Less than 10 months ago, the great fear in Asia was that the region would suffer through the overwhelming wealth destruction that was already taking place in the U.S. as a result of the financial crisis. Stock markets tumbled as exports plunged and economic growth deteriorated. Lofty property prices in China and elsewhere looked set to bust as credit tightened and buyers evaporated. Asia's markets were on the verge of a panic. But now, with surprising speed, fear in ...

A U.S. counterterrorism official says Saad bin Laden, one of the sons of Osama bin Laden, was probably killed earlier this year in Pakistan.

The world may be facing a deep recession but the United Nations says it needs a record $4.8 billion more in humanitarian aid for 2009 because several crisis situations "deteriorated significantly" in the first half of the year. U.N. agencies will need $1.5 billion more than projected for a total of $9.8 billion in 2009, said John Holmes, the U.N.'s humanitarian chief. The extra money is needed after violence and food insecurity worsened living conditions for millions of people in ...

Lance Armstrong lost key Astana teammate Levi Leipheimer but stayed in third place in the Tour de France as Heinrich Haussler of Germany won the 13th stage run off in appalling conditions on Friday. Leipheimer pulled out before the start of the 200 kilometer run from Vittel to Colmar, his right wrist in plaster after a late crash on the previous stage. The American is a close friend of Armstrong and was not without hope of overall victory himself as ...

Gunmen killed a guard and a U.N. worker during a kidnapping attempt in northwestern Pakistan on Thursday, officials said. Tharcisse Renzaho was found guilty of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. The verdict, delivered Tuesday, is the third judgment on charges of genocide delivered this year by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). The U.N. court is holding hearings in Arusha, Tanzania, where it is based. Renzaho was governor of the capital, Kigali, and a colonel in the ...

Estudiantes de La Plata shocked Brazilian home side Cruzeiro on Wednesday to capture South American club football's greatest prize, the Copa Libertadores. The 2-1 win by Estudiantes marked the first Copa trophy claimed by the Argentinean team in 39 years, as it came from behind in a tense match that saw all goals scored in the second half. The teams played to a scoreless draw last week in Argentina. Cruzeiro's Henrique scored the game's first goal in the 52nd minute, ...

The $787 billion stimulus plan is turning out to be far less stimulating than its architects expected. Back in early January, when Obama was still President-elect, two of his chief economic advisers, and leading proponents of a stimulus bill, predicted that the passage of a large economic-aid package would boost the economy and keep the unemployment rate below 8%. It hasn't quite worked out that way. Last month, the jobless rate in America hit 9.5%, the highest level it ...

It may have sounded strange, on the campaign trail in 2006, when Mexico's President Felipe Calderon warned members of his conservative National Action Party to repress "the little PRI-ista we all carry inside us." PRI, of course, is the Institutional Revolutionary Party, which ruled Mexico as a corrupt one-party dictatorship for 71 years until the PAN finally ousted it in 2000. Unconvinced that the ruling party had indeed exorcised its inner-PRI, Mexico's voters in Sunday's midterm election indulged ...

Russian and U.S. nuclear negotiators have completed a joint statement on the framework for a new arms control agreement to replace the 1991 START I agreement which expires December 5. A U.S. source close to the American side tells CNN that Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev will discuss the joint statement at their Monday meetings in Moscow and are expected to announce and sign it at their joint press conference Monday afternoon. The agreement will set new limits on ...

Under the white walls and blue-and-gold cupolas of the Sergiyev Posad monastery, the row of vendors selling nesting dolls and other traditional Russian handicrafts is noticeably shorter this summer. Usually the cheap folding tables, set up in a double row outside the spiritual center of the Russian Orthodox Church, are surrounded by tourists snapping up the iconic egg-shaped souvenirs, made of smaller and smaller wooden dolls hidden one within the other. But on a recent Thursday afternoon, there were ...