NEW YORK (Reuters) - Newly issued shares in Facebook Inc may have a hard time in the coming week if lead underwriter Morgan Stanley stops supporting the stock and managers lower down in the IPO book who were hoping for an early surge decide to get out before going underwater. Facebook on Friday sold 421 million shares of stock in a deal that valued the company at more than $100 billion. But investors, expecting a first-day pop in price, instead saw it close just 0.6 percent above the IPO price at $38.23. ...

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. ...

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. ...

BERLIN (Reuters) - Europe's fiscal pact must not be renegotiated or softened but could be complemented by growth-enhancing measures, European Central Bank Executive Board member Joerg Asmussen said on Monday. Asmussen also stressed that the ECB's non-standard measures - introduced to fight the debt crisis - were of a temporary nature and could be withdrawn any time if inflation risks emerged. There is a growing push in the euro zone, led by newly elected French President Francois Hollande, to do more to stimulate growth and not just focus on reducing deficits. ...

BOULDER, Colo. - Thousands of people turned their eyes to the sky at the University of Colorado's Folsom Field football stadium here Sunday (May 20) to watch the moon slip in front of the sun to create a spectacular "crescent sun."

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union's antitrust chief on Monday offered Google a chance to settle an investigation into allegations of anti-competitive behavior after the world's most popular search engine indicated its willingness to resolve the issue amicably. The European Commission launched investigation into Google in November 2010 after rivals, including Microsoft, accused the company of manipulating search results and promoting its own advertising services while demoting their rivals'. ...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock index futures rose on Monday after Wall Street posted its worst weekly loss for the year and on assurances that world powers want debt-laden Greece to remain in the euro. On Saturday, G8 leaders stressed that their "imperative is to promote growth and jobs" and gave verbal backing for Greece to stay in the euro, but despite calls from the United States for immediate moves to boost growth, no sign emerged that Germany would soften its stance on austerity as the cure for Europe's debt problems. ...

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.

A German official made clear on Monday that Berlin continues to oppose the idea of jointly-issued bonds for the 17-nation eurozone, which France's new president had suggested could be used to create much-needed economic growth and ease the region's financial crisis.

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 takeover of an American company to date.

LONDON (Reuters) - British bank Barclays said it is to sell its 19.6 percent holding in U.S. asset manager BlackRock, worth $6.1 billion and which it has held for almost three years. Tougher global regulations mean banks have to hold more capital against their stakes in asset managers and other firms, making it less profitable. Barclays Chief Executive Bob Diamond is attempting to get the bank's return on equity back above 13 percent, by selling or shutting businesses or investments that do not stack up. ...

MADRID (Reuters) - Spain said on Monday it would meet its deficit targets this year despite a new slippage in its regions' accounts and a further contraction of the economy in the second quarter. Economy Minister Luis de Guindos said economic activity would likely slump by another 0.3 percent between April and June, further fuelling doubts about the country's ability to get a grip on in its finances and nurse an ailing banking sector back to health. ...

From a park near Albuquerque, to the top of Japan's Mount Fuji, to the California coast the effect was dramatic: The moon nearly blotting out the sun creating a blazing "ring of fire" eclipse.

LONDON (Reuters) - European shares and the euro steadied near their lows for the year on Monday as investor fears that Greece could leave the euro were partly countered by promises from China and the Group of Eight leaders at the weekend to support growth. The FTSE Eurofirst index of top European shares was around 0.4 percent higher at 974.03 points after losing 5.1 percent last week to reach its lowest level of the year. ...

FRANKFURT, Germany (Reuters) - The head of General Motors unit Opel sought to allay workers' fears that the automaker plans to shut one of its four German plants as it pulls production of the Astra, its best-selling model, from the country. Opel Chief Executive Karl-Friedrich Stracke is under pressure from GM to end heavy losses at the U.S. carmaker's German arm by shifting production to countries with lower labor costs. Stracke told workers in Bochum on Monday that no decision has been made on their plant's future beyond 2014. ...

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. ...

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 spectacular solar eclipse treated skywatchers around the world to dazzling celestial views Sunday (May 20), as the moon wandered between Earth and the sun, leaving a "ring of fire" in the sky.

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. ...

(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. ...

This month marks the 20th anniversary of a spectacular day for zoologists. Two decades ago, in May 1992, scientists announced the discovery of a new species — the saola — living in the lush mountain forests that straddle the Vietnam-Laos border.

NEW YORK — A nearly complete tyrannosaur skeleton has sold for just over $1 million, in spite of a call to halt its auction because the fossils may have been taken illegally from Mongolia.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Newly issued shares in Facebook Inc may have a hard time in the coming week if lead underwriter Morgan Stanley stops supporting the stock and managers lower down in the IPO book who were hoping for an early surge decide to get out before going underwater. Facebook on Friday sold 421 million shares of stock in a deal that valued the company at more than $100 billion. But investors, expecting a first-day pop in price, instead saw it close just 0.6 percent above the IPO price at $38.23. ...

(Reuters) - A pledge by leaders of industrialized nations to help the troubled world economy is unlikely to herald quick new action by Europe on its debt crisis, meaning more uncertainty for nervous financial markets. The Group of Eight economies stressed on Saturday that their "imperative is to promote growth and jobs", as they also recognized problems among European banks and gave verbal backing for Greece to stay in the euro. Still, despite U.S. calls for immediate moves to boost growth, no sign emerged that Germany would soften its stance on austerity as the cure for Europe's debt ...

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The chief executives of Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd are used to running the show at their global tech empires, but they will be in for a different experience when they arrive at a San Francisco federal courthouse on Monday. Apple's Tim Cook and Samsung's Choi Gee-sung, whose companies are embroiled in bitter patent litigation, have been instructed by a federal judge to appear for court-supervised mediation. A joint court filing in April said that "as directed by the Court, Apple and Samsung are both willing to participate" in the discussions. ...

Massive extraction of groundwater can resolve a puzzle over a rise in sea levels in past decades, scientists in Japan said on Sunday.