WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. economy has been in a recession for a year, the nation's business cycle arbiter declared on Monday, while European leaders vowed to step up public spending to try to cushion a deepening downturn.
CHICAGO (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Barack Obama named former rival Hillary Clinton as secretary of state on Monday and said Robert Gates would remain defense secretary in a national security team charged with recasting America's leadership role in the world.
MINGORA, Pakistan (Reuters) - A suicide car-bomber killed eight people on Monday in an attack aimed at a military checkpost in northwest Pakistan's Swat Valley, military officials said.
MUMBAI (Reuters) - India demanded Pakistan take decisive action over deadly attacks in Mumbai it said were carried out by militants from its nuclear-armed rival, while the West urged cooperation to ease tension.
MUMBAI (Reuters) - Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has appealed to India not to punish his country for last week's attacks in Mumbai, saying militants have the power to precipitate a war in the region, the Financial Times reported on Monday.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Astronauts aboard the space shuttle Endeavour wrapped up a 16-day mission to prepare the International Space Station for its first six-member crew with a flawless touchdown at NASA's backup landing site in California.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Key retail stocks fell on Monday as investors feared that deep discounts offered by stores during the year's first holiday shopping weekend could sap profits and would not save a bleak season.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Astronauts aboard the space shuttle Endeavour wrapped up a 16-day mission to prepare the International Space Station for its first six-member crew with a flawless touchdown at NASA's backup landing site in California.
CHICAGO (Reuters) - President-Elect Barack Obama was poised to name his national security team on Monday, with former political rival Hillary Clinton in line to be picked as secretary of state.
BETHLEHEM, West Bank (Reuters) - "Jingle Bells" rang out over Manger Square on Sunday as Bethlehem opened a Christmas market that the Palestinian city hopes will help cap a boom year for tourism with a profitable festive season.
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - An Iraqi court on Sunday ordered the release of a freelance photographer working for Reuters news agency who has been held by U.S. forces since early September.
CHICAGO (Reuters) - President-Elect Barack Obama will unveil his national security team at a news conference in Chicago on Monday, expected to include Hillary Clinton as secretary of state.
SHALAMCHA, Iraq (Reuters) - Iran and Iraq on Sunday exchanged the remains of a total of 241 soldiers killed in their 1980-88 war, resuming a swap that had been suspended since shortly after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
NAIROBI (Reuters) - Somali pirates and owners of a Ukrainian ship carrying 33 tanks and other military hardware have reached a deal to release the vessel, a Kenyan maritime official said Sunday.
LONDON (Reuters) - A report in the Sunday Times that Microsoft Inc is in talks with Yahoo Inc to buy the U.S. internet company's online search business for $20 billion is "total fiction," according to a key executive cited by an influential U.S. blog.
KABUL (Reuters) - A suicide bomber hit a German embassy vehicle in Kabul on Sunday, killing three Afghan civilians, said the government, an attack claimed by the Taliban which left six wounded.
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's government tried to quell criticism on Sunday of a security pact which sets deadlines for U.S. military withdrawals, saying opponents could wait to judge how Washington honors commitments to pull back its troops.
JOS, Nigeria (Reuters) - Residents took more bodies to the main mosque in the Nigerian city of Jos on Sunday, bringing the death toll from two days of clashes between Muslim and Christian gangs to about 400 people.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Astronauts aboard space shuttle Endeavour closed their ship's cargo bay doors on Sunday and prepared to land in California after bad weather prompted NASA to bypass the prime Florida landing site.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Former President Bill Clinton has agreed to make public the names of more than 200,000 donors to his foundation as part of a deal with President-elect Barack Obama to clear the way for Sen. Hillary Clinton to become secretary of state, The New York Times reported on Sunday.
SEOUL (Reuters) - Hundreds of South Koreans streamed out of the communist North at the weekend, expelled from a joint industrial enclave by Pyongyang in anger at the hardline policy of the conservative leader in the South.
BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thai police on Sunday ordered thousands of anti-government protesters to end their siege of Bangkok's airports, restricting public gatherings and warning offenders would be jailed or fined.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. shoppers awoke early for post-Thanksgiving sales on Friday in a key test of the country's ability to withstand economic turmoil as sharp production declines in Asia gave fresh evidence of the global crisis.
MUMBAI (Reuters) - The fallout from a three-day rampage that killed nearly 200 people in Mumbai threatened on Sunday to unravel India's improving ties with Pakistan and prompted the resignation of India's security minister.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Consumers made repeat trips to U.S. stores to seek bargains as holiday shopping kicked off this weekend, but an early rush is unlikely to save what is shaping up to be a bleak sales season, analysts said on Sunday.
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Gunmen shot and killed eight people in a violence-plagued northern Mexico border city that is a target of the government's war against drug gangs, police told Reuters on Saturday.
HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuban President Raul Castro attended a ceremony for the country's first religious beatification on Saturday in another sign of warming relations between the Communist-ruled island and the Catholic Church.
RAFAH, Gaza Strip (Reuters) - Palestinian pilgrims bound for Mecca were prevented from leaving the Gaza Strip via Egypt on Saturday as the enclave's Hamas Islamist rulers and the rival leadership in the West Bank traded blame for the hold-up.
NAJAF, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraq's influential Shi'ite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani has reservations about a pact allowing U.S. troops to stay for three more years, but politicians must decide its value, a source said on Saturday.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. shoppers awoke early for post-Thanksgiving sales on Friday in a key test of the country's ability to withstand economic turmoil as sharp production declines in Asia gave fresh evidence of the global crisis.
DOHA (Reuters) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad blamed the West for the global financial crisis on Saturday, saying other countries were being dragged in to help resolve Western problems.
CHENNAI, India (Reuters) - The prevalence of diabetes worldwide will far outstrip even the sharp increase currently projected unless rising trends of obesity are controlled, health experts said on Saturday.
KABUL (Reuters) - A former Taliban spokesman was shot dead in his home late on Friday evening by unknown gunmen in the southeastern province of Nangarhar, a provincial official said on Saturday.
CAIRO (Reuters) - OPEC on Saturday deferred a decision on a new oil supply cut amid signs that Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies are demanding tighter adherence to restraints put in place over the past two months.
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A suicide bomber killed 12 people in an Iraqi mosque on Friday while thousands of followers of anti-American Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr demonstrated in Baghdad after parliament passed a pact allowing U.S. troops to remain through 2011.
BANGKOK (Reuters) - A grenade blast wounded 46 anti-government protesters in Bangkok, hospital officials said on Sunday, the latest escalation in the country's increasingly violent political crisis.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A man working for discount retailer Wal-Mart was killed on Friday in a stampede by frenzied shoppers who broke down doors and surged into a Long Island, New York store, a police spokesman said.
MUMBAI (Reuters) - Indian accusations of a Pakistani link to the attacks on Mumbai that killed nearly 200 people threaten to damage attempts to improve ties between the rivals.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration defended the safety of infant formula sold in the United States on Friday despite tests that found the chemical melamine in one brand and a related compound in another.
COLUMBIA, Maryland (Reuters) - The stores are open, the prices are marked down, but U.S. consumers spooked by the economic crisis bought sparingly at the start of the holiday shopping season.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration defended the safety of infant formula sold in the United States on Friday despite tests that found the chemical melamine in one brand and a related compound in another.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Poverty in the United States is spreading from rural and inner-city areas to the suburbs, according to a study, a situation that can worsen as the economy confronts what may be a protracted recession.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A man working for Wal-Mart was killed on Friday when a throng of shoppers surged into a Long Island, New York, store and physically broke down the doors, a police spokesman said.