UNITED STATES

Miss Universe told TMZ that she splurged on pasta, bread and cupcakes after following a strict diet for months prior to the Miss Universe pageant.

Maybe others have lost all hope for a fiscal-cliff deal, but House Speaker John Boehner, despite his Plan B failure, has not.

After a new kidnapping, French President Hollande expressed concern over AQIM's partnership with Nigerian terrorist group Boko Haram.

Wayne LaPierre, the head of The National Rifle Association, delivered the following speech at a press conference in Washington.

Former U.S. Olympic runner Suzy Favor-Hamilton is now an escort in Las Vegas.

The dangerous fiscal deadline isn’t Dec. 31 -– it’s February 2013, when we bump against the debt limit, again.

Ben Affleck testified before congress about violence in the Congo and did not deny rumors he's considering a U.S. Senate run.

A new study found that solo artists are more likely to die young than band members -- and American artists have double the risk of Europeans.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke coined the term “fiscal cliff.” But he also said politicians need to act since the central bank can't do much.

Facebook will soon require all users to pay a $1 fee to send messages to strangers.

The Android Open Source Project (AOSP) team has started rolling out its latest work, CyanogenMod 10.1, based on Android 4.2.1 Jelly Bean (Build: JOP40D), for a bunch of Samsung devices, including Galaxy Note 2 (N7100) and the major U.S. variants of Galaxy S3.

U.S. stock index futures point to a lower open Friday as investor sentiment was dampened after Republican lawmakers abandoned a vote on an alternative plan aimed at averting the fiscal cliff.

Crude oil prices declined during the Asian trading hours Friday on renewed concern that the U.S. lawmakers may fail to reach a budget deal to avert the $600 billion spending cuts and tax hikes that threaten to push the world’s largest oil consuming nation into a recession early next year.

The top after-market NYSE gainers Thursday were Duke Realty Corp, Red Hat Inc, CarMax, Nike and Navigant Consulting Inc. The top after-market NYSE losers were Accuride Corp, InvenSense, Northern Tier Energy, GFI Group and FelCor Lodging Trust Inc.

U.S. stock index futures plunged Thursday after Speaker John Boehner failed to get his “Plan B” tax bill designed to help avert the "fiscal cliff" through the House.

The pro-Israel lobby has been vociferously pushing back against ex-Sen. Chuck Hagel's widely expected nod for defense secretary.

A survey out Thursday from Travel Leaders Group suggests that Americans will flock to Europe next year, but will they find the debt-burdened euro zone any cheaper than before?

A new Gallup poll claims that the world's happiest countries are almost all in Latin America.

BlackBerry developer Research in Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM) reported better-than-expected third-quarter results.

The Mayans may have predicted the apocalypse was on Dec. 21, 2012, but did they take time zones into account?

Korea's state media has misleadingly reported to its people that Time Magazine selected their leader, Kim Jong Un, as "Man of 2012."