IBT Staff Reporter

Central bank actions work better than tax and spending measures to protect an economy from shocks, even when interest rates are at rock bottom levels, St. Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard said on Saturday.

The World Bank will recommend reforms to China's domestic financial system as part of broader proposals to help wean the country from a dependence on exports to sustain economic growth, World Bank President Robert Zoellick said on Saturday.

Israel said on Saturday the online publication of thousands of its citizens' credit card details by a hacker who says he is based in Saudi Arabia was comparable to terrorism, and promised to hit back.

A serial killer may be responsible for the slayings of three homeless men in Southern California who were each found stabbed multiple times, police said on Thursday.

For the past year, studios have been flirting with stretching out the delays on when Netflix, Redbox and Blockbuster can rent new releases, but it looks like Warner Bros. is going to be the first to take the plunge.

A German citizen was charged on Wednesday with setting dozens of fires across Los Angeles over the New Year's weekend in a spree an arson investigator said was motivated by a rage against Americans.

Jessica Chastain is taking her rising star to Broadway.

February brings stale candy on sale the day after Valentine's Day, July offers PSAs featuring fireworks and missing fingers, and January means dopey movies about demonic possession.

Police seized a Mexican motorboat loaded with more than a ton of marijuana north of Los Angeles early on Wednesday and arrested 10 people, the latest in a growing number of seizures as smugglers seek to ferry drugs north to market by sea, authorities said.

Feleti Freddy Maugatai might want to limit his battles to the ocean.

The Sacramento Kings named Keith Smart as the team's new head coach on Thursday after firing Paul Westphal following a 2-5 start to the season.

Heather Donahue is best known for 1999 horror film The Blair Witch Project that showed her hyperventilating and weeping in the forest as she and her friends were terrorized by unseen evil.

Alfred Molina, Frances O'Connor (Bedazzled), Jimmi Simpson (Date Night) and British actor Aneurin Barnard have joined the cast of Emanuel and the Truth About Fishes, TheWrap has confirmed.

The Devil Inside is off to a scary-good start at the box office.

Country star Miranda Lambert, Lionel Richie, Kelly Clarkson and five other big-name musical artists have signed on as guest mentors for the second season of NBC's The Voice, the network said Friday.

NBC entertainment chief Robert Greenblatt admitted on Friday that the struggling TV network got off to a really bad start last fall, after low ratings and cancellations of several high-profile new shows.

The actress who had anonymously sued IMDB.com and its owner, Amazon.com, for posting her age has revealed her name in an amended complaint against the companies.

Thanks to the final Harry Potter film and the raunchy comedy The Hangover Part II, Warner Bros. racked up $4.7 billion worldwide in 2011, the studio announced on Friday.

Friends with Benefits actress Mila Kunis is the latest celebrity to become the face of Dior, the French fashion label said on Thursday.

Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal's movie about the hunt for Osama bin Laden is loading up on stars.

Soul singer Etta James, who is terminally ill and suffering from leukemia, was released from a California hospital on Thursday and is at home resting, her business manager said.

Two months after loaning the company money to open two movies, L.A. billionaire Ron Burkle has taken a minority stake in Relativity Media, TheWrap has learned.

Hana Amal Beshara, the co-founder and public face of pirate website NinjaVideo.net, has been sentenced to 22 months in prison for conspiracy and criminal copyright infringement, U.S. Attorney Neil H. MacBride, Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director John Morton announced Friday morning.

James Franco is in early talks for a starring role in The Game, the MGM movie based on Neil Strauss' New York Times bestseller about picking up women, TheWrap has confirmed.

Why isn't Chelsea Handler playing a character based on herself on NBC's upcoming Are You There, Chelsea?

Members of the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Arts and Sciences merger committee will meet in Los Angeles for nine days beginning Saturday to iron out details of how to combine the unions.

Members of the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Arts and Sciences merger committee will meet in Los Angeles for nine days beginning Saturday to iron out details of how to combine the unions.

In the constant game of thrones that is the Silicon Valley tech giants' battle for dominance, 2012 could be the year that Microsoft comes back from exile.

Bridesmaids, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and The Help were among the film nominees chosen on Thursday for annual Writers Guild Awards, but the screenwriters behind War Horse failed to make the cut in Hollywood's race toward Oscars.