IBT Staff Reporter

ARTIST: NORAH JONES SINGLE: CHASING PIRATES

With four nominations each, Beyonce, Keri Hilson and Maxwell head the list of nominees for the Soul Train Awards.

Carly Simon recorded her new album, Never Been Gone, at her Martha's Vineyard compound, and she delivers intriguing twists on her hits (You're So Vain, Anticipation) and other songs from past albums, as well as two new tunes.

The last time singer Mario saw the pinnacle of Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart was in 2005. That's when Let Me Love You -- from his 2004 second album, Turning Point -- reached No. 1. Four years and two albums later, the Baltimore crooner finds himself close to reclaiming that zenith.

There's not really much to say anymore about the Saw series, which has found its formula and is sticking with it.

For the past seven months, Questlove has been on the run. The Roots drummer, whose driver's license reads Ahmir Thompson, wakes up every day between 6 and 7 a.m. to catch an 8 a.m. train from his hometown of Philadelphia and usually doesn't return home until 11 p.m.

A judge on Friday cleared rapper Kanye West of criminal charges following a scuffle with paparazzi at Los Angeles International Airport last year, pending his completion of community service, a spokesman for the Los Angeles City Attorney said.

Heading toward its October 28 release, Michael Jackson movie This Is It looks like a box office winner for Sony's Columbia Pictures movie studio with one estimate saying it could make more than $600 million worldwide in a limited two-week run.

Private equity firm Blackstone is preparing to float theme park operator Merlin Entertainments next year, hoping to take advantage of buoyant equity markets, a source familiar with the situation said.

Federal prosecutors in the Galleon Group case have sent a subpoena to a former employee of Steven A. Cohen's SAC Capital Advisors, a sign that the scope of the problem into the largest hedge fund insider trading case in history is expanding, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

A judge on Friday granted Grammy award-winning singer Justin Timberlake a temporary restraining order against a woman he said was an obsessed, mentally unstable stalker who broke into his home.

President Robert Mugabe has shrugged off the former opposition's boycott of Zimbabwe's unity government, saying he would not yield to pressure to make concessions, state media reported on Saturday.

Pakistani forces backed by helicopter gunships and artillery recaptured a strategic town from Taliban militants after fierce fighting, officials said on Saturday.

Chancellor Angela Merkel sealed a coalition deal with the Free Democrats (FDP) on Saturday, promising to revive the German economy with billions of euros in tax relief but failing to spell out how the government will pay for the cuts.

The East Asia Summit, bringing together the 10-member Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and six dialogue partners, will be held in the Thai seaside resort of Hua Hin on Sunday.

Japan's prime minister backed a U.S. role for a proposed EU-style Asian community on Saturday, telling Southeast Asian leaders Tokyo's alliance with Washington was at the heart of its diplomacy.

The Taliban called on Afghans on Saturday to boycott next month's presidential election run-off and vowed to disrupt voting in a repeat of their threat to derail the disputed first round.

Influential Iranian lawmakers on Saturday criticised a U.N.-drafted agreement that requires Tehran to send its atomic stockpile abroad for further processing, the student news agency ISNA reported.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Saturday he was pressing ahead with January elections but held out hope that reconciliation with his Hamas rivals could still be achieved.

Healthcare companies are reaping the benefits of a global swine flu pandemic, brightening what might otherwise have been a dismal third quarter and bringing new focus on the market for vaccines.

South African traditional leaders plan to perform ritual animal slaughters to bless stadiums for the 2010 World Cup tournament ahead of the start of the showcase event next June, they said on Friday.

Russell Read does not regret pushing Calpers, the biggest U.S. public pension fund, into investment frontiers that consultants avoid -- and he sees the public pension funds at a crossroads on what to do next.

SABB bank , HSBC's Saudi affiliate, booked 351.5 million riyal ($93.7 million) in provisions for loan losses during the third quarter, bourse data showed on Saturday.

Lenovo, the world's fourth-biggest personal computer maker, expects a boost in its PC sales from the launch of Microsoft's new operating system, Windows 7, its chairman said on Saturday.

London's Heathrow Airport has been voted the worst airport in the world for the second year running in a poll of 14,500 frequent fliers while Singapore's Changi was again ranked as the best.

Billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn gave up his seat on the Yahoo Inc board of directors on Friday, closing a tumultuous chapter in the Internet company's 15-year history.

Health reform negotiations have moved behind closed doors in Congress, but chances are high that a bill will pass this year -- even if it doesn't do all that much to revamp the nation's swelling $2.5 trillion health care system.

Billionaire investor George Soros said U.S. taxpayers were entitled to resent bankers' bonuses because their profits were funded by government bailouts, according to an interview published in the Financial Times.

Revitalized credit markets have cast a funding lifeline to U.S. companies and banks, but many companies are still hoarding their cash, a practice that may delay a full-fledged recovery.