IBT Staff Reporter

It's way out of the ordinary - for the mainstream - and it's called planking.

Unexpectedly weak consumer spending hobbled the economy in the first quarter and fresh signs of a slowdown in the labor market pointed to an uphill struggle for the recovery.

The more aggressively a bank lobbied before the financial crisis, the worse its loans performed during the economic downturn -- and the more bailout dollars it received, according to a study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research this week.

Following Buster Posey's injury at home plate last night, San Francisco Giants manager Bruce Body called for a rules change in the way runners go to home plate.

As of today, Lindsay Lohan will have to remain her home as part of her sentence for jewelry theft for four months.

Investors who believe LinkedIn Corp is overvalued after its explosive market debut last week may get their first crack at proving that Friday, when options in the stock start trading on U.S. exchanges.

Goldman Sachs believes its clients are largely past the regulatory investigations and accusations that have surrounded the bank, according to an analyst who met its Chief Financial Officer.

The only type of meat billionaire Mark Zuckerberg is eating for now comes from animals he's slaughtered himself. He doesn't want to forget being thankful for what has to die so he can eat.

Former 'Friends' star Lisa Kudrow will bring her iconic style and sense of humor to one of the web's self-congratulatory events, when the star of her own web show hosts the Webby Awards on June 13.

A woman from San Diego currently holds the U.S. record for having the most number of surrogate babies, a total of ten babies in ten years.

Shares of Microsoft Corp climbed as much as 2.3 percent on Thursday after influential hedge fund manager David Einhorn caused a stir on Wall Street by calling on Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer to step down.

Google introduces Google Wallet, a new mobile platform for contactless payments.

Electrons are almost perfect spheres, and the fact that they are could help answer questions such as why antimatter is rare.

Google unveiled such a system Thursday, and this new payment method allows mobile phones to be swiped like a credit card, allowing goods to be paid for on the spot. This means your phone becomes your wallet.

San Francisco Giant's catcher Buster Posey is out for the rest of the entire season with broken left ankle.

Intel Corp would consider making chips for rivals, but any proposal to use its advanced manufacturing technology to make processors based on a competing architecture would trigger an in-depth discussion.

Tenants and their supporters are building homeless encampments to dramatize what they fear will happen if rent laws expire.

The London Stock Exchange dismissed the threat of a higher hostile counter offer for Canadian peer TMX Group from local banking consortium Maple Group as incomplete and unlikely to pass muster.

Kim Clijsters, the world number two, ended her 2011 French Open early in a disappointing loss to Robin Soderling. Clijsters was recovering from injury and her recovery and participation in the tournament was a surprise to many.

Even as the United States and Russia work to implement a nuclear treaty to reduce their total number of nuclear weapons, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev touched upon the highly sensitive issue of missile defense on Thursday as he met with President Barack Obama at the G8 Summit in France.

What is AIPAC and what role does it play in U.S. policy?

The average New York driver saves more than $700 per year in gas, compared to the average driver in Mississippi, Natural Resources Defense Council states in its report, Fighting Oil Addiction: Ranking States' Gasoline Price Vulnerability and Solutions for Change.

Some 450 high-risk prisoners and over 1,000 state inmates with various offenses were freed as unsupervised parolee under a program created in January last year to ease overcrowding.

Google will launch two new services - Google Wallet and Google Offers - which will enable consumers to pay and use coupons using the mobile phones, according to Google during a press conference today.

Two NYPD officers accused of rape are found not guilty. An attorney for Kenneth Moreno and Franklin Mata, the two New York police officers acquitted of rape and burglary charges Thursday morning said his clients are elated.

Two Democratic political consultants may proceed with their suit alleging that The Huffington Post's founders stole their idea for the news website, a New York judge has ruled.

Stocks rose for a second day, erasing early losses in a volatile day on Thursday as earnings helped technology and consumer discretionary stocks after a substantial fall for equities this month.

Rising inflation, higher commodity prices and lower global economic growth will weigh on margins of S&P 500 <.SPX> companies, said Goldman Sachs, as it forecast a lower 2012 earnings outlook, and reduced its year-end target on the index.

The International Monetary Fund may withhold the next slice of aid to Greece due next month, the head of euro zone finance ministers said on Thursday, spooking markets with the possibility of default.