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Rivals in a divided government, President Barack Obama and the most powerful Republican in Congress split their differences to stave off a federal shutdown that neither combatant was willing to risk.
Their compromise is the result of a battle pitting the enduring power of the presidential veto and the White House soapbox _ despite a “shellacking” […]

Japan’s prime minister surveyed the damage in a town gutted by a massive tsunami, as officials said Saturday that highly radioactive water was leaking into the sea from the nuclear plant stricken by the disaster.
The Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex has been spewing radioactivity since March 11, when a magnitude-9.0 earthquake and ensuing wave knocked out […]

Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan’s failure to pass legislation approving an increase in bond sales risks forcing officials to seek alternative funding methods and unsettling investors, according to Morgan Stanley.
“I envisage jitters related to government paralysis — yields would start to rise” without parliament enacting the measure, Robert Feldman, head of economic research at […]

The addition of 7,600 jobs in January notwithstanding, the Missouri unemployment rate remained at 9.6 percent in the first month of the year.
Displaced workers who have stopped applying for benefits, and therefore do not show up in the employment data base, account for a jobless rate that was unchanged from December.
Still, the numbers are generally […]

A Connecticut ambulance service that fired an employee for posting negative Facebook comments about her boss has settled with its former worker, resolving a case that was poised to test new legal ground in labor law.
In October, National Labor Relations Board filed a complaint against American Medical Response of Connecticut over the firing […]

Somalia’s government decided on Thursday to cancel an agreement with a private security company linked to the founder of Blackwater Worldwide to train Somali forces to go after pirates and insurgents, a senior official said.
Deputy Security Minister Ibrahim Mohamed Yarow told The Associated Press that the Cabinet, meeting behind closed doors, ended the agreement with […]

World stock markets were ending the week in sluggish mode Friday following weakness on Wall Street and a disappointing U.S labor report.
Oil prices fell to near $91 a barrel as traders mulled whether demand in a slowly recovering U.S. economy will be enough to push crude above $100 soon. In currencies, the dollar was down […]

Canadians will be paying more for store bought coffee in the New Year, as a shrinking global supply and increasing demand continues to push up the price.
A recent spate of extreme weather in Colombia paired with a growing taste for higher quality beans and a diminished global stockpile could result in a 30 to 50 […]

Emirates airline is once again flying the double-decker Airbus A380 to New York after more than a yearlong hiatus.
The Dubai-based carrier relaunched service Monday with an 8:30 a.m. flight from the Persian Gulf city-state.
Emirates was the first airline to regularly fly the superjumbo to the U.S. in 2008. It halted service less than a year […]

The city of Phoenix has purchased 1,139 acres of land in its far northern stretch for $25.9 million from the Arizona State Land Department.
The land, located between Seventh and 24th streets between Dove Valley and Lone Mountain roads, and expands the city’s Sonoran Preserve to 6,688 acres. The purchase was made possible through the Phoenix […]