Search results for

Gambling houses have placed odds on who might become the next leader of the Catholic world. At the top of the list of frontrunners are men not from Europe.

Stocks in Japan and Australia hit highs not seen in more than four years after Tuesday's big rally on Wall Street. The benchmark Dow Jones Industrial Average hit an all-time high — topping a record set in the fall of 2007, just before the financial crisis hit.

Syrian President Bashar Assad's Instagram account includes images of his smiling first lady. It makes no mention of the country's civil war. Instead, it show his wife helping out in a soup kitchen, and congratulating top achieving students.

While the financial world keeps grappling with losses, the industry's leaders have raked in annual pay raises averaging nearly 12 percent. The Financial Times found JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon was among the top earners, with a pay package of more than $23 million last year. That's an 11 percent increase over the previous year.

The large wooden horns which are traditional in the Alps can be more than 10 feet in length. Over the weekend, professionals serenaded the German city of Dresden from the top of an apartment building.

While eating M&Ms recently, Will Cutbill tried stacking them on top of each other. He became determined to break the Guinness record. Hours later he did it by stacking five M&Ms.

NPR's Jim Zarroli reports that the Justice Department is trumpeting its $100 million dollar settlement with the Archer Daniels Midland company as the largest penalty ever paid for an antitrust violation. ADM pled guilty to antitrust charges today and said the plea and fine put an end to the government's investigation of the company. Conspicuously absent from the company press release though, was any mention of two top ADM executives. A Justice Department official says the two executives "remain available for prosecution."

Dozens of members of Congress up for re-election are attending the Republican National Convention this week, and many of them are hoping that the top of the ticket will help out their own campaigns. Many have been fearful that presidential candidate Bob Dole, who has been doing poorly in the polls, might hurt their own re-election chances or the chances of Republicans to retain control of Congress. But the selection of Jack Kemp, a former member of Congress, to be Dole's running mate has given some of these Republicans a boost. NPR's Brian Naylor reports.

NPR's Jim Zarroli reports Wall Street's top brokerage firms agreed to pay nearly $1.5 billion in fines to settle conflict-of-interest charges. Regulators accused the firms of continuing to recommend stocks they privately had turned against. Besides fines, the firms agree to spend several hundred million dollars in coming years buying research from independent firms that don't mix stock research with investment banking.

President Elect George W. Bush named two of his top campaign aides to new jobs today, completing the transfer of his "Texas Iron Triangle" from Austin to Washington. Senior strategist Karl Rove will become senior adviser to Bush in the White House, where he will handle public liaison and strategy as well as politics. Joe Allbaugh, who has been Bush's campaign manager, will become the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Don Gonyea reports from Austin.