UNITED STATES

U.S prosecutors are preparing to impanel a grand jury to consider indicting the former head of American International Group's AIG Financial Products unit for securities fraud, the Wall Street Journal reported.

FedEx Corp said profits in both the current and next quarters would be higher than it had earlier expected, citing an improving economy and stable fuel prices, and its shares jumped 5.4 percent to their best level in nearly a year.

Wall Street was set for a modestly higher open on Friday as investors were optimistic about economic recovery prospects and FedEx said its first-quarter earnings would exceed expectations.

New York held a memorial gathering on Friday to remember the eight anniversary of the September 11 attacks in the city while President Obama in Washington observed a minute of silence at the White House.

An Australian firm hoping to broker A$1.6 billion in carbon credit sales from saving tropical forests highlights the promise and peril of a U.N.-backed scheme that rewards projects for curbing deforestation.

The upcoming Teutonic retelling of Moby-Dick has its Ahab: William Hurt has signed on to play the megamaniacal, peg-legged captain of the whaler Pequod, and Ethan Hawke has inked to play Starbuck, the first officer who is just about the only sailor who defies him.

A lawsuit that accused Jerry Seinfeld of defamation and his wife Jessica Seinfeld of plagiarism in her top-selling cookbook was tossed out by a federal judge on Thursday.

Singing songs on subjects ranging from death to drink, British baritone Marcus Farnsworth has won the top prize in the sixth biennial Wigmore Hall/Kohn Foundation International Song Competition.

The Black Eyed Peas logged an 11th week at No. 1 on Billboard's Hot 100 singles chart Thursday with I Gotta Feeling, extending the hip-hop group's unbroken reign to 23 weeks when its previous hit Boom Boom Pow is factored in.

On a hazy mid-August morning at the swanky Viceroy hotel in Santa Monica, California, indie rock royalty Conor Oberst, Jim James, M. Ward and Mike Mogis -- who have gathered to promote their new band, Monsters of Folk -- are nestled on a mustard-colored couch in a quiet room with all-yellow vintage decor that resembles a set from a Stanley Kubrick film. At the moment, however, their concerns are b...

Timothy Dalton, a former James Bond and a Shakespearean actor to boot, will voice a worthy thespian hedgehog named Mr Pricklepants in Disney/Pixar's Toy Story 3.

New York state's top court is likely to rule next month on a Manhattan housing complex legal battle that could derail one the United States' largest real estate deals and reshape the city's residential rental market.

U.S. import prices spiked 2 percent in August as the cost of oil rose, the Labor Department said on Friday,

China's Economy Surprises; Gov't Can Cut Back Finance Support; New Leadership at Morgan Stanley

Words of wisdom from Paris Hilton are to be immortalized alongside remarks by some of the greatest thinkers of all time in the latest edition of the Oxford Book of Quotations -- and she reckons it's so cool.

U.S. designer Tom Ford admits he is terrified.

It makes sense for China to diversify its huge stockpile of foreign exchange reserves, the U.S. Treasury's economic and financial emissary to China said on Friday.

A dark U.S. comedy, Michael Moore's attack on capitalism and a harrowing Israeli war movie are among the critics' favorites to win the coveted Golden Lion for best film at the Venice festival.

Japan's economy grew a revised 0.6 percent in the three months to June, less than preliminary figures had shown but confirming that the economy crawled out of recession after a full year of sharp contraction.

The economic outlook improved in most countries in the 30-nation OECD area and clear signs of recovery can be seen in the major seven economies, an OECD survey said on Friday.

A year after the collapse of investment bank Lehman Brothers , frozen credit markets are piecing themselves together again but the face of borrowing is dramatically different.