IBT Staff Reporter

Willy Wonka could soon be kicking up his heels.

Wall Street was set to fall more than 1 percent at open on Friday after a weaker-than-expected labor market report cast doubt about the pace of an economic recovery.

Daniel Dae Kim (ABC's Lost) and John Slattery (AMC's Mad Men) will join Matt Damon in The Adjustment Bureau, a sci-fi romance based on a Philip K. Dick short story.

The wall-crawling superheroes and caped vigilantes of Marvel Comics will soon overrun the streets and take to the skies in the more sedate precincts of the Magic Kingdom. That might not be a bad thing for comic books.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc, the world's biggest retailer, sees a slow recovery from challenging U.S. business conditions, while its Asia operations are a little better, its Chairman Rob Walton said on Friday.

U.S. TV talk-show host David Letterman said on Thursday he was the victim of a $2 million extortion plot by a man who threatened to write a screenplay about Letterman having affairs with employees.

Efforts to convince rich nations to toughen emissions cuts have failed to make much headway at climate talks in the Thai capital, the U.N. said on Friday.

A U.S. and Canada tour by Kanye West and Lady Gaga has been canceled with no reason given just weeks after the rap star came under public fire for humiliating country star Taylor Swift at an awards ceremony.

IBM is introducing an inexpensive Web-based corporate email service that will compete with Google Inc's Google Apps, which has recently suffered several high-profile outages.

When DreamWorks announced in May that it planned to make a movie about Martin Luther King Jr., it took less than 24 hours for the prestige project to hit a speed bump.

Developing countries will need to spend as much as $100 billion annually for the next 40 years to adapt to more extreme and severe weather changes, according to a World Bank study issued on Wednesday.

If the walking dead, roller babes and Ricky Gervais aren't enough to lure recently resistant moviegoers back to North American multiplexes, perhaps a three-dimensional Buzz Lightyear will help?

Easy Rider star Dennis Hopper has been released from a New York hospital after checking in with flu-like symptoms and being treated for dehydration, his manager said on Thursday.

The label that controls the rights to the 1960s recordings by the Rolling Stones has cracked open its extensive vaults to reissue a live album that captured the band during its youthful glory.

U.S. employers cut a deeper-than-expected 263,000 jobs in September, lifting the unemployment rate to 9.8 percent, according to a government report on Friday that fueled fears the weak labor market could undermine economic recovery.

Walgreen Co , the largest U.S. drugstore chain, said September sales at its stores open at least a year jumped 5.3 percent, aided by in-store flu vaccinations and shoppers filling more 90-day prescriptions.

IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn said on Friday that government stimulus was still needed to prop up the global economy because of rising unemployment and a still-damaged financial sector.

A fall of more than 10 percent in the average apartment price in Manhattan in the third quarter from a year earlier attracted buyers who pushed up the number of sales by over 45 percent in just one quarter, industry reports showed Friday.

The largest private forest owner in California, Sierra Pacific Industries, is entering carbon markets with a deal to preserve redwoods and other trees and sell credits for soaking up greenhouse gases to power companies and investors, the company said on Wednesday.

General Electric Co is holding discussions on partnerships or an IPO for its NBC Universal unit, Chief Executive Jeffrey Immelt said, as expectations grow about a deal with cable operator Comcast Corp .

U.S. stock index futures slipped on Friday as cautious investors awaited a key report on labor market conditions after other data this week suggested the nascent economic recovery may be losing momentum.

Toyota's Dollar Difficulties; IPO for NBC Universal?; Restructurings Ahead

More than half of babies born in rich nations today will live to be 100 years old if current life expectancy trends continue, according to Danish researchers.

U.S. stock index futures slipped on Friday as cautious investors awaited a key monthly employment report after other data this week suggested the nascent economic recovery may be losing momentum.

The head of the International Monetary Fund on Friday called for a further increase in IMF resources so it could play a credible global lender of last resort role.

European shares hit a four-week low on Friday, extending the previous day's sharp losses, with investors anxious before key U.S. jobs figures after data this week raised doubt about the strength of economic recovery.

An avalanche of large U.S. businesses will need to be restructured over the next 12 to18 months, said Rob McMahon, head of General Electric Corp's Restructuring Finance Group.

Weakness in miners and financials dragged Britain's top share index 0.9 percent lower by midday on Friday, as weak data this week increased investors' concerns, denting risky assets ahead of U.S. non-farm payrolls data.

Equity markets across the globe tumbled and the U.S. dollar broadly held firm on Friday as doubts grew about the pace of economic recovery and the week's major data on U.S. jobs loomed large.