WASHINGTON (AP) ― The U.S. economy has been outrunning everyone’s expectations.Factory output has surprisingly surged. Housing, left for dead, is inching back. Most crucially, companies are hiring faster than many envisioned.Funny thing about expectations, though: Each time you exceed them, it gets harder to do so next time. On Friday, economists expect the government to report a 200,000-plus job gain for a third straight month.The previous two months, job growth topped expectations, and unemplo

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) ― The European Central Bank saw no need to take any further action to help stabilize Europe’s financial crisis Thursday as president Mario Draghi told governments and banks that, following the 1 trillion-plus euro offer of low interest loans, the burden of fighting the problem was now on them. The ECB’s 23-member governing council, as expected, left its benchmark refinancing rate for the 17 countries that use the euro unchanged at a record low of 1 percent, where it has b

ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- Greece took a critical step toward staving off an imminent bankruptcy after securing the support of the vast majority of its bondholders to accept steep losses on their holdings of Greek debt, a move that should pave the way for the country's second massive international

UN women leaders on Thursday called for greater equality between the sexes as they marked International Women’s Day amid demonstrations and marches for female rights. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and first lady Michelle Obama pose for a photo with the recepients of the 2012 Interna

A California man who allegedly ignited a homemade cannon that exploded and killed his girlfriend was charged with murder Thursday and pleaded not guilty.Prosecutors said Richard Fox was drinking with his girlfriend and friends Tuesday at the home in a tiny rural community near the Mexican border. Fo

Obama aides looked at MS's Bill Gates and PepsiCo's Indra Nooyi in early talksPresident Barack Obama and his advisers, casting a wide net for potential candidates to lead the World Bank, considered in initial discussions Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates, PepsiCo Inc. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Indra Nooyi, and Brown University President Ruth Simmons, according to a person familiar with the White House search. Obama sought to look beyond the ranks of banking and government in seeking

Investors with about 60 percent of the Greek bonds eligible for the nation’s debt swap have so far indicated they’ll participate, putting the country on the verge of the biggest sovereign restructuring in history. Greece’s largest banks, most of the country’s pension funds, and more than 30 European banks and insurers including BNP Paribas SA, Commerzbank AG and Assicurazioni Generali SpA have agreed to the offer. That brings the total to about 124 billion euros ($163 billion), based on data com