IBT Staff Reporter

Wall Street was set for a modestly higher open on Friday as investors were optimistic about economic recovery prospects and FedEx said its first-quarter earnings would exceed expectations.

New York held a memorial gathering on Friday to remember the eight anniversary of the September 11 attacks in the city while President Obama in Washington observed a minute of silence at the White House.

FedEx Corp said profits in both the current and subsequent quarters would be higher than it had earlier expected, citing an improving economy and fuel prices, and its shares jumped 4.5 percent in premarket trading.

An Australian firm hoping to broker A$1.6 billion in carbon credit sales from saving tropical forests highlights the promise and peril of a U.N.-backed scheme that rewards projects for curbing deforestation.

Disney has struck a deal with Viz Media to bring the anime series Naruto Shippuden to the Disney XD digital cable network beginning next month.

The upcoming Teutonic retelling of Moby-Dick has its Ahab: William Hurt has signed on to play the megamaniacal, peg-legged captain of the whaler Pequod, and Ethan Hawke has inked to play Starbuck, the first officer who is just about the only sailor who defies him.

Maura Tierney has pulled out of NBC's upcoming drama series Parenthood because of a scheduling conflict between the show's production and her breast cancer treatments.

A lawsuit that accused Jerry Seinfeld of defamation and his wife Jessica Seinfeld of plagiarism in her top-selling cookbook was tossed out by a federal judge on Thursday.

Singing songs on subjects ranging from death to drink, British baritone Marcus Farnsworth has won the top prize in the sixth biennial Wigmore Hall/Kohn Foundation International Song Competition.

An international lineup of Latin acts will join Colombian rocker Juanes at his controversial Paz Sin Fronteras (Peace Without Borders) concert, scheduled for Havana, Cuba, on September 20.

The Black Eyed Peas logged an 11th week at No. 1 on Billboard's Hot 100 singles chart Thursday with I Gotta Feeling, extending the hip-hop group's unbroken reign to 23 weeks when its previous hit Boom Boom Pow is factored in.

On a hazy mid-August morning at the swanky Viceroy hotel in Santa Monica, California, indie rock royalty Conor Oberst, Jim James, M. Ward and Mike Mogis -- who have gathered to promote their new band, Monsters of Folk -- are nestled on a mustard-colored couch in a quiet room with all-yellow vintage decor that resembles a set from a Stanley Kubrick film. At the moment, however, their concerns are b...

A museum dedicated to the September 11 attacks will play martyrdom videos made by the hijackers but testimonials by the public would be screened to prevent sympathizers from praising the perpetrators, museum officials said.

As it expands its circle of producers, Sony Pictures Animation has struck a multiyear, first-look deal with Fred Seibert and his Frederator Studios to develop animated features.

Wall Street was poised for a flat to higher open on Friday as positive remarks from Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner supported optimism for a recovery, but stocks could stall after five days of gains.

Timothy Dalton, a former James Bond and a Shakespearean actor to boot, will voice a worthy thespian hedgehog named Mr Pricklepants in Disney/Pixar's Toy Story 3.

he protest and counterprotest over a Tel Aviv sidebar escalated Thursday as the Toronto International Film Festival got under way.

New York state's top court is likely to rule next month on a Manhattan housing complex legal battle that could derail one the United States' largest real estate deals and reshape the city's residential rental market.

U.S. import prices spiked 2 percent in August as the cost of oil rose, the Labor Department said on Friday,

China's Economy Surprises; Gov't Can Cut Back Finance Support; New Leadership at Morgan Stanley

Twenty one-year-old Iranian director Hana Makhmalbaf brings the bloody street protests that followed June's presidential vote to the big screen in a film looking at the hopes and frustrations of the country's youth.

Iran's top leader told the opposition on Friday they would face a harsh response if they drew their swords against the Islamic Republic, three months after a disputed election that sparked widespread unrest.

The Toronto International Film Festival made a rare break with tradition at its gala opening on Thursday night, debuting British drama Creation at the key event long considered a starting point in the race for Oscars.

Four of the world's biggest recording companies have sued the producers of The Ellen DeGeneres Show, accusing them of using songs without permission.

Words of wisdom from Paris Hilton are to be immortalized alongside remarks by some of the greatest thinkers of all time in the latest edition of the Oxford Book of Quotations -- and she reckons it's so cool.

U.S. designer Tom Ford admits he is terrified.

It makes sense for China to diversify its huge stockpile of foreign exchange reserves, the U.S. Treasury's economic and financial emissary to China said on Friday.

A scheduled Michael Jackson tribute concert in Vienna has been canceled because of poor treatment by local Austrian media and the event will be shifted to London next year, organizers said on Friday.

A dark U.S. comedy, Michael Moore's attack on capitalism and a harrowing Israeli war movie are among the critics' favorites to win the coveted Golden Lion for best film at the Venice festival.