In the closest finish in the history of the Iowa caucuses, Mitt Romney edged out Rick Santorum by eight votes in the first battle for the Republican presidential nomination.

The government demolition of a newly refurbished mosque in a northern Chinese village has raised tensions with the Hui, a Muslim group that in the past has been granted more freedoms by the Chinese Communist Party than other embattled minorities such as the Uighurs.

Verizon Wireless announced on Friday, after one day of consumer backlash and interest from a federal regulator, that it has decided to scrap a $2 “convenience fee” for some online credit and debit payments.

Democrats, too, will be caucusing in Iowa next Tuesday night. But for Team Obama, the meetings of party activists are all about November. As the GOP sorts through its choices in the Republican caucuses, President Barack Obama will be directly engaging with Iowa Democrats in an attempt to rally his base in a state that also serves as a key general election battleground.

Viacom Inc. has been ordered to pay an additional $383 million to the makers of “Rock Band,” the latest development in a long and costly saga surrounding the media giant’s failed attempt to enter the video game business.

North Korea’s newly-minted leader faces a steep political learning curve: His doting father Kim Jong Il is now officially gone, memorialized this week in a state funeral where hundreds of thousands of mourners flailed in sadness along the snowy streets of Pyongyang.

Rapper Heavy D died last month of a blood clot to the lung that was likely formed during a long flight home from London, where he performed a tribute to Michael Jackson, according to the Los Angeles County coroner’s chief of operations.

The Oscar-winning “Forrest Gump,” Walt Disney’s classic animated film “Bambi,” Charlie Chaplin’s first feature-length comedy, “The Kid,” and a 1912 silent comedy, “A Cure for Pokeritis” (starring cinema’s earliest comedy superstar, John Bunny) are among the 25 movies that have been selected to be preserved as cultural, artistic and historical treasures in the National Registry of the Library of Congress.

Bill Maher has run afoul of religious conservatives yet again, after a Christmas Eve tweet the comedian sent about overtly religious Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow.

A Cairo court has ruled against forced virginity tests on female protesters detained in military prisons. “The court orders that the execution of the procedure of virginity tests on girls inside military prisons be stopped,” Judge Ali Fekri, head of the Cairo Administrative Court, announced Tuesday.