UNITED STATES

U.S. retailer Sears Holdings Corp reported a wider-than-expected quarterly loss as sales at its namesake stores plunged both at its home turf and in Canada.

U.S. stock index futures rose on Thursday, supported by a rise in commodity prices, as investors braced for data on the labor market and housing.

Stock index futures pointed to a slightly lower open on Wall Street on Thursday, with futures for the S&P 500 down 0.05 percent, Dow Jones futures down 0.04 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures down 0.07 percent at 4:10 a.m. EDT.

Takeda Pharmaceutical Co <4502.T>, Japan's largest drugmaker, said on Thursday it would buy privately held Swiss rival Nycomed for 9.6 billion euros ($13.6 billion) as it seeks to expand in Europe and emerging markets.

Mountain View-based social networking site for professionals, LinkedIn has priced its IPO at the higher end $45 a share, making it the biggest US Internet IPO since Google went public and indicates the voracious investor appetite for social networking sites.

Check out the photos of Relate to the Matter as I Drop the Bomb exhibition in Dubai featuring Obama, Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Osama bin Laden as The Father, The Son and The Holy Ghost.

ABC journalist Andrew Fowler, fundraiser for the release of the Wikileaks vedio 2007 US military attacks on Baghdad where civilians and journalists were killed, said Wikileaks is a by-product of the high level of security placed on information in Western countries.

The dollar slipped on Thursday with funds sensing a rally this month is ending and expectations increasing that commodity prices have resumed an uptrend, pushing up equities in Asia's energy and materials sectors.

The United States has slapped sanctions on President Bashar al-Assad for the violation of human rights, reported Reuters on Wednesday.

As houses and agricultural fields lie submerged in the flood waters, check out some of the latest aerial views of Mississippi River Flooding in U.S.

The United States, for the first time, has imposed sanctions on the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and six of his top aides for human rights abuses.

As Dominique Strauss-Kahn languishes on suicide watch in New York's Rikers Island prison following the alleged sexual assault at a Manhattan hotel, a fresh set of mugshots emerges to the world media.

Citigroup Inc has awarded Chief Executive Vikram Pandit a $16.7 million retention bonus, plus stock options -- a far cry from the $1 salary he took during part of the financial crisis.

A recorded audio messages purportedly made by Osama bin Laden and shortly before he was killed wqas released by al Qaeda's media wing as-Sahab on Wednesday and posted on some select Islamic websites, reports said.

Justin Beiber met with fanst at the U.S. ambassador's residence where he talked with quake victims

Free North Korea Radio, run by North Korean defectors, reported last Tuesday on the murderous acts toward disabled children by the country's own government. Disabled children who are born in the city of Pyongyang are taken into government run hospitals and are suffocated to death by smothering wet towel over their face.

The Pentagon and Lockheed Martin Corp remain upbeat about the future of the short takeoff version of the new F-35 Joint Strike Fighter despite Defense Secretary Robert Gates' threat to terminate the program should technical issues not be resolved in two years.

According to a report released by the U.S International Trade Comission, in 2009 China's continuous practice of piracy over American products cost the US approximately $48 billion.

Chrysler Group LLC plans to repay about $7.5 billion in U.S. and Canadian government loans on May 24 to strengthen the automaker's financial position, a person familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.

These vivid color photos taken during the Great Depression and World War II capture an era generally seen only in black-and-white.

Chinese piracy and counterfeiting of U.S. software and a wide range of other intellectual property cost American businesses an estimated $48 billion in 2009, the U.S. International Trade Commission said in a report released on Wednesday.