JAPAN

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il died of a heart attack on Saturday, according to a report from the state media, raising concerns over who will now control of the most reclusive state in the world, especially its nuclear weapons.

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.

Lionel Messi scored twice to bring Barca the title.

Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear plant cleanup is going nowhere, freelance investigative journalist Tomohiko Suzuki told the audience at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan on Dec. 15. Suzuki went undercover as a worker at the crippled plant for a month, employed by the Toshiba Corp. Absolutely no progress is being made, he told club members.

European champions Barcelona cruised to win their second FIFA Club World Cup with a 4-0 hammering of Brazilian side Santos in Yokohama, Japan.

Let it rain is a a popular online store based in Astoria, Oregon -- a place where it frequently rains -- that sells rain gear including boots and umbrellas that people are apparently buzzing about this Christmas, and buying from. Why, some have apparently gone so far is making rain boots become the traditional Christmas stocking.

Boeing Co's new 787 Dreamliner has hit a delivery block due to production delays and has revised the original dates.

Shares of Zynga, the online gaming developer linked to Facebook, closed at $9.50 Friday, 50 cents below their initial public offering price Thursday as the company raised $1 billion in the biggest IPO since Google.

Budget cuts in a program to spur commercial space taxis will likely keep the United States dependent on Russia to fly astronauts to the International Space Station until 2017, NASA's head of space operations said on Thursday.

Sony is launching Vita in Japan on Saturday, hoping the company's first new handheld video game system in seven years will get the company's game business going again now that many consumers have turned to Apple's iPhone, the world's bestselling smartphone, for entertainment.

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.

Japan has signaled plans to strengthen disclosure rules on mergers and acquisitions after a $1.7 billion accounting fraud at Olympus Corp, one of the nation's worst corporate scandals, which involved a series of shady deals.

Canadian industries are operating at a production capacity that is approaching pre-recession levels and the housing market remains strong, according to data on Thursday that offered the prospect of steady, if slower, economic growth.

Michael Kors Holdings Ltd stood out in its market debut, keeping pace with star technology sector IPOs and showcasing the resilience of the luxury market even in a gloomy economy.

One in five U.S. women have been sexually assaulted at some point in their life, according to a new CDC survey, a figure the agency reports is significantly higher than they expected.

Barcelona star striker David Villa broke his left leg in Barcelona's FIFA Club World Cup semi-final win over Al-Sadd in Yokohama, Japan and will be out for six months. The injury may force Barcelona's hand in signing Dutch Arsenal striker Robin van Persie.

As New Year's Eve 2011 approaches, one haunting thought comes to many minds - December 21, 2012. On this date, the Maya calendar comes to a halt; and many are predicting it will be the end of days.

Major Southeast Asian stock markets fell on Thursday for the third day, led by banks and commodities as a decline in Chinese factory output added to worries about the global economy and Europe's debt crisis.

Greece, one of the worst hit countries in the Eurozone crisis, may begin official negotiations to exit the Eurozone in 2012, according to Oliver Pursche, co-portfolio manager of GMG Defensive Beta Fund.

Into just his fourth month as head of Sony's videogames unit, Welshman Andrew House has to plot a much-needed success story for the new PlayStation Vita handheld games device, negotiating a minefield of consumer gloom and competition from smartphones and tablet PCs such as Apple Inc's iPhone and iPad.

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.