The decision by Las Vegas Sands to choose Madrid for a big “EuroVegas” casino project was welcomed by city officials Saturday, but potential obstacles include the company's decision to fund only 35 percent of the resort and to demand changes in local laws.

Sept. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Saudi Arabia’s stocks rose the most in two weeks, led by petrochemicals, amid speculation that the U.S. would take steps to stimulate the economy and after the European Central Bank announced a bond-buying plan.

Finance Minister Vittorio Grilli says Italy has no plans to apply for the European Central Bank's bond purchase program.

Sept. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Chinese President Hu Jintao said a slowdown in exports is putting downward pressure on the world’s second-biggest economy, and he pledged to boost domestic demand and promote more balanced growth.

Germany's finance minister is insisting that countries must not use the European Central Bank's plan to buy unlimited amounts of government bonds as an excuse to let up on economic reforms and deficit-cutting.

Tropical Storm Leslie moved slowly northward Saturday after pausing to spin in place over the Atlantic, and forecasters expected it would regain strength and become a hurricane before passing to the east of Bermuda.

Officials say the four people brutally slain while vacationing in the French Alps each suffered two gunshot wounds to the head.

Pakistan and India have signed a new visa agreement that makes cross-border travel easier, the latest sign of thawing relations between two countries that have long seen each other as enemies.

As Americans debate whether they are better off now than they were four years ago, there is a similar question with a somewhat easier answer: Are you safer now than you were when President Barack Obama took office?

Vermont's attorney general says the state is the latest to ask an appeals court to rule that the federal law defining marriage as between a man and a woman is unconstitutional.

Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras says the final round of austerity measures contains painful and unjust cuts but is necessary to restore Greece's credibility and continue to receive funding from creditors.

A teenage suicide bomber blew himself up outside NATO headquarters in the Afghan capital on Saturday, killing six civilians in a strike that targeted the heart of the U.S.-led military operation in the country, officials said.

Russia on Saturday soundly rejected U.S. calls for increased pressure on Syrian President Bashar Assad to relinquish power. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton tried to prod Moscow into supporting U.N. action to end the crisis in Syria and she expressed hope that Congress would repeal Cold War-era trade restrictions on Russia.