IBT Staff Reporter

A confident Mitt Romney criticized his Republican rivals and fended off attacks on Tuesday at a feisty debate that could help reinstall him as the party's presidential front-runner.

The economic outlook grew dimmer in September, leading businesses to be wary of spending and of building up inventories ahead of the holiday sales season, the Federal Reserve said on Wednesday.

Republican presidential hopefuls meet at Sands Expo Convention Center in Las Vegas on Tuesday for the eighth debate in their race for their party's nomination to challenge President Barack Obama in 2012.

The Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) declined comment on Wednesday on a call by U.S. senators to ban tobacco, including smokeless tobacco, from the game.

Texas Rangers starting pitcher C.J. Wilson said he may have an edge in dealing with temperatures expected to dip near the freezing mark in Wednesday's Game One of the World Series in St. Louis -- cryotherapy.

Occupy St. Louis invited baseball fans on Tuesday to watch the World Series for free on a big screen at its campsite, and said it would stream its message against economic inequality between innings.

The Philadelphia Eagles and Detroit Lions swapped running backs at the National Football League trade deadline on Tuesday with Ronnie Brown headed to the Motor City for Jerome Harrison.

Dozens of exotic animals including tigers, lions and bears were let loose on Ohio farmland by their owner before he committed suicide, sparking a shoot-to-kill hunt in which 49 of the wild beasts, including 18 endangered Bengal tigers, were killed.

A New York City policeman has been docked more than a third of his vacation time after he used pepper spray on anti-Wall Street protesters corralled by police on a sidewalk during a rally against economic inequality.

EBay Inc reported profit that matched Wall Street estimates and gave a restrained outlook for the rest of the year, sending its shares lower.

Nearly 32 acts survived last week's Judges' Homes episodes and encounters with Simon Cowell, who will sort out the weak from the strong on The X Factor, TV's newest singing contest.

A concert DVD featuring Neil Young and a generation of music icons will launch this month with live screenings across the United States.

Microblogging service Twitter is looking for a director to bolster its board's business credentials and diversity, and candidates include a former Google Inc executive, a person familiar with the matter said.

Law and Order: SVU actress Mariska Hargitay and her husband have adopted a baby boy just six months after doing the same with a baby girl, the actress told People Magazine on Wednesday.

Unsanitary conditions at a packing plant that handled fresh cantaloupes from a Colorado farm likely contributed to one of the deadliest listeria outbreaks in U.S. history, health regulators said on Wednesday.

The full cast of NBC's Celebrity Apprentice 5 outed themselves in New York Tuesday, as the new assemblage of competitors hit the mean streets to test their sandwich-making skills in what appeared to be a one of the show's competitions, Reality Blurred reported.

Norman Corwin, the award-winning writer and director of golden-age radio plays who was also Oscar nominated for his work in films has died of natural causes at home in Los Angeles. He was 101.

Grammy-winning gothic rock band Evanescence topped the Billboard 200 chart on Wednesday with their latest self-titled album, Evanescence.

The Los Angeles Times' two-part series on the Kabbalah Center this week provides a fascinating look at the organization's rapid rise in popularity, its colorful founders, and its current tax issues.

Jurors in the trial of Michael Jackson's doctor were shown a detailed video on Wednesday on the correct use of the drug that killed the singer -- a potentially damaging presentation that differed sharply from accounts of how the doctor cared for him.

Lytro formally unveiled its innovative focus later camera, called Lytro light field camera Wednesday, as a potential game changer that will bring photography to a new level.

EBay reported third quarter earnings of $491 million, an increase of 14 percent from their earnings of $432 million in the same quarter last year.

An authority on the drug propofol testified at the trial of Michael Jackson's doctor on Wednesday that he wants to dispel fears about the anesthetic that led to the pop star's 2009 death.

The Winnipeg Jets are eager to put together a winning campaign for a rabid fan base that seems content just to have a National Hockey League (NHL) franchise to call their own after a 15-year absence.

The U.S. economic outlook grew dimmer in September, leading businesses to be wary of spending and of building up inventories ahead of the holiday sales season, the Federal Reserve said on Wednesday.

The jury in Rambus Inc's $4 billion antitrust lawsuit against Micron Technology Inc and Hynix Semiconductor Inc is reviewing more testimony from the trial in its fifth week of deliberations.

China's financial regulators have asked the world's biggest audit firms to urgently review their work on U.S.-listed Chinese companies and give details on information they may have provided to overseas regulators, two sources told Reuters.

United Parcel Service Inc and FedEx Corp , which have long been undercut by the U.S. Postal Service's low prices for package delivery, could have much to gain as the agency faces a painful restructuring.

Coalition of U.S. solar cells and panels makers have petitioned the U.S. government to stop rising tide of heavily subsidized product entering the American market from China's state-supported solar industry.