Investors and first-time buyers, many scooping up foreclosures, have helped sales in the city rise 45 percent from last year, possibly signaling that a bottom has been reached.
AP - Mexico announced a return to "normalcy" on Monday, preparing to reopen businesses and schools even as the virus sickened more than 1,400 people in 20 countries. World health officials said the global epidemic is still in its early stages, and that a pandemic could be declared in the days to come.
AP - President Barack Obama promised sternly on Monday to crack down on companies "that ship jobs overseas" and duck U.S. taxes with offshore havens. It won't be easy. Democrats have been fighting — and losing — this battle since John F. Kennedy made a similar proposal in 1961. Obama's proposal to close tax loopholes was a reliable applause line during the presidential campaign, but it got a lukewarm response Monday from Capitol Hill.
AP - Masked assailants with grenades and automatic weapons attacked an engagement ceremony in southeast Turkey on Monday, killing 45 people. Two girls survived after the bodies of slain friends fell on top of them during the onslaught.
Gun shops across the country are reporting a run on ammunition, a phenomenon apparently driven by fear that the Obama administration will increase taxes on bullets or enact new gun-control measures. "There are a lot of rumors floating around," says one gun shop manager. Though there is no indication that the White House will take up gun control anytime soon, manufacturers have been scrambling to keep up with demand.
An attack Monday on a wedding party in Turkey's southeastern Mardin province killed at least 41 people, according to the office of Mardin's governor, Mehmet Kiliclar.
The swine flu virus that has sparked fear and precautions worldwide appears to be no more dangerous than the regular flu virus that makes its rounds each year, U.S. officials said Monday. "The severity of the flu -- how sick you get -- is not stronger than regular seasonal flu," Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said as the worldwide number of confirmed cases of 2009 H1N1 flu topped 1,085.