WASHINGTON – If your mailbox is beginning to fill with holiday shopping catalogs, blame the Internet. BizRate Research’s (search) Online Holiday Mood Study (search) found almost 60 percent of Net merchants plan to use catalog mailings to drive traffic to Web sites this year. Nine out of 10 online merchants …

BOSTON – Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. (BNI), the second-largest U.S. railroad, Tuesday said quarterly profit rose 42 percent due to strong demand for agricultural products and imports from Asia. Burlington Northern, whose shares rose as high as 5 percent to a new record high, said it cashed in on …

UNITED NATIONS – Alexander Yakovlev (search), the U.N. employee who resigned Tuesday following a FOX News investigation into his apparent father-son conflict of interest with a major U.N. supplier, also served as procurement officer in charge of the first stages of the United Nation’s costly and controversial headquarters renovation in …

PHILADELPHIA – Citigroup (C) has agreed to sell most of its asset management business to Legg Mason Inc. (LM) in exchange for Legg Mason’s broker-dealer business in a $3.7 billion deal, the two companies said on Friday. The deal will allow Citigroup, the No. 1 U.S. bank, to challenge Merrill …

GREENWICH, Conn. – Officials in this affluent suburb were fed up with Canada geese soiling local parks, to the point that mass execution was contemplated. After intense public debate, the plan was dropped in favor of non-lethal alternatives — including deployment of a border collie in a life jacket, yapping …

ARLINGTON, Va. – A brain-dead woman is being kept on life support in hopes that her 21-week-old fetus survives, and the woman’s husband said he is certain that’s what she would have wanted. Jason Torres said doctors believe the fetus could have a chance if Susan Torres (search) lives another …

SUCRE, Bolivia – Bolivia’s high court chief was sworn in as Bolivia’s (search) president late Thursday after two congressional leaders refused the post, clearing the way for possible early elections that officials hope will curb violent protests. The action came after lawmakers gathered in an emergency session following a day …

WASHINGTON – President Bush and South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun (search) pressed North Korea to rejoin deadlocked talks on its nuclear weapons program on Friday and tried to minimize their own differences over how hard to push the reclusive communist regime. “South Korea and the United States share the same …

NEW YORK – Ground zero’s Freedom Tower (search), redesigned to address security concerns, will lose the distinctive asymmetrical shape envisioned in earlier plans, but will be the strongest and safest building in the world when it is complete, officials said. The redesigned tower will be straighter and squarer, but will …

PHOENIX – A blaze in rugged central Arizona had grown to 152,000 acres Wednesday and concern shifted to a pair of communities surrounded by pine forest that could be threatened. The fire in rugged canyons north of Phoenix grew by more than 10,000 acres overnight and was expected to continue …