IBT Staff Reporter

U.S. authorities charged 41 people in a suspected mortgage fraud scheme that cheated lenders out of more than $64 million on New York state properties, prosecutors said on Thursday.

IBM on Thursday raised its full-year outlook and reported higher-than-expected quarterly profit as its growing focus on higher-margin software and services businesses helped it cope with weak technology spending.

Google Inc posted its strongest sequential revenue growth in more than a year, outpacing Wall Street expectations as the Internet search advertising business showed signs of recovery from the global recession.

A helium balloon that flew out of control over Colorado landed on Thursday but a 6-year-old boy who had been thought to be on board was not in the craft, local media said.

A homemade experimental helium balloon crash landed in a Colorado field but there was no sign of the six-year-old boy thought to have been inside.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc's vaunted trading operations helped the dominant Wall Street firm quadruple its earnings, but investment banking results were lackluster and its shares fell.

Officials did not find a 6-year-old boy from Colorado who was believed to be floating away on Thursday in a homemade balloon aircraft when it landed.

Street vendor Antonio Zuniga was picked up by police in Mexico City in late 2005 without a warrant, jailed and sentenced to 20 years for the murder of a man he had never met.

Goldman Sachs' earned $3.19 billion in the third quarter, led by booming sales from its trading division, which accounted for 85.3 percent of all sales

Susana has never set foot outside of Cuba but she has seen plenty of pictures of her friends' houses in Miami, their new cars and even the fancy disco they went to the other night.

Meghan McCain, the daughter of Republican senator John McCain posted a sexy photo herself on her Twitter page Wednesday evening sparking online controversy.

People are more likely to wash their hands properly after using the toilet if they are shamed into it or think they are being watched, scientists said on Thursday.

U.S. stocks were little changed on Thursday after Goldman Sachs Group and Citigroup Inc's quarterly results fell short of some investors' expectations, a day after major indexes rallied to fresh highs for 2009.

Former Bear Stearns hedge fund manager Matthew Tannin, on trial for fraud and charges he lied to investors early in the financial crisis, could not have foreseen problems in the subprime mortgage market in 2007, his lawyer said in opening his defense on Thursday.

Top U.S. executives are becoming more hopeful about the global economy and the U.S. business outlook, according to a survey of business leaders released on Thursday.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc quarterly earnings nearly quadrupled, topping expectations, but its shares fell on disappointment that so much of the profit came from trading gains that might not be sustainable.

Oil prices jumped more than 3 percent on Thursday, touching a one-year high after government data showed a steep, unexpected drop in U.S. gasoline and distillate inventories.

Morgan Stanley started coverage of U.S. refiners with an in-line view, saying that drawing down of distillate inventories due to cold weather, tightening of excess capacity and economic recovery will combine to improve crack spreads, but the recovery will be long and slow.

General Motors Co has set its turnaround plan on the assumption that it can maintain slightly more than 19 percent of the U.S. market, board member Stephen Girsky said on Thursday.

Norwegian pop-group a-ha, which rose to fame during the 1980s, will end its nearly 30-year career with a 2010 world tour, Universal Music said on Thursday.

It's been more than 30 years since John Cleese made his television classic Fawlty Towers and the British comedian is just as proud of it now as when he helped create the series in the 1970s.

A key U.S. congressional committee approved new rules for the largely unpoliced $450-trillion derivatives market on Thursday in a win for the Obama administration.

Garth Brooks, the best-selling solo musician in U.S. history, said on Thursday he was coming out of retirement and was expected to announce an extended concert run at the Wynn Las Vegas casino and hotel.

Top U.S. executives are becoming more hopeful about the global economy and the U.S. business outlook, according to a survey of business leaders released on Thursday.

U.S. mortgage rates rose for the first time in four weeks but remained below 5 percent, a key level that may spur home loan demand and help the hard-hit U.S. housing market recover.

American International Group Inc said on Thursday it expects to recognize a loss of about $1.4 billion on the sale of Nan Shan Life Insurance Co, its life insurance unit in Taiwan.

Even before the long-time rumored Apple Tablet is rolled out, it seems to already have competition.

German industrial conglomerate Siemens agreed to buy Israel's Solel Solar Systems Ltd for about $418 million to expand its business with solar thermal power plants.

Citigroup Inc posted a quarterly per-share loss as it suffered $8 billion of credit losses, raising questions about when the bank can return to sustained profitability.