IBT Staff Reporter

Stock index futures pointed to a higher open on Thursday as encourage results from Morgan Stanley lifted optimism over the battered financial sector.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc has agreed to give its U.S. store data to Nielsen Holdings NV , bolstering an industry benchmark that has long lacked insights into sales at the world's largest chain.

Harper Seven is the most popular celebrity baby at this moment. She was born on July 7 to Victoria and David Beckham.

The frenzy with the launch of Google has slowed down in the past couple of days compared to 2 million users joining every day in the last one week, suggests an analysis by Paul Allen, co-founder of Ancestry.com.

Kim Kardashian and Old Navy are not seeing eye to eye as of late. The reality star is suing them for featuring a look-alike in their campaign.

Europe is willing to let Greece default under a crisis response that would involve a bond buyback, a debt swap but no new tax on banks, EU sources said as euro zone leaders began a crucial emergency summit Thursday.

The space shuttle Atlantis lands and officially ends the space shuttle program after 30 years.

Google Inc is introducing a credit card for its advertising customers, offering its clients a credit line to try and drum up business as competition in the online ad market heats up.

In order to prevent unnecessary confusion and disappointment, New York City officials will limit the number of marriages to 764 on Sunday, the first day the state's same-sex marriage law takes effect.

Here are some photos of the hot premiere event that took place Wednesday night in London!

Here are some photos of the hot premiere event that took place Wednesday night in London!

A senior United Nations official warned that climate change could become a catalyst for sudden and abrupt shocks worldwide and have far-reaching implications for global stability and security. Achim Steiner, executive director of the U.N. Environmental Program, told the U.N. Security Council Wednesday that natural resources are at risk.

NASA spacecraft Atlantis landed successfully on runway 15 of the shuttle landing facility at Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 5:57 am EDT. The landing marks the end of the space shuttle program.

The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits rose more than expected last week, pointing to a labor market that is struggling to regain momentum.

Apple has currently made some strides in the area of high definition (HD) displays for their future mobile devices. The iPhone 5 and iPad 3 are rumored to be producing HD displays that will support a lineup of 1080p movies through Apple TV, possibly hitting the market this fall. Utilizing more powerful hardware, the mobile devices are expected to run iOS 5 which can support 1080p video file output.

AT&T Inc's second-quarter revenue beat Wall Street expectations and its customer growth improved in the first full quarter after it lost exclusive U.S. rights to sell Apple Inc iPhone.

Growth ground to a halt in the euro zone's private sector this month while China's factory sector contracted for the first time in a year, surveys showed on Thursday, deepening evidence of a sharp slowdown in the global economy.

World stocks held below a 1-1/2 week high on Thursday after a disappointing services sector survey in the euro zone while the euro ticked up as investors awaited details of a Franco-German deal on a Greek bailout at a European summit later.

Alongside its highly anticipated releases Mac OS X Lion and Intel Sandy Bridge-based MacBook Air, Apple also launched the world's first Thunderbolt Display.

Apple Mac OS X Lion, the latest operating system innovation from the Cupertino-based IT giant, has finally hit the store on Wednesday, but is it worth the upgrade?

Morgan Stanley reported better-than-expected second-quarter results on Thursday as the U.S. investment bank outperformed rivals in tough trading conditions.

The United Nations declared famine in two regions of Southern Somalia on Wednesday and warned that it could spread further in two months until donor countries stepped in.

Morgan Stanley reported a second-quarter loss of 38 cents per share on Thursday, beating expectations.

Dez Heal, 13, of Lynchburg, Va., was playing a Ninja game with his friends when a bamboo stick which he had decided to put the back of my shirt, impaled his neck.

Nasdaq and Dow index futures were lower on Thursday as investors awaited details on a second rescue package for Greece, bringing the euro-zone's debt crisis back into the spotlight.

Investors braced for more bleak news from smartphone laggard Nokia Oyj on Thursday with the world's largest handset maker likely to post a second-quarter loss and a weak outlook.

China's factory sector shrank for the first time in a year in July, a survey showed on Thursday, feeding worries among the country's main trading partners that its growth is unsustainable and could lead to a slump.

The European Central Bank is willing to let Greece slip into temporary default as part of a crisis response that would involve a bond buyback but no new tax on banks, EU sources said on Thursday.

Lions are predators that hunt most successfully in the dark, which surprises their prey. So it is prime hunting time when deep darkness falls after a full moon.