(Reuters) - Fast-food chain McDonald's Corp said on Monday that it plans to hire as many as 50,000 U.S. additional employees later this month, citing improvements in its domestic business in recent months. The new hires would increase the size of the hamburger chain's U.S. workforce by 7 percent to 700,000 in all, and range from restaurant workers to senior managers.

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(Reuters) - General Electric Co (GE.N) Chief Executive Jeffrey Immelt defended the nuclear industry's safety record on Monday during a trip to Tokyo to show support to the operator of a stricken nuclear plant using reactors designed by the U.S. conglomerate. Immelt met with executives at Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) (9501.T), operator of the Fukushima power plant that was crippled by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami and is leaking radiation in the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl in 1986.

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(Reuters) - Southwest Airlines Co canceled 70 flights on Monday as it continued to inspect Boeing 737 planes following the emergency landing on Friday of a jet with a hole in its fuselage. Spokeswoman Whitney Eichinger said 70 flights systemwide were canceled for Monday out of about 3,400 daily flights. Of 79 older Boeing 737-300 planes that were designated for additional inspections after the Friday incident, 33 had been returned to service, she said.

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(Reuters) - The names and e-mails of customers of Citigroup Inc and other large U.S. companies, as well as College Board students, were exposed in a massive and growing data breach after a computer hacker penetrated online marketer Epsilon. In what could be one of the biggest such breaches in U.S. history, a diverse swath of companies that did business with Epsilon stepped forward over the weekend to warn customers some of their electronic information could have been exposed.

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(Reuters) - Vodafone (VOD.L) emerged on top after it finally sold its stake in France's SFR to Vivendi (VIV.PA) which, like other recent buyers, paid a full price to secure control in a major realignment of the telecoms sector. The long-awaited 7.95 billion euros ($11.31 billion) deal came just two weeks after Deutsche Telekom AG (DTEGn.DE) agreed to sell out of the U.S. for $39 billion and after Vodafone itself agreed to buy out its Indian partner for a hefty price.

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(Reuters) - Multiple bidders are expected to vie for bankrupt movie rental chain Blockbuster Inc at an auction on Monday that will decide the company's next owner and amount of money available to pay off claims. Once the world's largest video chain, Blockbuster had a market cap of more than $5 billion at its peak in 2002, but came under pressure from mail-order and digital competitors such as Netflix Inc.

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(Reuters) - North Sea Brent crude oil hit a 2-1/2-year high of almost $120 a barrel on Monday as unrest in the Middle East and North Africa kept the focus on oil supplies as economic growth bolstered demand for fuel. Iran's oil minister said there was no need for the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to hold an extraordinary meeting, adding to price support.

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(Reuters) - U.S. stocks rose on Friday after employment notched a second straight month of solid gains while the jobless rate fell to a two-year low. Non-farm payrolls rose by 216,000 jobs last month, more than expected and the largest increase since May, the Labor Department said. January and February employment figures were revised to show 7,000 more jobs than previously reported. The unemployment rate fell to 8.8 percent from 8.9 percent in February.

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(Reuters) - U.S. employment recorded a second straight month of solid gains in March and the jobless rate fell to a two-year low of 8.8 percent, underscoring a decisive shift in the labor market that should help to underpin the economic recovery. Nonfarm payrolls rose 216,000 last month, the largest increase since May, the Labor Department said on Friday.

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(Reuters) - Nasdaq OMX and IntercontinentalExchange unveiled a rival bid to buy NYSE Euronext for about $11.3 billion in cash and stock, a 19 percent premium to the offer made by German competitor Deutsche Boerse. The move, announced on Friday, could raise new antitrust questions as it would combine the two largest U.S. stock exchanges. Already, the Deutsche Boerse bid was seen as likely to attract intense regulatory scrutiny as the merged company would have a lock on European exchange-traded derivatives.

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