WORLD

The two houses of the 112th Congress commence business today at noon and both veteran lawmakers and newcomers are going to find many important national issues on their collective plates – jobs and the economy, healthcare, last fiscal year’s unattended budget, this fiscal year’s developing budget, immigration, Afghanistan, Pakistan and energy, to name some of the bigger ones.

China has reaffirmed its commitment to buying Spanish government bonds, amidst growing concern about the health of peripheral euro zone debt.

US market regulator Security and Exchange Commission began examining disclosure rules for privately held companies and whether they need to be rewritten following the recent deals that allowed investors to buy shares in Internet companies like Facebook and Twitter.

Israeli vulture caught and convicted for spying on Saudi Arabian territory, sounds amusing but seems Israel put the scavenging birds to better use than feeding on carcasses.

Food prices around the world reached record highs last year, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

The U.S. employment situation might be seeing better times, according to figures released in the latest ADP Employment Report for December, which showed a rise for the second consecutive month

A new edition of the book plans to do away with the ‘n’ word

Professor returns to teach at the Kennedy School of Government after spending two years as Assistant to the President for Economic Policy and Director of the White House National Economic Council (NEC).

The EU and the IMF currently have enough funds to bailout another couple of countries that are steeped in debt. Currently, Italy, Spain and Portugal are fighting to survive while investors wonder which one will throw in the towel first.

American packaged foods company Kraft Foods has filed a law suit in an Indian court against Indian biscuits and dairy business company Britannia Industries for trademark and copyright violations of its popular Oreo cookies.

France is heavily involved in industrial espionage against its European neighbors, not China, Russia or the U.S., according to the diplomatic cables leaked by WikiLeaks.

The Obama administration has invited 2,000 local school districts to a mid-February conference that will require they collaborate with their unions on improving student achievement.

Evan Snapper apparently figured that he would help Hillary Clinton get elected president and enjoy an Elton John concert, all at a client’s expense. Federal authorities said that Snapper also knew he was breaking federal election laws, and may now spend five years remembering that concert.

While Republicans, who will take control of the House of Representatives tomorrow, are promising to repeal healthcare reform and commence investigations into several facets of the federal government, Democrats, who are still in control of the Senate, have also been considering some significant moves aimed at curtailing the power of the filibuster.

While certain members of the FOMC were increasingly confident of an economic recovery in the U.S., they found progress towards achieving maximum employment and price stability to be “disappointingly slow,” according to the minutes of the past Fed board policy meeting in mid-December.

Minutes from the last FOMC meeting held on Dec. 14, 2010.

Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan laid out plans to revive the economy in 2011 in his New Year remarks. While his proposals may boost some sectors of the economy, they miss the point.

John Boehner, a Republican Congressman from Ohio, gets sworn in tomorrow as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, one of the most powerful positions in the world. He will have to show, almost at once, if he has the stuff for the job.

Gurgaon police on Tuesday registered a first information report (FIR) against Indian-born global chief executive of Citigroup Vikram Pandit and ten others in the $80 million Citibank fraud case in the north Indian state of Haryana.

Perhaps the surprising good health of Pakistan’s equity market shows how disconnected financial trading markets can be from the state of the society they reside in.

Inflation might not be China's biggest concern in 2011, as many experts believe, an economist at Capital Economics said in a note.

The governor of key Pakistani province of Punjab who opposed the controversial blasphemy law was assassinated on Tuesday.

World’s largest drug maker Pfizer has moved the court against Dr Reddy’s Laboratories seeking a delay in launching the Indian drug maker’s low-cost version of atorvastatin, the world’s best-selling medicine, in the US market.

The California Supreme Court ruled on Monday that police can search cell phone text messages of an arrested person without any warrant, and asserted that those arrested have no privacy rights over any personal belongings on them when they are taken into custody.

Australia's relief over the years of drought being finally broken by rain in December was short-lived as its states now brace for flooding which the government has described as biblical.

Top energy research and analysis firm Platts has said the U.S. regulatory framework overseeing energy sector investments could undergo fast-paced changes in 2011.

The change of guard in Brasilia at the turn of the new decade could also mark a shift in Brazil’s long-entrenched policy to go with China on monetary policy issues.

The 2008 and 2009 bailout of the U.S. auto industry would not have taken place if Congress had been more specific in how then President George W. Bush could spend the money it gave him, a lawmaker tasked with government oversight said on Sunday.

Top Senate Democrats have vowed to block a wholesale repeal of the health care reform law passed earlier this year, saying millions of U.S. senior citizens would face the prospect of paying more for prescription drugs if the repeal took place.