IBT Staff Reporter

Hasbro Inc said quarterly sales dropped unexpectedly as demand in the United States petered out at the end of the holiday selling season, and the No. 2 U.S. toy company's shares initially fell more than 5 percent.

Optimism about corporate earnings, bolstered by JPMorgan Chase & Co, lifted the stock market slightly on Friday, offsetting lukewarm economic data and putting the S&P 500 on track for a seventh straight week of gains.

The president of Tunisia has dismissed his government and called for early elections, according to a report from the country's state TV network.

Germany faced mounting pressure from its euro zone partners on Friday to boost a rescue fund for troubled member states after French Economy Minister Christine Lagarde said governments were considering expanding it.

A former leader and two other members of the San Francisco branch of La Mara Salvatrucha or the dreaded MS-13 criminal gang have pleaded guilty in federal court to various federal charges that include racketeering (RICO) conspiracy, conspiracy to commit murder in aid of racketeering, and the use or possession of a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence, according to the Department of Justice.

The U.S. Department of Justice has struck a severe blow on the members and associates of the Gambino Organized Crime Family of La Cosa Nostra (the Gambino Family) by securing a guilty pleas from the final two of the 14 defendants, all of whom were charged with crimes that included racketeering, murder, sex trafficking, extortion, and wire fraud in April 2010.

Churchill Downs Inc., the race track operators, announced a five-year extension of their sponsorship agreement with Yum Brands Inc, making the restaurant company the presenting operators of the Kentucky Derby.

Howrey is struggling with its European intellectual property (IP) practice following the departure of its London-based managing partner Mark Hodgson, who has joined Field Fisher Waterhouse.

Artificial knee and hip maker Smith & Nephew said on Friday it was not in talks on a merger or takeover, after a report it was weighing a deal with privately owned U.S. rival Biomet sent its shares higher.

CMS Cameron McKenna said it has hired Simmons & Simmons US securities partner Daniel Winterfeldt to head its newly launched international capital markets (ICM) group.

Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) has strengthened its regulatory practice with the appointment of DLA Piper's financial services litigation expert Daren Allen.

Global law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has appointed Robert Ashworth for the role of Asia managing partner.

Legal dramas on television helped an Illinois ex-con hone his acting skills and pass off as a hotshot lawyer, enabling him to represent paying clients for between $500 and $4500 till a court clerk recognized him and blew the whistle.

Stronger-than-expected earnings from JPMorgan Chase & Co lifted the stock market slightly on Friday, offsetting weak economic data and putting the S&P 500 on track for its seventh straight week of gains.

A robber, who has been nicknamed the Holiday Bandit by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), has been identified as Marat G. Mikhaylich and is being sought after pulling his third bank robbery in the New York City over the past few weeks, the federal authorities said.

Nevada's new governor-elect and former federal judge Brian Sandoval has named his former clerk Lucas Foletta as his general counsel even though the latter has not passed the Nevada state bar exam.

A man who had hijacked a Puerto Rico-bound Pan American flight 281 to Cuba four decades ago and then voluntarily returned to the United States in October 2009 and surrendered to federal authorities so that he could see his family again, has been sentenced to 15 years in prison without parole.

Bank of America (BofA) has paid $2.8 billion to mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to settle claims that it had sold mortgages to them that did not meet specifications.

Federal authorities are clueless about the mysterious circumstances in which the dead body of a former Pentagon political appointee in President George W. Bush's administration had landed up in a dumpster.

Seven hospitals located throughout the southern part of United States have agreed to pay a total of $6.3 million to resolve False Claims Act allegations that they were overcharging for osteoporosis procedures, said Department of Justice (DOJ).

A federal judge has ordered the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) to hold off a $60 million contract awarded to Microsoft to integrate 13 DOI e-mail systems and consider competing bids from Google and others.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE), the federal agency, which oversees U.S. offshore drilling, has allowed Shell Offshore Inc. and 12 other oil and gas companies to resume deepwater drilling operations in the Gulf of Mexico without the need to submit revised exploration or development plans for supplemental National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) reviews.

A former and longtime employee at the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland has been charged with illegally exporting infrared military technology to South Korea, though he is not accused of taking technology or related materials from the research center, according to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).

Sharply higher prices at the pump pushed overall consumer prices up at their fastest pace in a year and a half, though core prices, which strip out volatile food and energy costs, barely budged, a government report released on Friday showed.

NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - Jo Ann Montrose-Eichelberger, 55, never thought she would meet her second husband on an online dating site -- especially not one for seniors.

The new council of U.S. regulators will face a major test on Tuesday when it unveils recommendations on how to enforce one of the most recognizable if inscrutable aspects of the six-month-old Wall Street reform law: the Volcker rule.

CES 2011 is over but Motorola Xoom still continues to wow the media, even as reports tumble out that the Xoom can act as a weatherman too but RIM is closing in with its PlayBook which received rave reviews at the event.

Sales at U.S. retailers rose slightly less than expected in December while underlying inflation remained calm, government reports showed on Friday.

Hasbro Inc reported weaker-than-expected fourth-quarter sales as demand for its toys slackened late in the holiday season but backed its forecast for earnings and revenue growth in 2011.