UNITED STATES

Chicago-area teenager Alexis Uriel Marron was murdered in Michoacan, Mexico. Are drug cartels responsible?

Hugo Chavez says that the United States could be responsible his cancer and the cancer of other South American leaders. Castro warned him.

It is unclear if Paul shares the homophobic views of some of his staff-members

BBC is under fire for naming Sweetie the Panda Miss December 2011 in Faces of the Year: The Women, with everyone from Parliament to Twitter users slamming BBC for causing pandagate less than month after it was criticized for ignoring women's achievements. See the full list here, and find out why BBC is defending its decision.

No Doubt, Justin Bieber and The xx also have albums coming out in 2012.

About 40,000 laws were enacted in the 50 states during 2011, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Deutsche Telekom AG, a Hungarian unit and three former executives were charged by a U.S. regulator with bribery involving government officials in Macedonia and Montenegro.

Kelly Clarkson tweeted her support for Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul on Wednesday, and received a barrage of angry tweets in response.

Among the trends that seems to be gaining momentum heading into 2012 is eating horse meat. It all started over the likelihood that horse slaughter will return to the U.S. early in the next year since Congress changed federal funding to permit horse slaughterhouses in America after a five year ban.

Wall Street stocks resumed their upward move into year-end on Thursday but the S&P 500 continued to churn around its 200-day moving average as jitters over Europe contrasted with better-than-expected U.S. economic data.

As 2011’s mediocre stock market returns become final, what should technology investors seek for U.S. initial public offerings of technology companies for 2012?

You can’t blame Americans for wanting to drop investing in U.S. stocks like a bad habit as the new year begins. Is the Dow’s recent rise above 12,000 a buy signal or another false rally?

A Wall Street Journal article making the rounds this morning notes some big investors have turned bullish on the housing market in the past quarter. Among the big names mentioned are hedge funds run by SAC Capital Advisors LP, Blackstone Group LP and Goldman Sachs Group.

A series of groundbreaking (and head-scratching) bills in states from Florida and Tennessee are set to become law on New Year's Day 2012. Here's everything you need to know, from aids for illegal immigrants and abortion restrictions to Utah's ban on Happy Hour and California's move for LGBT rights, and why you should care.

Deutsche Telekom AG, a Hungarian unit and three former executives were charged by a U.S. regulator in a corruption case involving bribery of government officials in Macedonia and Montenegro.

A smartphone is no longer a style statement, rather it is a necessity. So there is no wonder that 2011 has been an exciting year for smartphones. A number of smartphones flooded the market this year and the phones manufactured by HTC stole a considerable share in the market.

Gold prices Thursday tumbled to levels not seen since last summer, slashing what just weeks ago had been a gain of more than 20 percent this year to less than 10 percent.

A team of Arab League monitors will begin its third day of observation Thursday by visiting three more Syrian cities, following the Syrian government's announcement that it had released 755 prisoners and the observers' leader saying he had seen nothing frightening during an initial trip to the violence-wracked city of Homs.

New claims for unemployment benefits rose more than expected last week, a government report showed on Thursday, but the underlying trend continued to point to improving labor market conditions.

Avenger Controller has dumped Paul Christoforo and his Ocean Marketing firm after a rude exchange with a customer went viral. The e-mail thread was originally posted on Penny Arcade, a popular webcomic.

IBM, the No. 2 U.S. computer services provider, inked a 10-year services contract with Spain’s biggest savings bank, La Caixa, valued at 2 billion Euros (US $2.6 billion).