monday, but gains were limited as investors remained unconvinced that the world's major economies nailed a solution to the European debt crisis following a summit in Washington.

A Chinese conglomerate announced Monday it will buy a major U.S. cinema chain, AMC Entertainment Holdings, for $2.6 billion in China's biggest corporate takeover in the United States to date.

A German official says Berlin continues to oppose the idea of jointly-issued bonds for the eurozone, which France's new president had suggested could be used to fund economic growth.

The July 29, 2008, phone call between two titans of Wall Street began with the old friends exchanging mild pleasantries, but then quickly turned serious and — by the government's account — criminal.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The chief executives of Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd come face to face on Monday in court-directed mediation in the United States over a dispute in which the iPhone maker claims the Korean firm has "slavishly" copied some of its products. Apple's Tim Cook and Samsung's Choi Gee-sung have been instructed by a federal judge to appear for mediation in San Francisco to help resolve the bitter patent litigation between the two firms. The U.S. ...

BEIRUT (Reuters) - At least two people were killed in Beirut in heavy clashes early on Monday between rival Sunni Muslim gunmen, the latest violence fuelled by tensions over the uprising in neighboring Syria. Gunmen firing rocket-propelled grenades and machineguns clashed in the Lebanese capital's Tariq al-Jadideh district in some of the fiercest battles since sectarian fighting four years ago brought Lebanon back to the brink of civil war. The violence followed the killing of two members of a political alliance opposed to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Sunday in the north of Lebanon. ...

SHANGHAI/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Chinese Internet entrepreneur Jack Ma is buying back up to half of a 40 percent stake in his Alibaba Group from Yahoo Inc for $7.1 billion, in a deal that moves the Chinese e-commerce leader closer to a public listing. Under the agreement, Yahoo will sell half its stake in Alibaba for at least $6.3 billion in cash and up to $800 million in new Alibaba preferred stock. ...

Struggling Internet company Yahoo Inc. has secured a lifeline after agreeing to sell half of its prized stake in Chinese e-commerce group Alibaba for about $7.1 billion, with most of the cash going to shareholders.

Skywatchers from Mount Fuji to the Grand Canyon enjoyed a treat: the moon nearly blotting out the sun to create a dramatic "ring of fire" over a narrow strip of eastern Asia and the western United States.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin will unveil a government dominated by loyalists on Monday, leaving Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev limited scope to pursue his reform agenda and entrenching the Kremlin's grip over the economy's commanding heights. Medvedev, 46, named premier after Putin returned to the Kremlin on May 7, has pledged to launch pro-growth policies and a privatisation drive to wean Russia's $1.7 billion economy off its dependence on oil. ...

Lucio Adan Nelson dozed on a riverboat ferrying him home from a visit with his mother when helicopters appeared overhead and started shooting. He and about a dozen other passengers traveling in the middle of the night jumped into the water for cover.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Markets recovered some ground on Monday on value hunting after last week's heavy losses, but investors remained wary over the euro zone despite world leaders calling for Greece to stay in the monetary union and for Europe to balance austerity with growth. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.5 percent, buoyed by its technology sector which by far outperformed its peers with a 1.3 percent gain. Investors scooped cheapened blue chips, helping to lift tech-heavy Korean equity market above a key chart level. ...

Lebanese security officials say overnight clashes in Beirut between Sunni groups that support and oppose the regime in Damascus have killed one person and wounded 10.

FRANKFURT, Germany (Reuters) - The head of General Motors unit Opel will face workers' concerns on Monday over reported plans to shut one of its four German plants as the automaker pulls production of the Astra, its best-selling model, from the country. Opel's Chief Executive Karl-Friedrich Stracke is due to address workers at Germany's Bochum plant, which a source close to negotiations has said is the most likely to be shut. ...

ATHENS (Reuters) - The charismatic Greek leftist who could determine the fate of the euro begins a tour of European capitals on Monday carrying a single message: it's time to talk. In an interview on the eve of his first visit abroad since his surprise rise in a May 6 election, Alexis Tsipras veered occasionally into the combative rhetoric that has seduced disaffected Greek youth and alarmed Brussels and Berlin. But he also stressed repeatedly that he wants negotiations to keep Greece in the euro. ...

Santo Domingo (Reuters) - Early results from presidential elections in the Dominican Republic show ruling party candidate Danilo Medina headed for victory 12 years after he lost in a landslide to opposition candidate Hipolito Mejia. With almost 75 percent of votes counted, Medina and the ruling Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) held a 4 percentage point lead (51 percent - 47 percent) over Mejia, the candidate for the opposition Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD), according to official election results. ...

Millions of early risers in Asia turned their attention skyward to view a rare "ring of fire" eclipse as it crossed their skies Monday morning.

A governing party official appeared headed for a first-round win in the Dominican Republic's presidential election as supporters of his opponent complained of rampant vote-buying and other forms of fraud.

SHANGHAI/BEIJING (Reuters) - One of China's most conspicuously reform-minded leaders has stepped back into the spotlight after the nation's biggest political convulsion in a generation, positioning himself to gain from the fall of populist politician Bo Xilai. Wang Yang, leader of Guangdong province and well known for his deft handling of recent civil unrest there, is the first of three provincial-level party bosses who stand to benefit after a murder scandal snuffed out Bo's career last month. ...

Twenty-two states and the District of Columbia are backing Montana in its fight to prevent the U.S. Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United decision from being used to strike down state laws restricting corporate campaign spending.

Twenty-two states and the District of Columbia are backing Montana in its fight to prevent the U.S. Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United decision from being used to strike down state laws restricting corporate campaign spending.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Barely a day went by at the insider-trading trial of multimillionaire hedge-fund founder Raj Rajaratnam a year ago without mention of Rajat Gupta, a boldface name in business and charity circles. On Monday in the same federal court in New York, it will be Gupta's turn to go on trial. The former Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Procter & Gamble board member is accused of leaking stock secrets to Rajaratnam, his erstwhile friend and business associate who was convicted and is now in prison. ...

On paper at least, European leaders agree: They need stronger growth measures to help their economies expand out of their 2½-year-old government debt crisis. Figuring out exactly what those new steps might be will be the hard part.

MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Australia's top airline Qantas Airways said on Monday it is eliminating 500 jobs by merging maintenance facilities to save up to A$100 million ($98.4 million) annually, as high fuel costs and weak demand take a toll on airline profits. Qantas, which is emerging from a costly industrial dispute, said in statement it will stop heavy maintenance in Tullamarine in Melbourne and concentrate on centers in Brisbane and Avalon, resulting in the job cuts. It had, in February, flagged another 500 job cuts for the group. ...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng soaked up the sun in New York City on Sunday as his children played in a garden, a break in a day of meetings to arrange his studies at New York University. "(Chen) said he hadn't sat in the sun for many, many years," said Jerome Cohen, a China law expert and professor at New York University's law school, where Chen will study. "He wanted to go out in the garden ... his kids went out first and then he went out," Cohen, who has become a confidante of Chen's, told Reuters. ...

Charleston, South Carolina (Reuters) - Tropical Storm Alberto churned off the coasts of Georgia and South Carolina on Sunday, and heavy rain and dangerous surf were expected even though forecasters said it had lost strength. Bringing an early start to the Atlantic hurricane season, Alberto reached tropical storm strength on Saturday. By Sunday evening it was about 85 miles south-east of St Augustine, Florida, according to the hurricane center in Miami. ...

Charleston, South Carolina (Reuters) - Tropical Storm Alberto churned off the coasts of Georgia and South Carolina on Sunday, and heavy rain and dangerous surf were expected even though forecasters said it had lost strength. Bringing an early start to the Atlantic hurricane season, Alberto reached tropical storm strength on Saturday. By Sunday evening it was about 85 miles south-east of St Augustine, Florida, according to the hurricane center in Miami. ...

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Four police officers were injured and 45 demonstrators arrested after baton-wielding police clashed with anti-war protesters marching on the NATO summit in Chicago on Sunday, police said. A lawyer's group assisting protesters challenged police figures, saying at least 12 protesters were hurt, some with head wounds from police batons, and more than 60 people detained. The confrontation began after a 2 1/2 mile march from a Chicago park to near the site of the summit, where leaders of the NATO alliance are discussing the war in Afghanistan. ...

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Four police officers were injured and 45 demonstrators arrested after baton-wielding police clashed with anti-war protesters marching on the NATO summit in Chicago on Sunday, police said. A lawyer's group assisting protesters challenged police figures, saying at least 12 protesters were hurt, some with head wounds from police batons, and more than 60 people detained. The confrontation began after a 2 1/2 mile march from a Chicago park to near the site of the summit, where leaders of the NATO alliance are discussing the war in Afghanistan. ...

(Reuters) - The Nasdaq is planning to revamp its systems for handling stock offerings after acknowledging that technology problems had affected trading in millions of newly issued Facebook shares on Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported. Individual investors were left in the dark for hours on Friday about whether their buy and sell orders for Facebook shares had actually been executed, in the latest of a series high-profile exchange glitches. ...