IBT Staff Reporter

She passed up the offer to perform with the band at the 2012 London Olympics

Wikipedia Foundation managed to collect $16 million in its 10 the year in the holiday season, its best show this far

Wall Street strategists are bullish about the market's prospects in 2011, expecting stocks to rise an average of 10 percent, with big-cap shares like Exxon Mobil Corp , Wal-Mart Stores Inc and Pfizer Inc leading the way, Barron's reported on Sunday.

Egyptian police have detained at least 17 people suspected of their involvement in church attacks that killed 21 people on New Year's Eve. No extremists outfit has so far claimed responsibility for the blasts. Two explosions targeting more than 1000 worshipers who gathered to mark the New Year in the Sidi Bechr district, rocked the northern port city of Alexandria on Friday.

Apple Inc got a wake-up call on Sunday, as iPhone users complained the New Year got off to a slow start because built-in alarms on their phones failed to wake them.

U.S. private employers have recorded 11 consecutive months of job gains, yet the number of people who are so discouraged that they have given up searching for work stands at an all-time high.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards have shot down two Western spy drones in the Gulf, the local media reported on Sunday.

Standard & Poor's says the semiconductor industry will face slower growth in 2011.

Predictions are, by their nature, uncertain. Politics is, as history teaches, full of surprises. So predictions about politics have to be taken with a good amount of salt.

Swiss government plans for tougher capital standards for big Swiss banks would help reduce the chance of another crisis, the Swiss central banks' vice chairman wrote on Sunday in a newspaper.

A bout of profit taking seems likely early in the new year after the S&P 500 ended its best December in almost two decades, but stocks may have further to run at the start of 2011.

Another iPhone alarm glitch ticks off users at the start of New Year. Apple has confirmed iOS bug and says it will get fixed by Jan. 3, 2011.

Russian oil output rose by 2.2 percent in 2010 to a record 10.1 million barrels per day (505.193 million tonnes) as higher prices prompted the world's top oil exporter to ramp up production at its greenfield sites.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao vowed again to step up efforts to keep consumer inflation in check in 2011, state media reported on Sunday.

Korea Asset Management Corporation will buy about 5 trillion won ($4.38 billion) worth of bad loans from financial institutions and assets from companies under restructuring this year, local media said on Sunday.

Facebook has dethroned Google as the top-visited Web sites in 2010, as well as the most searched term of the year, a report says. Into 2011, it is to be seen whether the search engine giant can regain ground.

January 1 marks the first day that students can file the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) for the coming academic year.

Coptic Christians took to the streets in Egypt following the New Year's eve attack and clashed with Muslims. Police were mobilized to control the mobs firing tear gas shells. After midnight on Saturday, an explosion outside a church in the northern port city of Alexandria killed at least 17 people. Meanwhile, Egypt's President, Hosni Mubarak said he would cut off the head of terrorism. Wicked terrorists targeted the nation, Copts and Muslims, the President said in his address to th...

At least one woman has reportedly died and another thirty-four people received severe injuries after an explosion on a Russian passenger jet on Saturday. Flames broke out in Tu-154M passenger jet and it was forced to make an emergency landing in the Siberian city of Surgut, Officials maintained that the engine exploded after takeoff.

S&P Equity Research predicts big developments for the Internet segment in 2011, including continuing challenges for Google, changes at Yahoo, and a cloud offering from Apple.

e-readers have exploded into the market in 2010

Beckham has had loan spells at Italian club AC Milan in 2009 and 2010, during the MLS off-season, but has so far rejected any move back to England stating that, as a Manchester United fan, a move back would be too close to home.

In a rare concession the football loving nation allowed an edited version of the movie on TV

She admits that she sometimes worries about aging

Nolan is all praises for his exacting and demanding nature on the sets of Inception

Hope, despair, promises and more promises. World leaders have spelled out their intent, or say an 'action plan' for the coming year. Note them all, some merely possible, some probably intricate others perhaps a bunch of lies.

With the growth in the number of plants being built and the increasing cost competitiveness, 2011 looks like solar energy could start to come into its own in the U.S.

As technologies become more popular, they become more enticing targets.

Nunavut Iron hiked its bid for Baffinland Iron Mines late on Friday, refusing to back down in a fight with steel giant ArcelorMittal for control of the junior miner and its vast undeveloped iron ore deposit in Canada's Arctic.