COMMODITIES

Syria is one of the few countries on the planet to have a large stockpile of some of the deadliest substances known to man. What's it doing with them now?

Presumptive Republican Party presidential nominee Mitt Romney has not released several U.S. income tax reports, but if history is any indicator, from an electoral standpoint, this is exactly the opposite of what he should do.

Why Ghana has been spared much of the chaos that surrounds it in West Africa?

India has an extremely conservative attitude towards pornography and nudity – indeed, kissing is banned from Bollywood films, while couples who show affection in public are largely scorned and sometimes even spat upon and attacked.

Thirty years ago (ironically, about the same time Mubarak seized power in Egypt), the Taiwanese initiated the path towards forming a democratic state.

The forgotten country of Tajikistan is actually of pivotal importance, and the rumblings of an increasingly bold crowd of Islamist dissenters there should not be ignored.

U.S. companies have been finding it much easier to deliver earnings beats, or profits that are higher than expected, as analysts on Wall Street continue to trim their forecasts for earnings growth. However, they might have also come to realize that beating earnings expectations alone is not enough to help their stock prices.

As non-Persians, they have long faced discrimination, particularly with respect to employment, housing, and civil rights.

Liverpool, only about 130 miles from Dublin across the Irish Sea, has long attracted immigrants from Eire.

The future of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two government-controlled entities that guarantee around 60 percent of the U.S. mortgage market, remains uncertain, but their federal regulator is requesting a plan to wind them down and sell their assets.

A fancy new aircraft upgrade for the Marines is causing a backlash in Japan and exposing years of tensions over U.S. forces in the country.

Evita was also widely admired for her great beauty and fashion style.

Norwegians haven't let the massacre challenge the foundations of their society, which include liberalism, freedom and openness.

In the old days of Mexico's Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), the party of President-elect Enrique Pena Nieto, a systemic culture of government corruption ensured that the drug cartels would be more or less left alone in exchange for hefty bribes at multiple levels, and as the drugs flowed north into the U.S. there was relatively little violence.

As U.S. President Barack Obama shifts the focus of his re-election campaign from joblessness to income inequality, unemployment has increased in more than one-half the country's states this year.

Nasrallah – who finds himself increasingly isolated in the Middle East – must realize that Wednesday’s bombing in Damascus which killed three of Assad’s top lieutenants, poses grave danger to his organization.

Two months after the trading fiasco in the initial public offering of Facebook (Nasdaq: FB), the No. 1 social networking site, tech IPOs are soaring again. Palo Alto Networks (Nasdaq: PANW) and Kayak Software (Nasdaq: KYAK) shares soared in their IPOs.

Investors seem to be disregarding the parade better-than-expected profit figures from major financial institutions this earnings season, instead using top-of-the-line revenue and return on equity numbers to guide their investment decisions.

Chances are second-quarter results from Xerox Corp., the No. 1 copier maker that’s moved increasingly into services, will be a disappointment, keeping in line with the general technology sector.

China uses Africa conference as an opportunity to respond to foreign criticisms of its expanding relations with the continent.

Now three days into running Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO), the No. 3 search engine, CEO Marissa Mayer has already telegraphed that change is coming. She appointed the first editors for Yahoo News and Yahoo Finance, two of the company’s most popular portals.

Investors are betting that Finland’s Nokia (NYSE: NOK) can survive the smartphone wars, now that it’s gambled on Windows from Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT), the world's biggest software company.

It’s the tale of two technology cities: Thursday should see two of the sectors giants, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT), the world's biggest software company, and Google (Nasdaq: GOOG), the No. 1 search engine report record quarterly results.

Crude oil prices advanced to a seven-week high Thursday, helped by firmer Asian stock markets and geopolitical tensions.

The deaths of major Syrian military leaders in a spectacular strike on the capital are tipping the playing field, but don't expect the conflict to end anytime soon.

Christians in the Gaza Strip staged public protests earlier this week, claiming that five members of their small community had been kidnapped by Islamists with the intention of forcibly converting them to Islam.

Two months after the trading fiasco in the initial public offering of Facebook (Nasdaq: FB), the No. 1 social networking site, tech IPOs are heading to market again.

Mandela's achievements were monumental, but some of his tactics and alliances were more questionable than others.

Banking on software, services and cost controls, International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM), the No. 2 computer company, is expected to report improved second-quarter earnings despite a decline in revenue.