Eric Linton

Tumbling in the polls, even in his native Pennsylvania, and under increasing pressure to quit the Republican race, Rick Santorum huddled with conservative leaders and aides Thursday to plot strategy.

Asian shares eased Friday, when many markets were closed for the Easter holiday, as investors stayed on the sidelines ahead of key U.S. jobs data, avoiding risk after rising yields in weaker euro zone countries refueled concern about Europe.

Asian shares fell Thursday after a weak Spanish bond sale heightened concerns about funding difficulties by lower-rated euro zone countries, further undermining sentiment hurt by fading expectations for more stimulus from the U.S. Federal Reserve.

A former nursing student was charged with murder and attempted murder on Wednesday in a shooting rampage that killed seven people and wounded three others this week at a small, Christian college he once attended in California.

Asian shares rose Tuesday, riding on the back of strong gains in global equities overnight after solid manufacturing data from the United States and leading Asian exporters offset signs of mild recession in Europe.

China's big factories were surprisingly busy in March as a stream of new orders lifted activity to an 11-month high, but credit-constrained smaller manufacturers struggled, suggesting that the economy is still losing steam.

Trayvon Martin's parents will ask the U.S. Justice Department to review a local Florida prosecutor's interactions with police investigating his killing, their lawyer said Sunday.

Miguel de la Madrid Hurtado, who led Mexico from 1982 to 1988 during economic crisis and a devasting earthquake, died Sunday at age 77, President Felipe Calderon announced.

Russian authorities closed Moscow's Red Square Sunday and detained dozens of people trying to hold a silent anti-government protest there, prompting opposition charges that they were denying Russians their right to free assembly.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell called on Republicans to unite behind Mitt Romney Sunday as Rick Santorum vowed to stay in the race beyond a likely defeat in Tuesday's Wisconsin primary.

The United States vowed to nearly double its funding to the Syrian opposition, and Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan promised the Syrian people they will not be left alone.

Mali's junta leader promised to reinstate the constitution from Sunday, hours before a deadline set by West African neighbors to start handing over power, and as rebels encircled the ancient trading post of Timbuktu.

Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi won a seat in parliament Sunday, as her National League for Democracy claimed a near-sweep in historic by-elections that will test Myanmar's reform credentials and could convince the West to end sanctions.

Federal authorities filed criminal charges Wednesday against a JetBlue Airways pilot who ranted about religion and the Sept. 11 hijackings and pounded on a locked cockpit door before passengers subdued him in a midair uproar.

Asian shares eased for a second day in a row Thursday, as investors limited their risk exposures on concerns about growth prospects in the world's two largest economies, the United States and China.

Bluegrass giant Earl Scruggs, a Country Music Hall of Famer, died Wednesday morning at a Nashville, Tenn., hospital, at 88. He popularized a complex, three-fingered style of playing banjo that transformed the instrument, inspired nearly every banjo player who followed him and became a central element in what is now known as bluegrass music.

As a majority of the U.S. Supreme Court seemed ready to strike down President Barack Obama's health care law Wednesday, a new poll found that Americans supports its goals by 2 to 1.

Adrienne Rich, a leading American poet and advocate of women's and gay liberation, died Tuesday at her home in Santa Cruz, Calif., her family said. She was 82.

George Zimmerman told Sanford, Fla., police that Trayvon Martin punched him, knocked him down and slammed his head into the pavement repeatedly before he shot and killed the teen Feb. 26. Rallies continued around the country Monday to demand justice in the case.

Asian stocks rebounded Tuesday and the dollar eased after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said ultra-loose monetary policy was still needed to reduce unemployment even though the U.S. economy has shown signs of improvement.

Syrian opposition activists gathered in Istanbul to endorse a program for political change to unify their movement, but the conference proved divisive even before officially opens Tuesday.

The U.S. war effort in Afghanistan has become more unpopular than ever, a New York Times/CBS News poll released Monday finds.

French authorities have ordered the brother of an al Qaeda-inspired killer to be detained on suspicion of complicity in his sibling's assassination of three Jewish children, a rabbi and three soldiers.

A property consultant long tied to China's leadership won Hong Kong’s executive election, authorities said Sunday.

The United States has given $860,000 to the families of victims of the massacre in Kandahar province that is being blamed on U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, two Afghan officials said Sunday.

President Barack Obama, visiting South Korea, called on the Communist North Sunday to call off a planned rocket launch, and warned that food aid in return for disarmament would be at risk.

Tuareg rebels in northern Mali, flush with arms and fighters from the Libyan revolution, pushed south Friday morning to occupy positions vacated by government forces as mutinous soldiers in the capital sought to complete a coup by arresting the president, military sources said.

Chevron's offenses in the drilling of a well that caused an offshore oil spill in November did not amount to negligence, Brazil's oil regulator said Thursday.

The Senate Thursday voted overwhelmingly to send President Barack Obama legislation imposing new curbs on insider trading by members of Congress, even though the measure was weaker than a version it passed in February.