Eric Linton

North Korea test-fired a short-range missile on its eastern coast on Monday, the day its leader Kim Jong-il's death was announced, South Korean media reported.

A tax break for 160 million American workers was in doubt Monday in the face of strong opposition from Republicans in the House of Representatives who have rejected a two-month extension overwhelmingly approved by the Senate over the weekend.

Republican White House hopeful Mitt Romney receives millions of dollars a year in a retirement agreement with Bain Capital, nearly 13 years after he left the private equity firm he helped start, the New York Times reported Monday.

Asian equities and U.S. stock index futures fell, with South Korean shares tumbling as much as 5 percent, while the dollar gained on safe-haven appeal after news of the death of North Korea leader Kim Jong-il raised fears of regional instability.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il died of a heart attack while on a train trip, state media reported Monday morning, sparking immediate concern over who is in control of the reclusive state and its nuclear program.

Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich threatened Sunday to have federal judges arrested if they disagreed with his policies as president, ratcheting up his attacks on the judiciary as he tries to halt a slide in his campaign.

Asian shares rose and the euro edged higher Friday, as signs of strength in the U.S. economy temporarily broke through gloom over the European debt crisis that had driven a selloff in riskier assets over the past three days.

U.S. lawmakers Thursday night reached a tentative deal to fund an array of government agencies through Sept. 30 and avert shutting down many of Washington's operations starting this weekend.

Congress Thursday approved a defense bill requiring the military to handle suspected foreign militants allied with al-Qaida, sending it to President Barack Obama for his expected signature.

Front-runner Newt Gingrich came under sharp attack from rival Republican presidential candidates Thursday night at the last debate before Iowa launches the 2012 election season.

Janet Robinson will step down as chief executive of the New York Times Co. at the end of the month, as the company continues to struggle with advertising declines and a years-long slump in its share price.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin Thursday deflected opposition allegations that fraud helped his ruling party win a parliamentary election, saying the result reflected the views of the population.

The whistleblower in Japan's Olympus Corp scandal, ex-CEO Michael Woodford, blasted Japanese shareholders Thursday for failing to stand up for him, amid signs that domestic and foreign investors are split over his campaign to be reinstated.

Syrian army deserters killed at least 27 soldiers and security force personnel in a series of clashes in the southern province of Deraa at dawn Thursday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Asian shares fell into bear market territory for the year and commodities and the euro nursed stinging losses Thursday, after fears that Europe's debt crisis is still worsening prompted investors to dump riskier assets and huddle in the safety of the dollar and Treasuries.

More than 5,000 people have been killed in nine months of unrest in Syria, the U.N. human rights chief said, as an insurgency begins to overshadow what had been mostly peaceful protests against President Bashar al-Assad.

A crisis in U.S.-Pakistan relations looked set to deepen Monday night after a House-Senate negotiating panel froze $700 million in aid until Pakistan gives assurances it is helping fight the spread of improvised explosive devices in the region.

The euro slid and European stock markets dived Monday as investors judged that last week's pact to bind EU economies closer together would fail to quell its financial crisis.

A South Korean coast guard was stabbed to death by a Chinese fisherman Monday in an operation to apprehend a Chinese vessel operating illegally near South Korean waters, a South Korean official said.

Pakistan's interior minister and prime minister have both denied the government is holding peace talks with its homegrown Taliban, according to media, saying it would do so only if the militants first disarmed and surrendered.

A NASA rover scouting for signs of past water on Mars has found the strongest evidence yet -- a vein of gypsum, a mineral deposited by water, protruding from an ancient rock.

Asian shares, commodities and the euro fell Friday on growing doubts that European leaders could forge a credible plan to solve the euro zone's debt crisis at a summit later in the day.

A senior Pakistani military officer said a NATO air strike that killed 24 Pakistani troops on the border with Afghanistan last month was pre-planned, newspapers reported Friday, comments likely to fuel tension with the United States.

The unmanned U.S. drone Iran said Sunday it had captured was programmed to automatically return to base even if its data link was lost, one key reason that U.S. officials tell Reuters the drone likely malfunctioned and was not downed by Iranian electronic warfare.

The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party won 34 individual seats of the 45 it contested in the first runoff vote of the parliamentary election, a party source said Wednesday.

The Obama administration does not know Israel's intentions regarding potential military action against Iran, and the uncertainty is stoking concern in Washington, where the preferred course for now is sanctions and diplomatic pressure.

Vladimir Putin's ruling party clung to a much reduced majority in parliament on Monday after an election that showed growing weariness with the man who has dominated Russia for more than a decade and plans to return to the presidency next year.

Japan's Nikkei stock average edged higher Monday to build on last week's hefty gains on improved sentiment about the European debt situation, but uncertainty about how markets will assess Italy's new austerity plan capped the upside.

Russian voters have dealt Vladimir Putin's ruling party a heavy blow by slashing its parliamentary majority in an election that showed growing unease with his domination of the country as he prepares to reclaim the presidency.