IBT Staff Reporter

The contract that established Apple as a corporate entity in 1976 sold at auction on Tuesday for $1.59 million, 10 times its estimated price, two months after the death of high-profile co-founder Steve Jobs.

Hedge fund billionaire Steven A. Cohen in sworn testimony earlier this year called the rules on insider trading very vague and said sometimes it's a judgment call as to whether a tidbit about a public company is inside information.

Avon Products Inc on Tuesday said that it was replacing Andrea Jung as chief executive, a move that comes as the cosmetics company tries to recover from a myriad of problems, including a federal bribery probe and weak sales in key international markets.

The Federal Reserve on Tuesday pointed to turmoil in Europe as a big risk to the U.S. economy, leaving the door open to a further easing of monetary policy even as it noted some improvement in the U.S. labor market.

The world No. 2 mobile telecom equipment maker Nokia Siemens Networks will start to gradually ramp down its business in Iran, pressured by tightening international sanctions.

Microsoft Corp co-founder Paul Allen is planning to build a spaceship that could replace the Space Shuttle and put paying passengers into orbit this decade.

Japan's scandal-ridden Olympus Corp faces one of its biggest challenges to survive as an independent company on Wednesday, when it must meet a deadline to file its second-quarter results or be delisted from the Tokyo stock exchange.

A deal to restructure Greek bonds could see banks rank on an equal footing with official euro zone lenders to the country under a plan being discussed, one of the lead negotiators said on Tuesday.

The Federal Reserve on Tuesday left monetary policy on hold but said financial market turbulence posed threats to economic growth, leaving the door open to further easing next year.

Across the globe, small towns and big cities are celebrating the holiday season with spectacular light displays. Take a look at some of the best public Christmas lights from Rome to Rio.

French bank Credit Agricole will unveil a restructuring on Wednesday, a trade-union representative told Reuters, and the number of jobs cuts could reach around 2,000, the Figaro later reported.

Stocks fell for a second straight day on Tuesday after the Federal Reserve gave no hints of new stimulus measures to offset the effects of the worsening European debt crisis.

A British Parliamentary committee on Tuesday published a sequence of e-mails which raised questions about the story News Corp's James Murdoch told to House of Commons legislators about what he knew about phone hacking allegations involving the now-defunct News of the World and when he knew it.

Charlie Sheen was fired from his starring role on TV sitcom Two and A Half Men because he was so addicted to cocaine that program makers feared he might die, or cause someone else to die, producer Chuck Lorre said.

It has been called the brick that built the universe, the angel of creation and the god particle.

Seth Rogen, who is better known for major-studio comedies than for indie films, has been named host of the 2012 Film Independent Spirit Awards.

Director David Fincher's film adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo earned solid early reviews on Tuesday following its London premiere, and the studio behind it pushed up the release in a crowded holiday season.

The Federal Communications Commission is cracking down on loud commercials.

In 2009, British film writer/director Guy Ritchie shocked Sherlock Holmes purists by rebooting the classic crime-fighting character for a new generation of movie fans.

Silent film The Artist and animated movie Hugo led nominations for Hollywood's Critics' Choice Awards on Tuesday, in a key week that will firm up the field of likely Oscar contenders.

Most other contemporary R&B is so about braggadocio that it's the humility that makes Anthony Hamilton seem like a hero on his boldly modest new album, Back to Love.

This is the first in a series of Studio Report Cards from TheWrap. First up, Warner Bros.

Young Adult director Jason Reitman, screenwriter Diablo Cody and stars Charlize Theron and Patton Oswalt will receive the Vanguard Award at the 2012 Palm Springs International Film Festival, PSIFF organizers announced on Tuesday.

A music-industry executive died on Monday of wounds he suffered last week when a gunman opened fire on motorists in a famed Hollywood intersection, a hospital spokeswoman said.

British band The Kooks wrap up the current U.S. leg of their tour this week, setting their sights beyond their first three records and aiming to score a major hit in America with new music to come.

The chief executive of Merck & Co on Tuesday defended his refusal to slash the drugmaker's $8 billion research budget and warned that global price constraints threaten the pharmaceutical industry's ability to innovate.

Europe's economic prospects next year are so bleak that 2011, for all the euro's agonies, has every chance of being remembered fondly.

Standard & Poor's on Tuesday said there is a greater number of sovereign and banking bonds at risk of ratings downgrades as a result of its recent warning that it might cut the credit ratings on 15 euro zone nations.

The Federal Reserve on Tuesday pointed to turmoil Europe as a big risk to the economy, leaving the door open to a further easing of monetary policy even as it noted some improvement in the labor market.