IBT Staff Reporter

The International Monetary Fund replaced its European Director with a powerful, well-connected, insider on Wednesday in a sign the global lender is setting a more forceful course of action in dealing with the European crisis.

An Illinois judge set the bond at $40,000 for an algebra teacher at a Christian school who admitted to investigators that he masturbated behind a lectern Friday during class, WWLS-TV reported Wednesday. Paul LaDuke, a 75-year-old minister in charge of a class full of minors, confessed that until one of them caught him in the act, he would put an apron on and masturbate while he thought about girls in the room for 10 years.

San Francisco police raided part of the Occupy SF camp, removing 15 tents in front of Market Street and arresting 7 protesters on early Wednesday morning.

China-based Qihoo 360 Technology Co posted better-than-expected quarterly results and forecast strong revenue for the current quarter as the provider of antivirus software draws more money from online advertising.

Data storage equipment maker NetApp Inc reported a 6 percent dip in fiscal second-quarter profit and forecast lower than expected results for the current quarter as large corporations trim technology spending in a shaky economy.

Google Inc unveiled a new online music store on Wednesday, in a move to challenge the dominance of market leaders Apple Inc and Amazon.com Inc.

Rapper Mac Miller became the first indie artist since 1995 to debut at the top of the Billboard Top 200 album charts on Wednesday, with his first album Blue Slide Park.

Hold onto your award-winning seats Hollywood. Ricky Gervais will return as host of the upcoming Golden Globe Awards.

Stocks fell on Wednesday, with selling accelerating late in the session on more warnings about the potential impact of the euro zone's debt crisis on the global economy and the banking system.

Iranian-American filmmaker Hossein Keshavarz's directorial debut, Dog Sweat, has won recognition at world film festivals, but it will never be seen in his homeland.

Bradley Cooper is the latest Hollywood heartthrob to be named People's sexiest man alive, the magazine announced on Wednesday.

Rambus Inc was dealt a major defeat on Wednesday as a jury rejected its claims in a $4 billion antitrust lawsuit against Micron Technology Inc and Hynix Semiconductor Inc, a decision that wiped out almost two-thirds of its market value.

Tossing off lesbian kissers, loose-trousered rock stars and corpulent movie directors from its jet planes recently, Southwest Airlines has hardly shied away from publicity.

Mike The Situation Sorrentino is slipping away from the Jersey Shore to visit the spooky 'burbs.

If you love the classic era of baby-making music -- which could mean that you're just a year or two past the point of having to worry about your music tastes resulting in actual babies -- you'll love Betty Wright: The Movie, the new album by the 57-year-old soul singer and her storied backup band, the Roots.

Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent won more of the emerging market for LTE wireless network technology in the third quarter, helped by their strong position in the United States, researcher Dell'Oro said.

BHP Billiton , the world's biggest miner, expects heightened volatility and the uncertain economic outlook to weigh on sentiment in commodities markets, with customers being more cautious in managing stocks.

Japan's disgraced Olympus Corp may sell assets to help pay down $3.4 billion in debt under a plan aimed at keeping the support of lenders in its battle to survive an accounting scandal, the Nikkei business daily said on Thursday.

A federal judge rejected a request by former Northwest Airlines Corp flight attendants to raise their compensation to that of Delta Air Lines Inc colleagues who worked at that carrier before the companies' merger.

A big fire blazed through Fire Island Pines of New York’s Long Island on Monday night and needed 400 firefighters from 28 fire departments to be subdued. So far, no injuries were reported.

The “Lady Marmalade” R&B diva Patti LaBelle has been accused of hurling curses and throwing water at a toddler, according to a lawsuit filed at Manhattan Supreme Court on Monday.

Top executives at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on Wednesday defended their companies' pay practices from attack by lawmakers angry that the government-controlled firms were paying out nearly $13 million in executive bonuses.

TransCanada Corp said on Wednesday it could start building the portion of its planned Keystone XL pipeline that runs from Cushing, Oklahoma, to the Gulf of Mexico, even as it awaits U.S. approval for the project as a whole.

Enbridge Inc and TransCanada Corp have raced forward with new pipeline plans in the fierce battle to unclog a year-long U.S. oil bottleneck, which could quickly end an unprecedented distortion in crude markets.

It’s been a very “Minecraft” week. Minecon, the fan convention, kicks off Nov. 18, marking the release of the “final” version coming out. Now in a surprise move, developer Mojang will release the iOS version of the game Nov. 17.

Olympus Corp offered a plan to cut its debt by about 260 billion yen ($3.38 billion) over the next three years to maintain ties with creditors amid a deepening scandal, the Nikkei business daily reported.

Start-up company ConnecTV, which will track television viewers' watching habits and connect them to other viewers via social media, has struck a deal with 10 TV station groups that collectively cover 76 million U.S. households., the company announced Tuesday.

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association is pushing for a January trial date in its legal battle against Dick Clark Productions over who controls the television rights to the Golden Globes.

Qualcomm Inc on Wednesday affirmed its long-term growth target of at least 10 percent for annual revenue and earnings per share, citing strong demand for smartphones and other wireless devices.