North Korea increased regional tension just ahead of a trip to Asia this week by U.S. President Barack Obama by sparking a small-scale naval skirmish with the South on Tuesday.

South Korea has done half the work to avoid the “Japan trap” of relying on foreign demand and overprotecting exporters as its embrace of free trade and move of production abroad gives it an advantage for years to come.

Days after coming to power in September, Japan's new prime minister broached forming a new East Asian trading bloc with rival China — one that would exclude the United States.

APEC countries including the United States, Japan and China are expected to pledge this week to keep up their stimulus policies and push for a global trade deal in 2010 to spur a lasting economic recovery.

Warren Buffett has just closed the largest deal of his spectacular career with an agreement to purchase the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad for US$26.3 billion.

Lack of action on the climate change bill bogged down in the U.S. Senate will not stop Washington from seeking a framework to curb carbon emissions at next month's summit in Copenhagen, experts say.

What starts as a cleverly devised scheme may backfire.

Pakistan's nuclear installations are so well guarded that Islamist militants behind a wave of violence in the country's heartland would find it very hard to storm them and steal material for a nuclear bomb, analysts say.

President Obama was right to warn on Friday, in the aftermath of the horrific Fort Hood, Texas, slayings, “against jumping to conclusions until we have all the facts.”

I've been deployed to Iraq for the past four months, and I've figured out ways to cope with the stress that comes from being thousands of miles away from my family.