Some of the largest U.S. banks have agreed to an $8.5 billion settlement to resolve claims that they abused financially troubled homeowners as they sought to foreclose on their home purchase loans at the height of the country's financial downturn.
The United States says Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's plan for a national reconciliation conference is "detached from reality" and is an attempt to "cling to power."
World markets are opening 2013 on a high note, after the U.S. Congress reached a deal to avert an early 2013 financial crisis that threatened to send the world's largest economy into recession.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been admitted to New York-Presbyterian Hospital after doctors discovered a blood clot while performing a follow-up exam for a concussion she suffered earlier this month.