UNITED STATES

After becoming the first Arab Spring country to revolt against the establishment and overthrow a dictator, Tunisia has yet again set an example for emerging Middle East democracies by holding an election that, according to international observers, have been free and fair.

Iran's parliament has dropped a summons calling President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in for questioning, Iranian media reported on Wednesday, signalling an uneasy truce after months of political struggle between rival conservative factions.

Three big defense contractors posted solid profits on Wednesday, but their shares fell on concerns that leaner budgets would hurt performance.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc is shutting its New York fashion office and consolidating buying operations at its home base in Bentonville, Arkansas, after flopping in its attempt to attract customers by offering trendier clothes.

GlaxoSmithKline's sales returned to growth in the third quarter as Britain's biggest drugmaker put patent expiries and a collapse in revenue from troubled diabetes pill Avandia behind it.

A whirl-wind day in the financial crisis: the European Central Bank renewed loans to key banks, and Germany backed an increase in the bailout fund ahead of a European leader summit to discuss debt-plagued Greece. Is the crisis over? Far from it, but it is a start. Here's how the Greece situation can affect your life.

The economy appears to be heading into the fourth quarter with solid momentum with demand for a range of long-lasting U.S.-made goods rising at the fastest pace in six months in September and businesses stepping up spending plans.

Eli Lilly pulled their billion dollar drug, Xigris on Tuesday after studies found it had no major effects on septic patients

The Volcker rule has created a new battlefield over Wall Street pay that banks fear will send their star traders and hedge fund advisers fleeing.

The National Security Agency, a secretive arm of the U.S. military, has begun providing Wall Street banks with intelligence on foreign hackers, a sign of growing U.S. fears of financial sabotage.

New U.S. single-family home sales rose at their fastest pace in five months in September, a government report showed on Wednesday, but sustained price declines indicated the housing market is far from recovery.

Tens of thousands of supporters of President Bashar al-Assad rallied in Damascus on Wednesday while his opponents staged strikes across Syria ahead of an Arab league mission aimed at bringing the two sides together for talks.

President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe has been forced to cancel a trip to Geneva for a United Nations meeting this week after his wife and some of his aides were denied visas, state media said on Wednesday.

Oil futures edged lower on Wednesday, giving up earlier gains due to pervasive investor jitters that Europe may fail to deliver a firm solution to its sovereign debt crisis.

Rajat Gupta, a former director of Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Procter & Gamble, was arrested on Wednesday on insider trading charges, making him the most prominent executive to be accused in a broad U.S. crackdown on illegal leaks of corporate secrets.

Coming off the heals of their unmanned space last month, China will send into orbit another space craft that has the United States worrying.

Demand for a range of long- lasting U.S. manufactured goods rose more than expected in September to post the largest increase in six months, cementing views of a step-up in economic growth in the third quarter, even though new orders for transportation equipment fell.

The Dow and S&P 500 rose on Wednesday on optimism about corporate earnings and positive signals ahead of a meeting of European leaders to tackle the region's debt crisis.

Mitt Romney has backtracked his earlier statements supporting the controversial Senate Bill 5 in Ohio

Research funded by Google, the power-hungry search engine, concludes that America's geothermal resources could provide 10 times the current power from existing coal plants, according to a report released Wednesday.

Nokia will unveil its first Windows phones - Lumia 800 and 710 - known previously as Sea Ray and Sabre respectively, at Nokia World on Wednesday, according to Winrumors.