IBT Staff Reporter

In addition to the usual lines we'll be hearing at the next Academy Awards show -- I'd like to thank the Academy, It's an honor just to be nominated, and all the other cliches -- there's a pretty good chance that something else will be heard at the Kodak Theater:

Occupy Wall Street protesters may get a new platform to voice their opinions after MTV's The Real World reality TV show posted a casting call reaching out to supporters of the movement.

U.S. stocks fell on Wednesday as traders, after sitting on their hands for most of the day, jumped to sell in a hair-trigger reaction to fresh reports underscoring that Europe remains far from a solution to its debt crisis.

The Kindle Fire tablet may be the hottest selling gadget this holiday, pressuring Amazon.com Inc's profit margins but giving the world's largest Internet retailer potentially millions of new high-spending customers.

Dozens of large exotic animals including tigers, lions and bears were hunted down and shot after their owner opened their cages at his Ohio farm and then committed suicide, officials said on Wednesday.

Hourly workers represented by the United Auto Workers ratified a labor deal with Ford Motor Co on Wednesday, leaving Chrysler as the last U.S. automaker without a finalized contract.

Nokia is expected to report a rare loss for the third quarter as the struggling Finnish cellphone giant prepares to launch its first Windows phones next week.

A New Jersey man sued Bank of America , JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo on Wednesday on behalf of ATM users, accusing the banks of colluding to fix the fees they charge customers to withdraw money.

Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry said on Wednesday he will propose a flat tax as part of an overhaul of the U.S. tax code as he seeks to claw his way back to the top tier of the 2012 race.

Republican U.S. presidential hopeful Rick Santorum was exaggerating on Tuesday when he said a healthcare plan that his opponent Mitt Romney put in place in Massachusetts put a big dent in his state's budget.

A confident Mitt Romney criticized his Republican rivals and fended off attacks on Tuesday at a feisty debate that could help reinstall him as the party's presidential front-runner.

The economic outlook grew dimmer in September, leading businesses to be wary of spending and of building up inventories ahead of the holiday sales season, the Federal Reserve said on Wednesday.

Republican presidential hopefuls meet at Sands Expo Convention Center in Las Vegas on Tuesday for the eighth debate in their race for their party's nomination to challenge President Barack Obama in 2012.

The Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) declined comment on Wednesday on a call by U.S. senators to ban tobacco, including smokeless tobacco, from the game.

Texas Rangers starting pitcher C.J. Wilson said he may have an edge in dealing with temperatures expected to dip near the freezing mark in Wednesday's Game One of the World Series in St. Louis -- cryotherapy.

Occupy St. Louis invited baseball fans on Tuesday to watch the World Series for free on a big screen at its campsite, and said it would stream its message against economic inequality between innings.

The Philadelphia Eagles and Detroit Lions swapped running backs at the National Football League trade deadline on Tuesday with Ronnie Brown headed to the Motor City for Jerome Harrison.

Dozens of exotic animals including tigers, lions and bears were let loose on Ohio farmland by their owner before he committed suicide, sparking a shoot-to-kill hunt in which 49 of the wild beasts, including 18 endangered Bengal tigers, were killed.

A New York City policeman has been docked more than a third of his vacation time after he used pepper spray on anti-Wall Street protesters corralled by police on a sidewalk during a rally against economic inequality.

EBay Inc reported profit that matched Wall Street estimates and gave a restrained outlook for the rest of the year, sending its shares lower.

Nearly 32 acts survived last week's Judges' Homes episodes and encounters with Simon Cowell, who will sort out the weak from the strong on The X Factor, TV's newest singing contest.

A concert DVD featuring Neil Young and a generation of music icons will launch this month with live screenings across the United States.

Microblogging service Twitter is looking for a director to bolster its board's business credentials and diversity, and candidates include a former Google Inc executive, a person familiar with the matter said.

Law and Order: SVU actress Mariska Hargitay and her husband have adopted a baby boy just six months after doing the same with a baby girl, the actress told People Magazine on Wednesday.

Unsanitary conditions at a packing plant that handled fresh cantaloupes from a Colorado farm likely contributed to one of the deadliest listeria outbreaks in U.S. history, health regulators said on Wednesday.

The full cast of NBC's Celebrity Apprentice 5 outed themselves in New York Tuesday, as the new assemblage of competitors hit the mean streets to test their sandwich-making skills in what appeared to be a one of the show's competitions, Reality Blurred reported.

Norman Corwin, the award-winning writer and director of golden-age radio plays who was also Oscar nominated for his work in films has died of natural causes at home in Los Angeles. He was 101.

Grammy-winning gothic rock band Evanescence topped the Billboard 200 chart on Wednesday with their latest self-titled album, Evanescence.

The Los Angeles Times' two-part series on the Kabbalah Center this week provides a fascinating look at the organization's rapid rise in popularity, its colorful founders, and its current tax issues.