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IN NIMALIPURI VILLAGE, INDIA Battling the heat and dust in this remote village, a market researcher showed up at farmer Abdul Rehman's door, plying him with questions about which brand of shampoo, toothpaste, hair oil, television, stereo system and cellphone he uses.

Christian leaders warned Friday that Pakistan was sinking under the weight of extremism as the community buried a Christian politician assassinated for opposing harsh blasphemy laws.

LONDON - The head of the London School of Economics resigned late Thursday, citing damage to the institution's reputation caused by its ties to the Libyan government.

IN RAMALLAH, WEST BANK At a recent Friday prayer here, a preacher in a large downtown mosque railed against the United States for vetoing a U.N. resolution condemning Israeli settlements, the opening salvo in what was designated as a "Day of Rage" among Palestinians.

AMMAN, JORDAN - Enas Hamed went out Friday for the first time to join thousands of people marching through central Amman to demand an overhaul of Jordan's political system, a growing weekly demonstration that is posing a mounting challenge to King Abdullah II.

CAIRO - Massive crowds turned out across the Arab world for a Friday of mostly peaceful protests, although the Iraqi government responded with a forceful crackdown and at least three people were killed in Yemen.

Four years ago, I declared that I would no longer help readers use Microsoft's already obsolete Internet Explorer 6 browser. IE 6 was too insecure, too slow, too clumsy and just too stupid.

If you're an average person whose tax money helped pay for the Wall Street bailout, what's going on in New York and New Jersey could really make you angry. Especially if you happen to live there. These states, home to lots of firms and highly compensated folks who benefited from the bailout, are...

State attorneys general and federal agencies have given major banks a 27-page proposal to settle part of a massive federal and state investigation in shoddy foreclosure practices.

When an 85-year-old social worker named Dorothy G. Becker died in 2004, her obituary noted her teaching, her dedication to the poor and her passion for painting. There was no sign that the will she left behind would spawn political recriminations and Washington investigations focused on the...

Stocks declined Friday, erasing almost half of the biggest daily gain in three months, amid investor concern that the surge in crude oil prices will curtail U.S. economic expansion.

European Aeronautic Defense and Space said Friday it will not protest the Air Force's $35 billion award to Boeing to build the next-generation aerial refueling tanker, allowing one of the most contentious Pentagon acquisition programs to move forward.

The District-based Academy for Educational Development, a nonprofit group that contracts with U.S. government agencies and others to run health, education, social and economic development programs in about 150 countries, has announced that it plans to sell off its assets just months after it was...

BEIJING - Spooked by uprisings against autocracy across the Middle East, China sought Saturday to showcase its stability with a grand display of political choreography and a leadership pledge to rein in inflation, combat corruption and "improve all facets of public security."

Kevin Ricks , the former teacher who molested a Manassas high school student, pleaded guilty Thursday to seven new federal charges of producing and possessing child pornography, ensuring that one of the region's most notorious sex offenders will spend significant time in prison.

BAGHDAD - Among the revolts sweeping the Middle East and North Africa, Iraq's has been an exception: Here, protesters are seeking to reform a democratically elected government, not to topple an autocrat.

The Obama administration is preparing for the prospect that Islamist governments will take hold in North Africa and the Middle East, acknowledging that the popular revolutions there will bring a more religious cast to the region's politics.

Among the findings of a sweeping federal government survey of American sexual behavior is one that may surprise those bewailing a permissive and eros-soaked popular culture: More than one-quarter of people interviewed in their late teens and early 20s had never had sex.

Lawmaking can be a frustrating business, especially when you're outnumbered. But some Democratic state legislators have recently embraced a simple tool to gain leverage: the empty chair.

Former House speaker Newt Gingrich (Ga.) has been in the public eye for so long that it is easy to focus mostly on his flaws, which are well known: two messy divorces, an admission of adultery, extravagantly harsh and divisive rhetoric toward his opponents, a capacity to be childish, turmoil often...