IBT Staff Reporter

U2 is No. 1 when it comes to touring. The band had the highest-grossing tour both in North America and worldwide in 2011.

The world's most famous detective is uncovering money at the box office.

CBS won in the ratings Wednesday on a night when the Big 4 networks ran nothing but reruns, according to preliminary numbers.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission got a fresh dressing-down from the judge who rejected its $285 million settlement with Citigroup Inc, as he said the regulator kept him out of the loop on its efforts to salvage the case.

Sears Holdings Corp on Thursday identified 79 of the 100 to 120 Sears and Kmart stores it said earlier this week it would close, with the list split almost evenly between the two chains.

An appeals court ruled that a letter linked to Mark Hurd's abrupt departure from his post as chief of Hewlett-Packard Co should be unsealed, potentially revealing new details about his dramatic exit from the technology giant.

The U.S. Treasury Department plans to start charging large banks a fee to cover the costs of the financial risk council it leads and a research office tasked with measuring threats to financial markets.

Russia tried to submerge a burning nuclear submarine at a navy shipyard on Thursday after battling for hours with helicopters and tug boats to bring the raging blaze under control.

Sears Holdings Corp on Thursday identified 79 of the 100 to 120 Sears and Kmart stores it said earlier this week it would close, with the list almost evenly split between the two chains.

Turkish warplanes killed 35 civilian smugglers in northern Iraq after mistaking them for Kurdish militants, Ankara's ruling party said on Thursday, promising not to allow a cover-up of an incident that threatens to wreck relations with minority Kurds.

Mosaic, a leading North American fertilizer producer, may have won the battle to arrest a plunge in phosphate prices ahead the region's spring planting season, but it still risks losing the war as overseas capacity surges in the coming years.

An appeals court ruled that a letter linked to Mark Hurd's abrupt departure from his post as chief of Hewlett-Packard Co should be unsealed, potentially revealing new details about his dramatic exit from the technology giant.

Syrian security forces shot dead 25 people on Thursday, including in cities being visited by Arab League monitors to check whether President Bashar al-Assad is keeping a pledge to end a crackdown on popular unrest.

A ski resort company owned by Calgary financier Murray Edwards has bought Kicking Horse Mountain Resort in British Columbia from its Dutch developer, bringing to three the number of properties it owns in the Rocky Mountain region, which is known for deep powder skiing.

Celestica Inc was ordered by a U.S. appeals court to face a shareholder lawsuit accusing the Canadian electronics company of securities fraud for misleading investors about its financial health and restructuring costs.

Shares of Diamond Foods Inc , currently the target of a regulatory probe, rose as much as 14 percent, after CNBC reported rumors that high-profile investor David Einhorn may have invested in the company.

The Toronto Raptors delivered every ounce of effort they promised fans before their NBA home opener against Indiana on Wednesday but it would not be enough to secure the victory as the Pacers ran out 90-85 winners.

Move over, Whitney and Bobby.

Fans of novelist George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire fantasy series are melting. The Game of Thrones author just released a previously unpublished sample chapter from the upcoming sixth installment, The Winds of Winter, on his Website.

Michael Buble continued his Christmas reign at the top of the Billboard 200 album chart on Wednesday for the fifth consecutive week, keeping Adele and rapper Young Jeezy from the No. 1 position.

The surviving relatives of four family members killed when a Marine fighter jet crashed into their San Diego home in 2008 were awarded $17.8 million by a federal judge on Wednesday.

Kings of Leon frontman Caleb Followill and his wife, Victoria's Secret model Lily Aldridge, said on Thursday they are expecting their first child, ending a rollercoaster year for the rock band.

In interviews, star Meryl Streep and director Phyllida Lloyd (Mamma Mia!) have joked that The Iron Lady, their film about former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, is the girl version of King Lear.

The Canadian dollar was little changed against the U.S. dollar on Thursday morning but that meant it outperformed other major currencies as the greenback consolidated the sharp safe-haven gains it made in thin year-end trade in the previous session.

The head of the Canadian Auto Workers union is looking for a green light from members to potentially strike Caterpillar over a contract dispute in London, Ontario.

German phone company Deutsche Telekom AG and a Hungarian unit will pay more than $95 million to settle U.S. criminal and civil probes into the bribery of government officials in Macedonia and Montenegro.

U.S. stocks rallied on Thursday, moving the S&P 500 back in positive territory for 2011 ahead of the last trading day of the year, on more positive signals on the U.S. economy.

Banks tightened the screws on lending to major financial market participants in recent months, the U.S. Federal Reserve said on Thursday, reflecting concerns about Europe's banking crisis.

Despite more than $100 billion in disaster losses around the world this year, insurers are not yet experiencing a broad and sustained increase in pricing power, defying predictions from a year ago that even half those losses would be enough to turn the industry around.