IBT Staff Reporter

Best Buy Co beat profit and sales estimates in its holiday quarter, boosted by demand for notebook computers, flat-panel televisions and mobile phones.

Want to survive a heart attack, heart failure or pneumonia? Go to a busy hospital.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel backed aid for Greece with IMF involvement as a last resort on Thursday, and the European Central Bank extended looser funding rules in a big reprieve for Athens.

European Union leaders were striving on Thursday to reach a last-minute agreement on how to help Greece resolve its debt crisis and reassure investors before what was likely to be a tense summit.

LG Electronics, the world's No.2 TV brand, said on Thursday it was aiming to sell nearly 1 million 3D TVs this year to take one-fourth of the market, joining a growing number of global tech firms betting 3D will become the next hot product.

Dubai will recapitalize its Dubai World conglomerate and repay property unit Nakheel's bonds in full, with $9.5 billion of aid for a debt deal promising creditors all their money back in up to eight years.

The Dubai government unveiled plans to recapitalize its indebted Dubai World flagship and repay Nakheel bonds in full, injecting what it said was $9.5 billion in new funding, but without new aid from Abu Dhabi.

A senior Chinese central banker on Thursday played down the need for an imminent rise in borrowing costs to keep a balance between growth and inflation in the world's third-largest economy.

Stock index futures pointed to a slightly higher open on Wall Street on Thursday, with futures for the S&P 500 up 0.14 percent, Dow Jones futures up 0.12 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures up 0.18 percent.

The U.S. securities regulator is probing hedge funds Appaloosa Management LP and Carlson Capital LP for certain trades, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the matter.

The euro fell to a new 10-month low against the dollar on Thursday as Portugal's credit downgrade added to worries about debt in Greece and elsewhere in Europe, hitting riskier assets such as shares and commodities.

Lions Gate Entertainment Corp and Carl Icahn traded angry barbs on Wednesday, one day after the movie studio rejected his hostile bid.

Sales of newly built homes fell for a fourth straight month to a record low in February, but another rise in new orders for durable goods offered assurance the economic recovery was on course.

The euro hovered near 10-month lows on Thursday as a credit downgrade on Portugal added to worries about debt levels in Greece and other parts of Europe, weighing on riskier assets such as shares and commodities.

California's attorney general asked a court on Tuesday to bar Michael Jackson's former doctor, Conrad Murray, from practicing medicine while he faces charges in connection with the pop star's death.

With most Americans already toting cellphones, AT&T Inc now wants to target their dogs.

Want a look at real, reality TV? Try clicking on an upcoming Web show called The Vault, which for one year will lock more than a dozen people in an underground bunker after a simulated nuclear holocaust.

The shares of two telecommunications equipment makers and a bank holding company blew past expectations in their stock debuts Wednesday, reviving hope for what had been a sickly market for initial public offerings.

The Federal Reserve has not been clear enough about how it intends to unwind its unprecedented monetary easing campaign, and some of the tools it expects to use may not work, monetary experts will tell Congress on Thursday.

Starbucks Corp declared its first dividend on Wednesday, signaling an end to its days of sizzling growth while ushering in a broader-based strategy aimed at more sustainable, stable prosperity.

Pop-up is so passe: South Korean scientists have developed 3D technology for books that makes characters literally leap off the page.

NEW YORK - Cablevision Systems is betting that 3D in the home will be the next business opportunity. The cable operator on Wednesday unveiled a licensing deal with 3D technology provider RealD.

The manager of teen pop star Justin Bieber was arrested on Wednesday for refusing to warn fans on Twitter about overcrowding at a shopping mall event, narrowly avoiding a horrible disaster, authorities said.

The results, published in the Spanish journal Psicothema, not only confirm the bifactorial structure of workaholism, in other words its two dimensions, but also relate the results with psychosocial wellbeing (perceived health and happiness), in order to highlight the negative features of addiction to work in Spain.

An unemployed Frenchman has been arrested for targeting the Twitter accounts of President Barack Obama and singer Britney Spears, French police said on Wednesday.

Although the number of single women has increased, the stigma associated with being single at the age of mid-30's has not diminished, according to the researchers of University of Missouri.

The total dollar amount of settlements of U.S. class-action securities lawsuits rose 39 percent in 2009 and could rise further this year as cases stemming from the financial crisis wind on.

A French man has been arrested for hacking into the Twitter account of President Barack Obama, French police said on Wednesday.

Despite several attempts to recapture the 92 cent level in Asia yesterday the Aussie dollar retreated and opens this morning back below 91 cents on technical support at 0.9080.