Reuters

Strong online sales and demand for furniture and women’s apparel helped retail sales grow this holiday season, according to MasterCard.

Victory in Ramadi, which was seized by ISIS in May, is the first major triumph for Iraq's U.S.-trained army in 18 months.

The PBOC said it would maintain a prudent monetary policy, keeping its stance "neither too tight nor too loose."

It was the second major attack in the Syrian city of Homs since a ceasefire deal took effect earlier this month.

The government has not blamed anyone for the disaster in the southern city of Shenzhen on Dec. 20.

The world's No. 1 smartphone maker reportedly will produce about 3.3 million Galaxy S7 units and about 1.6 million Galaxy S7 Edge units.

Almost 100,000 people will have been evacuated in Paraguay, the country hardest hit by the extreme flooding in South America.

J. Michael Pearson's illness came as investors are pressing the Canadian drugmaker to provide a detailed plan on how it will grow profits in 2016.

The alarming drop in Taiwan's fertility rate to less than 1 per woman from about 1.7 in 2000 has led to a major demographic challenge for policymakers.

A leftist party in the separatist coalition rejected keeping Artur Mas in power, so a new election may be needed in the Spanish region.

Relatives of two black city residents slain by police this weekend, accidentally in one case, accused officers of using excessive force.

Cuban migrants have surged into Central America and Mexico as a result of the growing detente between Havana and Washington.

Africa's most industrialized economy may add as many as 9,600 megawatts of nuclear power to its electrical grid, now heavily reliant on coal.

Yair Ramati presided over the successful Iron Dome program during the Gaza war but seems to have mishandled classified data.

The deal will allow safe passage to the Beirut airport to fighters who have been holed up for months near the Lebanese border in the town of Zabadani.

Israel has not claimed responsibility for the airstrike that killed the extremist Samir Kantar in Syria last week.

North Korea's homemade computer operating system relies on a go-it-alone approach, snooping on users and allowing access only to state-approved media, a report said.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said German courts decided refugees were not being treated humanely in Greece and could not be sent back.

Almost daily Palestinian stabbings, car-rammings and shooting attacks have killed 20 Israelis and a U.S. citizen, raising fears of escalation.

China previously did not have a special law covering violence in the family.

Yemen's state news agency said the target was a Saudi national guard base.

The row over Korean women forced into prostitution for Japan's military brothels during World War Two remains the last major obstacle to better ties between the East Asian neighbors.

The raid came days after police busted a militant hideout in the capital Dhaka as security forces stepped up a hunt for Islamist militants.

The military says the men killed in Jerusalem and the West Bank were attempting attacks, one by knife and one by motor vehicle.

Even before the prime ministers’ surprise meeting Friday, the relations between the rival countries had begun to thaw.

More than 600 firefighters were battling the blaze in the Solimar Beach area of Ventura County, northwest of Los Angeles.

The West African country will renovate a rail line linking its capital of Bamako to the border with neighboring Senegal.

In Paraguay alone, about 90,000 people around the capital of Asunción have been evacuated as a result of heavy rain.

The United Nations Security Council unanimously approved a resolution Dec. 18 endorsing an international road map for the peace process in Syria.