IBT Staff Reporter

Barry Manilow is in a festive mood. With Manilow set to end a five-year run at the Las Vegas Hilton on December 30, Sony Music said the 66-year-old singer has re-signed his recording deal with its Arista Records label and will be releasing two new albums in the coming months.

If George W. Bush was the Decider who relied mostly on gut instinct as U.S. president, Barack Obama has shown himself to be the Deliberator.

Comedian Lewis Black has been making people laugh with his take-no-prisoners approach to whatever pops up in his cross-hairs -- government, milk, official tips on how to survive a nuclear blast.

Don't Panic. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is back with a sixth installment of the absurd, intergalactic and increasingly inaccurately named trilogy.

A top U.S. labor group on Thursday asked the Obama administration's pay czar to stop any retirement payments to Bank of America Chief Executive Ken Lewis.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Thursday that while the U.S. central bank's vast support for the economy will likely be needed for a while, the Fed must remove that help as the economy heals to ward off inflation.

Security software maker Sophos Inc is introducing free programs that prevent sensitive data from getting outside corporate firewalls, taking on products sold by Symantec Corp and McAfee Inc.

The United States slipped from first to third place after the U.K. and Australia in a ranking of financial development released by the World Economic Forum on Thursday, as the global financial crisis badly hurt bank stability in developed countries.

A lower reading in the Unemployment Rate for September yesterday saw the Australian Dollar rally hard in local trade.

Filling your vehicle's tank with fuel made from algae is still as much as a decade away, as the emerging industry faces a series of hurdles to find an economical way to make the biofuel commercially.

Speed increases in mobile data services will require more densely built networks, executives from wireless chip and technology supplier Qualcomm Inc said on Thursday.

China's Tengzhong may finalise a deal with General Motors Co [GM.UL] on Friday to acquire the U.S. automaker's Hummer business for about $150 million, a source familiar with the deal said.

A German-brokered deal to rescue Opel will not collapse due to a lack of support from other European countries hosting the carmaker's plants, Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman was quoted as saying on Thursday.

The Canadian Auto Workers expect to return to full scale formal contract negotiations with U.S. automaker Ford Motor Co on October 26, the union said on Thursday.

U.S. stocks rose on Thursday as a surprising quarterly profit from Alcoa Inc got third-quarter earnings off to a strong start.

Bookseller Barnes & Noble Inc will soon sell its own electronic reader to rival Amazon.com Inc's Kindle, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

Norway's sovereign wealth fund, Europe's biggest equity investor, on Wednesday criticized German auto maker Volkswagen (VOWG.DE) for plans to take over some Porsche assets, which it called costly and unacceptable.

A group of Republicans and Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives called on the Federal Communications Commission to investigate Google Inc's ability to block calls to rural telephone exchanges.

General Motors Co GM.UL will look to sell the steering business it took back from former parts subsidiary Delphi under a deal that closed this week, the automaker said in a letter to its suppliers.

The number of U.S. workers filing new jobless claims hit a 9-month low last week, and retailers posted their first monthly sales gain in over a year, easing fears recovery from recession would be unsustainable.

Magna International Inc (MGa.TO) received a prestigious order from Daimler (DAIGn.DE), its fifth biggest customer, in a sign of faith that it would not pull business from the auto parts supplier despite the Canadian company's planned Opel deal.

Driving a convertible with the roof down might be exhilarating, but it could also damage your hearing, according to British scientists.

Czech President Vaclav Klaus raised a new obstacle to the European Union's Lisbon reform treaty on Thursday, telling EU president Sweden he wants a footnote added to the document before signing it into force.

The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan has recommended an increase of 40,000 U.S. troops as the minimum necessary to prevail, two sources familiar with his recommendations said on Thursday.

Up to 15,000 gunmen in Nigeria's oil-producing Niger Delta have surrendered their arms and accepted President Umaru Yar'Adua's unconditional pardon, a senior government official said on Thursday.

Vaccination programs against H1N1 swine flu are under way in the United States, China and Australia and will begin soon in parts of Europe.

New York Major Michael Bloomberg announced Tuesday platform for the next mayoral elections saying that American visa holders and American immigrants have made the Big Apple the city that it is and deserve to be recognized.

U.S. stocks rose on Thursday as a surprising quarterly profit from Alcoa Inc got third-quarter earnings off to a strong start.

A new viewing platform has been opened at Uluru (Ayers Rock). The platform - named Talinguru Nyakunytjaku, or ‘place to look from the sand dune' in the Aboriginal