IBT Staff Reporter

Chancellor Angela Merkel appealed to German lawmakers from all parties on Tuesday to back plans to boost the firepower of the euro zone rescue fund in a vote set to take place hours before Wednesday's crunch EU summit.

In a sold-out theater in downtown Manhattan, two miles from the square where anti-Wall Street demonstrators daily use iPhones, iPads and other devices to mobilize their forces, a performance artist named Mike Daisey is mounting a subversive attack on Apple Inc.

Sprint Nextel lost a bid on Monday to get access to masses of AT&T documents that it had hoped to use in its lawsuit aimed at stopping AT&T's $39 billion acquisition of discount rival T-Mobile.

Stocks fell on Tuesday after discouraging corporate outlooks cast a pall over the economy's outlook, while fresh doubts arose about European efforts to find a solution to the debt crisis.

Consumer confidence unexpectedly dropped to its lowest level in two-and-a-half years in October, while house prices were unchanged at low levels in August, suggesting the consumer is still struggling.

Vaccine is still the best way to prevent getting sick with influenza

Toronto's main stock index turned higher on Tuesday morning, hitting a one-month peak and reversing steep losses in volatile trade as gold prices rallied following grim U.S. consumer confidence data.

Luke Donald added further accolades to his stellar 2011 campaign when the Briton was named winner of the 2011 PGA of America player of the year award and the Vardon Trophy for lowest scoring average on Monday.

Four lawmakers from the Free Democrat junior partner in German Chancellor Angela Merkel's coalition voted against a draft motion on leveraging the euro zone bailout fund in a test vote on Tuesday, lawmakers told Reuters.

Stocks fell on Tuesday after discouraging corporate outlooks cast a pall over the economy's outlook, while fresh doubts arose about European efforts to find a solution to the debt crisis.

A two-week-old infant, her mother and her grandmother were found alive on Tuesday in the wreckage of an apartment building in Ercis, Turkey, two days after a 7.2-magnitude earthquake.

Teen singing sensation Justin Bieber gave fans an early Christmas present on Monday with the release of a second single from his upcoming holiday album Under The Mistletoe.

Cherilyn Lee, a nurse who worked with Michael Jackson to treat his ongoing insomnia, will continue her testimony to begin day 17 of the Conrad Murray involuntary manslaughter trial.

Warner Brothers is taking a page from Disney.The studio announced that it will pull all Harry Potter DVDs and Blu-rays from store shelves on December 29, 2011.

The pan-Asian girl band Blush has been around for only 11 months but already has a track record more established groups might envy -- a single that hit number three on the U.S. dance music charts and rapper Snoop Dogg in one of their songs.

What with the usual assortment of doctors, lawyers, ad executives, jingle writers and police showing up on your TV set, you would hardly believe that more than 14 million Americans are out of work.

John Cusack and Malin Akerman will star in The Numbers Station, which starts shooting in November, Content Film announced Monday night.

Ten years ago, Apple released the very first iPod, a deceptively simple media player that dramatically changed the way people listen to music. iPod is not the first MP3 player to appear in the world but it is the first to be sold to the masses and it finally revolutionized the music industry.

It is a debate that has polarized American football fans for over two years. Is former college favorite Tim Tebow an NFL caliber quarterback or not?

Kelly Clarkson's new album has been subject to more delays than the NBA season. But apparently the perpetual tweaking was a matter of fine-tuning, not desperation, since Stronger lives up to its title -- trumping not just the current pop-diva competition but all of Clarkson's previous albums, too.

U.S. vaccine advisers on Tuesday voted to recommend that boys be routinely vaccinated with Merck & Co's Gardasil vaccine to protect them from human papillomavirus or HPV infections, which cause genital warts and oral, penile and anal cancers in males and cervical cancers in women.

The International Monetary Fund is considering taking part in a special investment vehicle being proposed by the euro zone bailout fund but has not made a decision yet, euro zone officials said on Tuesday.

Peabody Energy Corp's (BTU.N) quarterly profit beat Wall Street estimates as the largest U.S. coal producer realized higher pricing in all regions and domestic volumes increased.

Many fear a rogue shark is on the loose in Western Australia after the third fatal attack in two months. The government is now taking new precautions through aerial patrol and a controversial shark hunt.

The former chief executive of Olympus Corp said on Tuesday he was in contact with the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation , which is probing massive advisory fees linked to the Japanese company's takeover of a British company.

Stocks fell on Tuesday after discouraging corporate outlooks cast a pall over the economy's outlook, while fresh doubts arose about European efforts to find a solution to the debt crisis.

BP said on Tuesday it wanted to return to Libya and resume oil and gas exploration work, which it halted earlier this year due to the uprising against Muammar Gaddafi's rule.

BP has turned a corner after the Gulf of Mexico disaster, its chief executive said on Tuesday, predicting the British oil firm would now return to output and cashflow growth and rejecting calls for a fundamental restructuring of the group.

United Parcel Service reported a higher quarterly profit as increased pricing, cost cutting and technology improvements helped compensate for domestic shipping volume dulled by a sluggish economy, and it affirmed its outlook for record 2011 results.