NEW YORK

Steven Rattner, former head of the U.S. government's Automotive Task Force, has agreed to pay $10 million in restitution to settle kickback allegations involving the roughly $132.8 billion New York State Common Retirement Fund and resolves the two lawsuits filed by the Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo.

Time Warner Cable and Sinclair Broadcast Group announced that on New Year's Eve that they reached an extension agreement that will keep the big four networks on through Jan. 14.

The U.S. real estate market is improving, at least for foreign investment dollars, according to the Association for Foreign Investment in Real Estate, or AFIRE.

Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) is preparing for a potential onslaught of embarrassing and perhaps damaging information about the bank from Julian Assange’s WikiLeaks, according to a report in the New York Times.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is seeking a one-year salary freeze for state workers as the first step after assuming office on Jan 1, 2011.

Piaget partnered with 'The Cinema Society' for a special screening of Blue Valentine starring Michelle Williams.

Social networking site Facebook is now valued at $50 billion taking it ahead of companies eBay, Yahoo and Time Warner as it raised $500 million from Goldman Sachs and a Russian investor.

Many observers believe the bond bull has run out of steam, although a 'pop' in the bond bubble is probably unlikely.

Many investment banks and commodity analysts have taken a highly bullish stance on crude oil prices for 2011, based largely on economic recovery in the U.S., continued money-printing by the Federal Reserve (thereby, weakening U.S. dollar) and persistent high demand from the emerging markets, particularly China and India.

Douglas C. Borthwick, Managing Director of Faros Trading, reviews the global currency markets from 2010 and provides some outlook and guidance for 2011

Nolan is all praises for his exacting and demanding nature on the sets of Inception

Over one million people each year throng the streets of Times Square in New York City on Dec. 31 to watch the falling Ball to celebrate the passage of another year and welcome 2011.

Time Warner Cable said it is working hard to reach a long-term agreement with Sinclair Broadcasting over carriage of its signals.

The recent architectural developments surrounding the Grand Mosque in Mecca, regarded as the holiest site of the Muslim world, particularly in connection with the recently developed Royal Mecca Clock Tower have sparked off heated debates.

The New York Police Department (NYPD) has been sued by The New York Times (NYT) for routinely violating Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) that requires government agencies to provide information to the press and the public.

Allstate Corp., the largest publicly traded U.S. home and auto insurer, has accused Bank of America (BofA) and its lending unit, Countrywide Financial, of misrepresenting the risk associated with mortgage-backed securities it bought from them beginning 2005, and is suing them for more than $700 million.

Groupon, the social buying website which recently rejected a $6- billion takeover offer from Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) has attracted the interest of some large institutional investors and is seeking to go public by the end of next year, according to a report in the New York Times.

Polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, are man-made chemicals that have been recognized for the last 30 years to be toxic and potentially carcinogenic. They can affect the immune system, reproductive system, nervous system and endocrine system and, if they build up in the body long enough, they can cause cancer.

Deutsche Bank has entered into a non-prosecution agreement to pay $553.6 million penalty for participating in fraudulent tax shelters that let clients hide billions of dollars from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and dodge taxes, U.S. prosecutors said.

Time Warner Cable customers in several states could lose local stations that carry the big four networks at midnight on Dec. 31 if an agreement isn't reached with Sinclair Broadcasting.

Shares of BJ's Wholesale Club (NYSE: BJ) are surging this morning after the New York Post reported that a private equity firm may launch a hostile bid for the warehouse retailer.