WORLD

The U.S. 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rate dropped slightly to 3.99 percent in the week ending Nov. 10, according to Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey.

Senate Republicans say repealing the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) would force states to recognize legal, out-of-state, same-sex marriages

Democrats have brought a $2.3 trillion offer to the table, in the ongoing back and forth over how to the budget deficit super committee should lop $1.2 trillion off the federal deficit over the next decade. Republicans immediately rejected the proposal.

The report suggests that African people are increasingly shifting to mobile communications because landline service is unreliable and too expensive.

The red poppy flower is a symbol of the remembrance of the dead from the Great War.

Public relations executives employed by the energy industry encouraged their colleagues to study counterinsurgency techniques and noted the effectiveness of veterans trained in psychological operations in the push to win public approval for natural gas drilling.

In Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, a local blogger was allegedly tortured and then murdered in retaliation for posting comments about local drug cartels. The decapitated body of El Rascatripas, as he was known online, was found lying on the street near a statue of Christopher Columbus, about one mile from the Texas border.

Papademos’ resume is nothing short of sterling and diverse, with a heavy presence in the United States.

At the CNBC Republican presidential candidates' debate on Wednesday, Rick Perry could only remember two of the three federal agencies he would eliminate as president. It was a potentially game-changing gaffe, but it is missing from the official CNBC transcript of the debate.

Karl Rove's Crossroads group is launching an ad attacking Massachusetts Democratic Senatorial candidate Elizabeth Warren.

Human rights group urges Shell to pay $1 billion for the clean up of two oil spills that date back to 2008. Company says continuing sabotage undermines clean-up efforts.

The wealthy nations attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Hawaii may fight over trade, but they've avoided serious armed conflict for decades, and the U.S. Pacific Command aims to keep it that way, even as it copes with budget pressures and a surging China.

At the top of the agenda is the relationship between India and Pakistan, the historic nuclear enemies who have recently renewed peace talks.

South Africa's ruling ANC kicked out its firebrand Youth League leader, Julius Malema, from the party for five years on Thursday after finding him guilty of dividing and bringing the 99-year-old liberation movement into disrepute.

Former European Central Bank vice-president Lucas Papademos will head Greece's new crisis coalition, the president's office said on Thursday, charged with saving the country from default, bankruptcy and an exit from the euro zone.

The slowdown which began at the end of 2010 now looks more like a prolonged soft patch, the Commission said.

Former European Commissioner Mario Monti emerged on Thursday as favorite to replace Silvio Berlusconi and form a new government to stave off a run on Italian bonds that is endangering the entire euro zone.

The new interim government will be sworn in at 12:00 London time on Friday.

The sexual harassment scandal surrounding Herman Cain has become a messy he said, she said affair, with accusers going public and Cain fiercely denying their allegations. What's next for the Georgia businessman who shot from obscurity to the top of the polls last month?

A new ABC News/Washington Post poll found that 60 percent of respondents -- a group that included both self-identified Democrats and Republicans -- say the federal government should have a hand in reducing income inequality in the U.S.

Lisa Irwin is turning 1 Friday, but the grandfather of the missing baby says the child's first birthday without her will be the oh-my-God moment for the family.

The head of the International Monetary Fund called on Thursday for political clarity in efforts to tackle the debt crisis that has gripped Italy, saying uncertainty around who would succeed Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was fuelling market volatility.

European shares rose Thursday, recovering some of the ground lost in a heavy sell-off in the previous session on a spike in Italy's borrowing costs, with signs of new governments being formed in Italy and Greece, inspiring hopes of some stability.

Berkeley, Calif., police used batons to beat up unarmed Occupy Cal protestors Wednesday night in an attempt to expel the students from their makeshift encampments, triggering a mass rally and sit-in.

Political and economic crisis in Italy spurred fears of a split in the Eurozone with borrowing costs for Europe's third biggest economy at unsustainable levels and the bloc unable to afford a bailout.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's departure was inevitable, a senior US official said on Wednesday.

Texas Governor and one-time Republican presidential front-runner Rick Perry suffered a major embarrassment at Wednesday night's GOP debate, when he couldn't remember the name of a government agency that he said would eliminate if he became president.

The prime ministers of India and Pakistan said on Thursday that their next round of talks should further improve ties between the two countries.

Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik Thursday said that Ajmal Amir Kasab, who has been sentenced to death for the 2008 Mumbai attack, should be hanged. This could be a new strategy from the side of Pakistan which is trying to change the image it appears to have of a nation following double standards while dealing with the global concern about terrorism.