Billions of dollars were spent in campaign financing this year, and much more is predicted for 2012. Candidates already are scrambling for dollars, with particular focus on large donors.

The 21 members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) agreed Sunday to 'take concrete steps toward realizing a Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific' in coming years.

Although the economy is creating more job openings than it's forcing layoffs, the margin isn't big enough to boost the labor market.

AP - A series of bomb blasts and insurgents attacks killed 11 people across Afghanistan on Sunday, including five NATO service members and three Afghan police, officials said.

AP - The retired British couple were sailing the world on a 38-foot-yacht that represented most of their life savings when Somali pirates captured them last year, demanding the sort of huge ransom a multimillionaire or a multinational company might cough up.

AP - Democracy heroine Aung San Suu Kyi took her first steps back into Myanmar's political minefield Sunday, vowing to press ahead in her decades-long fight for democracy while also calling for compromise with other political parties and the ruling junta.