Billionaire kills himself over financial crisis

The family of Adolf Merckle says the German billionaire committed suicide after his business empire got into trouble because of the global financial crisis.

Policeman feared missing arrested in Vegas

An Alabama police organized crime specialist who vanished last week was arrested in Las Vegas and accused of staging his disappearance to cover up a theft, police said Tuesday.

Europe hit with natural gas shortage

The Russia-Ukraine natural gas dispute hit Europe with the force of a winter storm Tuesday, cutting or limiting supplies to nearly a dozen nations.

Turn to generics slows ‘07 health care spending
Spending on health care slowed slightly in 2007 as consumers turned more to generic drugs instead of brand-names to fill their medicine cabinets, the government reported.

Baby's corpse thrown out with hospital's trash
Police are searching garbage dumps in New Jersey and Pennsylvania for the body of a baby that was apparently thrown out with the trash at a Jersey City hospital.

'Jealous wife' charged in fatal genitals fire
An Australian woman accused of setting her husband's genitals on fire because she thought he was having an affair has been charged with murder.

Rise in monoxide poisonings feared

Power outages spurred by the combination of bad weather and utility shutoffs in a bad economy could boost cases of carbon monoxide poisonings this year, health officials fear.

Burris rejected in bid for Senate seat

Roland Burris failed in his bid to take President-elect Barack Obama's Illinois Senate seat on Tuesday in a scripted piece of political theater staged just before the opening of the 111th Congress.

Pending home sales hit record low

Pending sales of existing U.S. homes dropped to a seven-year low in November, data showed on Tuesday.

Congress, Obama gird to fight slump

The House and Senate have convened for a new Congress that will immediately confront the country's struggling economy.