UNITED STATES

U.S. stock index futures pointed to a lower open on Wall Street on Monday, with futures for the S&P 500 down 1.2 percent, Dow Jones futures down 1 percent, and Nasdaq 100 futures down 1.1 percent at 0905 GMT.

Gloomy aviation leaders gather for the Paris Air Show on Monday expecting only a handful of new business to bolster an industry mourning the Atlantic jet disaster, economic crisis and new concerns about swine flu.

The market of mobile financial services to poor people in emerging markets will surge from nothing to $5 billion in 2012, U.S.-based microfinance policy and research center CGAP said on Monday.

U.S. health-club operator Bally Total Fitness Holding Corp has reached a deal with its lenders on a restructuring plan to help it exit from bankruptcy.

CIA director Leon Panetta says it's almost as if former vice president Dick Cheney would like to see another attack on the United States to prove he is right in criticizing President Barack Obama for abandoning the harsh interrogation of terrorism suspects.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden on Sunday cast doubt on the re-election of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, saying Tehran's actions against dissent suggest the results may not be clear-cut.

A veteran commander of top-secret special operations takes charge of the nearly 90,000 U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan Monday, promising to limit the civilian deaths that have cost Western troops Afghan support.

Europe recorded its first death from H1N1 flu on Sunday after Scottish health officials said a patient with the disease had died, just days after the World Health Organisation labelled the outbreak a global pandemic.

Europe recorded its first death from H1N1 flu on Sunday after Scottish health officials said a patient with the disease had died, just days after the World Health Organization labeled the outbreak a global pandemic.

Nigeria's main militant group said on Monday it had sabotaged an oil pumping station in the Niger Delta operated by Chevron, the fifth attack claimed against the U.S. energy company in less than a month.

Pakistan has ordered the military to carry out an offensive against Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud and his fighters, a provincial governor said on Sunday.

With Congress working to flesh out controversial elements of his healthcare reform plan, President Barack Obama will make his case for a public insurance program to the nation's doctors on Monday, seeking to overcome their resistance.

When a former peanut vendor and radical union leader with little schooling became Brazil's president in 2003, many believed Latin America's underperforming giant had shot itself in the foot once again.

Last week hosting the Americans. Next week visiting Russia. China's busy diplomacy amid the economic crisis reflects growing sway that some say has brought the moment for Beijing to don the cape of a full super-power.

The leaders of the world's biggest emerging markets -- Brazil, Russia, India and China -- meet in the coming week for their first formal summit, seeking a louder voice on the global stage.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded on Sunday to uncommon pressure from Washington by finally giving his endorsement -- with conditions -- to the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Supporters of Iran's defeated presidential candidate plan a rally in Tehran on Monday to protest against the re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, which has sparked two days of violent demonstrations in the capital.

In a bid to revive the cancelled program to provide new helicopters for the White House, manufacturer Sikorsky told the Defense Department earlier this month that it was open to a partnership with rival Lockheed Martin Corp, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The Obama administration on Wednesday will unveil its long-awaited plan to tighten U.S. financial regulation, marking a test of its resolve to seize political opportunity and face down powerful interests.

The patients are gone and so are the protesters. Once the site of daily anti-abortion picketing, the Kansas clinic run by murdered doctor George Tiller is busy only with workers shutting down the facility.

Hundreds of gay men and women, some with rainbow flags painted on their faces, turned out for Shanghai's first gay pride festival on Saturday to celebrate with cocktails, drag shows and a hot body contest.