UNITED STATES

U.S. retailers performed better during the key holiday shopping season this year after a historically dismal 2008, performing in line with dampened expectations, according to data released on Monday.

H1N1 swine flu can kill children at a much higher rate than seasonal flu, and the elevated risk for pregnant women extends as long as two weeks after they give birth, researchers reported on Wednesday.

Healthcare companies are lining up to go public, and they could get a warmer reception in 2010 as investors' risk appetite increases, and new legislation potentially leads to more profit for the sector.

The White House sought to downplay differences on Sunday between the two versions of healthcare legislation passed in Congress as Democrats prepared to meld them into one, while a top Republican saw great unrest and perhaps more party-switchers among Democrats.

Vical Inc (VICL.O) said it received positive review from an independent board on the late-stage study of its experimental cancer treatment, sending its share up as much as 32 percent.

Wall Street edged higher on Monday as retailers' shares rose on data pointing to an improved performance for the key holiday shopping season while rising commodity prices boosted the natural resource sector.

U.S. retailers posted a better performance during the 2009 holiday shopping season, with sales as tracked by MasterCard Advisors unit SpendingPulse up 3.6 percent.

U.S. retailers posted a better performance during the 2009 holiday shopping season, with sales as tracked by MasterCard Advisors unit SpendingPulse up 3.6 percent.

Amazon.com Inc shares rose on Monday after it posted strong growth in holiday season orders and said its customers bought more e-books than physical books for the first time ever on Christmas Day, thanks to its hot-selling Kindle electronic book reader.

Stocks rose modestly on Monday as rising commodity prices boosted resource companies, while retailers gained after data pointed to a better performance for the key holiday shopping season.

Oil rose to above $79 a barrel on Monday, the highest in more than a month, as colder weather across the United States and signs of economic recovery helped boost the fuel demand outlook.

In early December, Simon Property Group Inc, the largest U.S. real estate investment trust and mall owner, obtained a slightly larger revolving credit facility to replace an existing one.

China Eastern Airlines said on Monday it had agreed to buy 16 Airbus A330 planes, giving a boost to the European planemaker as companies compete to gain a foothold in the fast-growing market.

These messages have come from my neighbors, from people all over Switzerland and from beyond Switzerland -- from across the world, the Oscar-winning film director wrote in an open letter published on the website of French intellectual Bernard-Henri Levy.

Thailand expelled thousands of ethnic Hmong asylum-seekers from a refugee camp on Monday before their planned deportation to Laos, despite concerns about their fate.

When the first emergency alert from Detroit's airport went out just before noon on Sunday, it looked oddly like a mistaken repeat of the scare from two days earlier: Nigerian national caused disturbance on Flight 253.

Wall Street was set for a modestly higher open on Monday as investors were wary of taking bets that could erode gains heading into year-end.

The family of a Nigerian man who tried to blow up a U.S. passenger airliner said on Monday they had lost contact with him while he was studying abroad and reported his disappearance to security agencies two months ago.

The system aimed at keeping air travel secure failed when a Nigerian man who was suspected of ties to militants managed to smuggle explosives aboard a flight, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said on Monday.

Japan's prime minister, who has promised to forge a new place for east Asia in international diplomacy, opened three days of talks in India on Monday focusing on engineering a further thaw in relations and boosting trade.

A suicide bomber blew up a Shi'ite Muslim procession in Pakistan's commercial capital Karachi on Monday, killing at least 22 people, the latest in a series of attacks across the country which have killed hundreds.