Eric Linton

Asian stocks nudged higher and the euro clung to overnight gains Friday, the last trading day of 2011, as positive data from the United States helped allay concerns on the global economy, while year-end short covering lifted crude prices.

Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann has lost a second top campaign staffer in another setback before the Iowa caucuses next week, NBC News reported Thursday.

North Korea's first official communication with the outside world following the death of leader Kim Jong-il and the transition of power to his son was a somber warning to South Korea and its allies that it would not change policies.

Egyptian prosecutors and police raided offices of 17 pro-democracy and human rights groups Thursday - including several funded by the United States - in what rights defenders described as a campaign against them by the military rulers.

Republican candidate Michele Bachmann's Iowa campaign chairman resigned Wednesday and endorsed rival Ron Paul, six days before Iowa voters begin the nomination process to select the 2012 Republican presidential nominee.

Gold wallowed near a three-month low Thursday, remaining under pressure due to a firm dollar, while investors fretted over an important Italian bond auction later in the day.

At least 17 people died and 80 were injured in an unexplained explosion in an eastern suburb of Myanmar's biggest city, Yangon, Thursday, police said.

Newt Gingrich said Wednesday his failure to meet the requirements for the Virginia primary ballot resulted from fraud by a worker hired by his campaign.

Republican presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney has taken the lead in Iowa, which holds its caucuses in six days, and Rick Santorum is surging, according to a new poll commissioned by CNN and Time magazine.

Former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson said Wednesday he is dropping out of the Republican presidential race and is seeking the Libertarian Party nomination for president.

Argentine President Cristina Fernandez has thyroid cancer and will undergo surgery next month, her government said Tuesday, adding that the cancerous cells had not spread.

President Barack Obama will nominate Harvard economist Jeremy Stein and Jerome Powell, an investment banker and former Treasury official, to the two empty seats on the Federal Reserve's policy-setting board of governors.

Pakistan's powerful military pledged Friday to continue supporting democracy, reiterating it was not planning a takeover as tensions grew over a controversial memo alleging an army plot to seize power.

U.S. stock index futures point to Wall Street edging higher Friday, extending a rally into a fourth session, as labor market and other data in the United States pointed to a strong economic recovery.

Asian stocks rose more than 1 percent and U.S. index futures also gained on Friday, as signs of a strengthening economy in the United States encouraged a year-end bounce for riskier assets.

Congress, after months of bitter fighting, is poised to pass Friday a payroll tax cut extension that President Barack Obama argues is vital to the health of the economy.

Pakistan's powerful military and civilian leaders are headed for a showdown over a memo that accused the country's generals of plotting a coup, newspaper editorials predicted Friday.

A series of strong earthquakes hit the New Zealand city of Christchurch Friday, sending goods toppling from shelves, causing rockfalls and driving terrified residents from buildings 10 months after a quake killed almost 200 people in the city.

Asian stocks edged up Friday, as signs of a strengthening economy in the United States encouraged a modest year-end rally in riskier assets.

A direct-mail solicitation for Ron Paul's political and investment newsletters two decades ago warned of a coming race war in our big cities and of a federal-homosexual cover-up to play down the impact of AIDS.

China became the world's top patent filer in 2011, surpassing the United States and Japan as it steps up innovation to improve its intellectual property rights track record, a Thomson Reuters research report showed Wednesday.

U.S. stock index futures pointed to a higher open on Wall Street Wednesday, with futures for the S&P 500 up 0.38 percent, Dow Jones futures up 0.62 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures up 0.61 percent at 0910 GMT.

Japanese prosecutors raided offices of Olympus Corp and the home of a former executive Wednesday in a probe into a $1.7 billion accounting scandal that has threatened the survival of the once-proud camera and medical equipment maker.

North Korea's new young leader will have to share power with an uncle and the military after the death of his father Kim Jong-il as the isolated country shifts to collective rule from strongman dictatorship, a source with close ties to Pyongyang and Beijing told Reuters.

President Barack Obama demanded Tuesday that House Republicans pass a short-term extension of a payroll tax cut, showing an unwillingness to back down in a fight that could result in higher taxes for 160 million Americans.

Egyptian police and soldiers fired weapons and used batons and teargas for a fifth day Tuesday in the latest effort to clear Cairo's central Tahrir Square of opponents of army rule, amid mounting international concern about the violence.

U.S. stock index futures pointed to a higher open on Wall Street on Tuesday, with futures for the S&P 500 up 0.5 percent, Dow Jones futures up 0.3 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures up 0.4 percent at 0819 GMT.

The International Atomic Energy Agency must redeploy its inspectors in North Korea to help with the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, Yukiya Amano, director general of the U.N. nuclear agency, was quoted as saying by Kyodo news agency Tuesday.

Olympus Corp is preparing to issue about $1.28 billion (100 billion yen) in new shares, with Japanese high-tech stalwarts Sony and Fujifilm seen as possible buyers, as it tries to bolster its depleted finances, the Nikkei business daily reported Tuesday.