MARKETS / FINANCE

Chechnya was once synonymous with destruction. Now, under President Ramzan Kadyrov, its capital looks as good as new. What's the story?

The news that Bank of America was speeding up the layoffs of 16,000 workers aroused fear on Wall Street.

Federal and local authorities are clashing over a proposal to use eminent domain to fix mortgages.

11 federal judges will hear arguments about where dozens of lawsuits against Facebook (Nasdaq: FB) should be tried.

Shortly after Apple's launch of iOS 6 on Wednesday, developers are already flocking to the new operating system's organized mobile payments storage application, Passbook. With major online ticket retailers and services like StubHub, Ticketmaster, and Fandango all jumping on the Passbook bandwagon, Apple may have gained an early lead in the mobile payment marketplace even as new enterprising operations like Square and eBay try their hands at integrating credit card transactions with smartphones and mobile devices.

Vatican official Pierbattista Pizzaballa has spoken out on the string of attacks against Christian monasteries and churches in Israel.

As outrage over the "Innocence of Muslims" film and controversial cartoons published in Paris rages here's a sample of opinions being expressed in regional media outlets.

The number of Americans filing new claims for jobless benefits fell by 3,000 to 382,000 last week, unwinding some of the weather-related spike during the previous week

Questcor Pharmaceuticals Inc., Prana Biotechnology Ltd., Tata Motors, Norfolk Southern Corp., Bed Bath & Beyond Inc., BHP Billiton Plc, Dendreon Corp. and Facebook Inc. are among the companies whose shares are moving in pre-market trading Thursday.

Asian stock markets declined Thursday as weak economic reports from Japan and China weighed on the sentiment.

The U.S. stock index futures point to a lower open Thursday as investor concerns about the faltering global economic growth were revived following Japan’s increasing trade deficit.

European markets fell Thursday as investor confidence was weighed down by the global economic concerns following the increasing trade deficit of Japan and China’s disappointing manufacturing activity.

Early in-person voting for the presidential elections will begin in Idaho and South Dakota Friday, even as the Democrats and Republicans are engaged in court battle on the issue of limiting such early voting before the actual date of the elections.

The top after-market Nasdaq gainers Wednesday were Apogee Enterprises Inc, Targacept Inc, Questcor Pharmaceuticals Inc, Ancestry.com Inc and Align Technology Inc. The top after-market Nasdaq losers were Horizon Pharma Inc, Herman Miller Inc, Gevo Inc, Bed Bath & Beyond Inc and Citrix Systems.

The top after-market NYSE gainers Wednesday were Steelcase Inc, Gannett Co, AAR Corp, Cabelas and Chimera Investment Corp. The top after-market NYSE losers were XPO Logistics, Norfolk Southern Corp, CSX Corp, CLARCOR Inc and Access Midstream Partners, L.P.

Asian markets fell Thursday as investor confidence was weighed down by the report that Japan's trade deficit increased in August, raising more concerns about the faltering global economy.

Asian shares fell Thursday as investors awaited manufacturing data from China later in the session for clues about whether Beijing would be prompted to take more stimulus action.

Last week on “The X Factor” viewers got a treat when they were introduced to 13-year-old Carly Rose Sonenclar sang “Feeling Good” by Nina Simone during the Providence audition.

Wednesday, Sept. 19, is the 10th anniversary of International Talk Like Pirate Day, aaargh.

While the financial markets have improved substantially, the labor market has proven to be lackluster.

Claire Danes says YouTube helped her prepare for her bipolar role on “Homeland,” but some people with the disorder are not pleased.

First-quarter earnings from Oracle Corp. (Nasdaq: ORCL) could be an early sign for performance by IBM (NYSE: IBM) and Microsoft (Nasadq: MSFT).

Here is video of USC head coach Lane Kiffin abruptly ending his Wednesday press conference.

For the first time ever, there are now more millionaires in Asia than in North America.

While Chicago students are returning to school, the broader dispute over teacher evaluations -- in particular, what role student test scores should play -- is here to stay.