IBT Staff Reporter

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc will pay $26 billion to buy out railroad Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp in what the billionaire investor called a bet on the U.S. economy.

Sex and the City star Sarah Jessica Parker, Oscar winner Forest Whitaker and talent agent Bryan Lourd were among big Hollywood names named on Monday as members of U.S. President Barack Obama's Committee on Arts and the Humanities.

U.S. auto sales are likely to remain flat in 2010, former General Motors Co director Jerry York said on Monday.

Johnson & Johnson will eliminate about 6 percent to 7 percent of its global workforce, or some 7,000 to 8,000 positions, as the diversified healthcare company restructures and seeks cost savings, the company said on Tuesday.

Pop singer Rihanna is due to speak for the first time about the night she was beaten by her ex-boyfriend Chris Brown, saying in a TV interview that this could happen to anyone.

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc said it agreed to buy railroad Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp in Buffett's biggest acquisition ever.

Germany's new car market grew by 24 percent year-on-year in October even after a scrappage scheme for old autos ran out of money in September, the VDIK foreign carmaker association said on Tuesday.

U.S. online sales are expected to rise 8 percent this holiday season, with mass market retailers who can offer discounts performing best, according to Forrester Research Inc.

Johnson & Johnson will eliminate about 6 percent to 7 percent of its global workforce, or some 7,000 to 8,000 positions, as the diversified healthcare company restructures and seeks cost savings, the company said on Tuesday.

Oil fell more than $1 per barrel to below $77 on Tuesday as stock markets slipped in Europe and Asia and the dollar rose against a basket of currencies.

Poultry workers may be at particularly high risk of developing several forms of cancer, according to a new study that points to viruses carried by birds as a possible cause.

When it comes to treating kids for acute gastroenteritis - an infection of the stomach - many children's hospitals in the U.S. are ignoring evidence-based guidelines - and costing the health care system more than $1 billion in unnecessary spending, according to the authors of a new study.

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc will pay $26 billion to buy out railroad Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp in what the billionaire investor called a bet on the U.S. economy.

U.S. stocks fell at the open on Tuesday as concerns over European banks outweighed a deal by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway to buy railroad company Burlington Northern.

U.S. researchers have engineered an enzyme that can gobble up scar tissue formed after spinal cord injuries in rats, overcoming a key hurdle to getting injured nerves to reconnect and heal.

Berlin hosts the MTV Europe Music Awards on Thursday, where German pop rock band Tokio Hotel will perform alongside U.S. rapper Jay-Z and Latin pop star Shakira.

MasterCard Inc reported higher-than-expected quarterly earnings on Tuesday as the world's second-largest credit card network raised fees to banks and cut expenses, while consumers used their debit cards more.

The more TV a 3-year-old watches, the more likely he or she is to behave aggressively, a new study shows.

Up to 30 million doses of vaccine against the pandemic H1N1 flu have been delivered to the U.S. government and production is now picking up, officials said on Monday.

China is experiencing an epidemic of syphilis, a sexually transmitted disease that the country virtually wiped out in the 1960s, a senior public health official was quoted as saying on Tuesday.

People scared of flying can now press a button on their iPhone to help them deal with their panic.

Many U.S. primary care doctors are out of step with guidelines on Pap testing for cervical cancer -- largely because they overuse the test, according to a study published Monday.

Pregnant women and other people at high risk should be vaccinated against the H1N1 swine fluvirus as the cold weather begins to bite in the northern hemisphere, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday.

U.S. stock index futures fell on Tuesday as the deal by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway to buy railroad Burlington Northern failed to offset poor results from Swiss lender UBS and a shake-up at two big British banks.

Swiss bank UBS does not expect to win back assets from rich clients any time soon as it struggles to rebuild its reputation after a bitter U.S. tax row even as its underlying performance improves.

China's recent roll out of 3G mobile services is creating a land grab among its Internet firms, old and new alike, salivating over a mobile Internet market the size of the U.S. and Europe combined.

China said to plan review of developer loans on concern at surging prices.

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc said it agreed to buy railroad Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp in Buffett's biggest acquisition ever.

U.S. stock index futures fell on Tuesday as the deal by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway to buy railroad company Burlington Northern was offset by poor results from Swiss lender UBS and a shake-up at two big British banks.