UNITED STATES

If upcoming earnings from U.S. retailers are as unimpressive as the rest of the profit season has been, Wall Street could face a tough time justifying a stock market at nine-month highs.

After a year of protests, diplomatic wrangling and an assassination attempt, Yemenis will draw a line under Ali Abdullah Saleh's three-decade rule Tuesday by voting in an uncontested election to install his deputy as president.

Senegal security forces clashed with protesters in Dakar and surrounding suburbs Sunday in the fifth straight day of demonstrations against President Abdoulaye Wade's candidacy in a Feb. 26 election.

The European Central Bank would support the euro zone boosting its firewall by combining what remains in its temporary bailout facility with its permanent fund, ECB board member Joerg Asmussen was cited as saying by a German business daily.

Wynn Resorts Ltd upped the ante in the fight between its billionaire founder Steve Wynn and his former business partner Kazuo Okada, accusing the Japanese gaming mogul of improper payments and forcibly buying back his 20 percent stake in Wynn's casino company at a discount.

U.N. nuclear inspectors headed to Iran Sunday for talks aimed at getting Tehran to start addressing their mounting concerns that it may be seeking to develop atomic bombs.

Wynn Resorts Ltd said it had discovered that board member Kazuo Okada made improper payments to foreign gaming regulators and the company forcibly bought back the Japanese gaming mogul's 20 percent stake in Wynn.

If upcoming earnings from U.S. retailers are as unimpressive as the rest of the profit season has been, Wall Street could face a tough time justifying a stock market at nine-month highs.

If upcoming earnings from U.S. retailers are as unimpressive as the rest of the profit season has been, Wall Street could face a tough time justifying a stock market at nine-month highs.

Police and regime militia patrols fanned out in Damascus' Mezze district Sunday to prevent a repeat of protests against President Bashar al-Assad that have threatened his grip on the capital, opposition activists said.

Wynn Resorts Ltd upped the ante in the fight between its billionaire founder Steve Wynn and his former business partner Kazuo Okada, accusing the Japanese gaming mogul of improper payments and forcibly buying back his 20 percent stake in Wynn's casino company at a discount.

Motorola will update the Photon 4G with Ice Cream Sandwich starting in September, but you may want to wait and buy an iPhone 5 instead. So far, only two smartphones are running the new Google Android 4.0 system, and only two others have a date given for when they might get it.

Police and militia patrols fanned out in the Syrian capital's Mezze district on Sunday to prevent a repeat of protests against President Bashar al-Assad that have threatened his grip on Damascus, opposition activists said.

The revelations this week that Google, Twitter, and other popular Internet companies have been taking liberties with customer data have prompted criticism by privacy advocates and lawmakers, along with apologies by the companies.

Iran would not wait for the European Union oil embargo to start on July 1. In a stern retaliatory move, Tehran announced on Sunday it will stop selling crude to French and British oil companies.

According to a report by Forbes, the now-public 191-page FBI file on Steve Jobs, Apple's co founder, will be available as a $12.95 paperback. However, if it's the soft copy you're looking for, you're in luck - a PDF version of the file can be downloaded for free.

Gas prices in the U.S. have gone past $3.50 a gallon, the highest price this time of the year, ticking panic among people who have begun to see the price rises as oppressive.

North Korea warned South Korea on Sunday that it would shell islands close to their disputed sea border should there be a violation of territorial waters during a military drill reported to begin in the Yellow Sea this week.

Apple has asked EU anti-trust regulators to step in and settle a technology patent dispute between the company and Motorola Mobility, according to Motorola Mobility.

Stephen Schwarzman, the boss of Blackstone, the world's biggest private-equity firm, made his fortune by buying, restructuring and selling companies -- delivering outsized returns for investors. These days, he is getting huge rewards for being the largest shareholder in what is more like an asset manager on steroids.

China's central bank cut the amount of cash banks must hold in reserves on Saturday, boosting lending capacity by an estimated 350-400 billion yuan ($55.6-$63.5 billion) in a bid to crank up credit creation as the world's second-biggest economy faces a fifth successive quarter of slowing growth.