UNITED STATES

The United States and Switzerland are expected to reach a final settlement on Friday to end a tax row against giant UBS , but details of the deal won't be made public the same day, sources familiar with the situation said.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was sworn in as Iran's president on Wednesday in a ceremony boycotted by reformist leaders and parliamentarians and marred by street protests over his victory.

Stocks fell on Wednesday as weak reports on the economy's service sector and labor market raised concerns about the strength of the recovery.

Most US kids aren't getting enough vitamin D, a report in Pediatrics shows, raising their risk of weak bones and, possibly, heart disease.

Blockbuster prescription drugs used to treat rheumatoid arthritis and other conditions can increase the risk of potentially deadly cancer in children and teenagers, U.S. health regulators said on Tuesday in ordering stronger warnings on such medications.

Veterans who come home from Iraq and Afghanistan with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other mental health diagnoses are hit with a double whammy:

General Motors and Magna have narrowed their differences in talks over the Canadian supplier's bid for Opel and only a small number of issues are still pending, German politicians said on Wednesday.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said on Wednesday the government has queried its compensation practices and the use of credit derivatives. Goldman in July reported robust net earnings of $3.4 billion for the second quarter, soon after repaying a $10 billion bailout received from the U.S. Treasury's Troubled Asset Relief Program.

Demand for U.S. home loans rose last week as a decline in 30-year fixed mortgage rates to a three-week low boosted applications for refinancing, the Mortgage Bankers Association said on Wednesday.

Sony Corp will begin selling this month the cheapest digital book reader for the United States, heating up the competition with Amazon.com Inc in the small but fast-growing market for electronic readers

U.S. stocks fell on Wednesday after data showed the economy's service sector contracted in July at a faster pace than June, heightening concerns about the strength of the recovery.

Oil fell toward $70 a barrel on Wednesday after U.S. government inventory data showed a build in crude stocks and weak economic data raised doubts about oil demand recovery in the world's largest energy consumer.

The U.S. service sector contracted in July at a faster pace than in June, adding to worries that any economic recovery may still be a long way off, according to a report released on Wednesday.

U.S. private equity firm Platinum Equity won permission from European Union antitrust authorities on Wednesday to acquire control of bankrupt U.S. auto parts maker Delphi Corp.

The two American journalists that were held in North Korea since March and had been sentenced to 12 years of hard labor arrived to the United States today meeting their families in a tearful encounter.

U.S. private employers shed 371,000 jobs in July, compared with a revised 463,000 drop in June, a report by a private employment service said on Wednesday.

The United States can end the political crisis in Honduras in a few seconds and kick out politicians who led a coup in June, deposed Honduran President Manuel Zelaya said on Tuesday.

Former Philippine President Corazon Aquino, heroine of the 1986 people power movement, was laid to rest on Wednesday after an eight-hour funeral procession that had to inch its way past hundreds of thousands of mourners.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was sworn in as Iran's president Wednesday in a ceremony boycotted by reformist leaders and parliamentarians and marred by street protests over his victory.

Two American journalists freed by North Korea from months of detention returned to U.S. soil early on Wednesday accompanied by former President Bill Clinton, who secured their release in a meeting with the hermit state's leader Kim Jong-il.

The number of U.S. jobs lost in the private sector fell in July but firms increased planned layoffs, data on Wednesday showed, suggesting the labor market remained troubled even as the pace of job losses slowed.