FRAMINGHAM, Mass. (AP)— Staples will close up to 225 stores in North America by the end of next year as it seeks to trim about $500 million in costs annually by 2015. The nation’s largest offic...

Fast Retailing Co., the operator of Uniqlo casual clothing stores, plans to make 1,000 new hires in Japan in the spring of 2015, in line with the rapid expansion of its business mainly abroad, offici...

In defiance of his party’s opposite policy, Shintaro Ishihara, coleader of opposition Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party), said Thursday he will support government-proposed nuclear power ...

TUNIS (AP)—Tunisia’s president on Thursday lifted the state of emergency that has been in place since the outbreak of a popular revolution three years ago, and a top military chief said soldiers ...

Toyota Motor Corp.’s Aqua subcompact hybrid was the top-selling vehicle in February, returning to the No. 1 slot for the first time in five months, according to industry data. Sales of the Aqua to...

LOS ANGELES (AP)—Disney is laying off 700 people from the interactive unit that makes video games and operates websites, about a quarter of the workforce in the division. A Walt Disney Co. spokes...

KABUL (AP)—An early morning NATO airstrike in Afghanistan’s eastern Logar Province killed five Afghan soldiers on Thursday, defense ministry officials said. The coalition said the deaths were an ...

UNITED NATIONS (AP)—Central African Republic’s foreign minister told the Security Council Thursday that a U.N. peacekeeping mission is urgently needed in his country to bolster French and Afri-ca...

CINCINNATI (AP)—Deep-sea explorers can now recover the remaining gold from a ship that sank off the South Carolina coast in 1857 and more recently has been embroiled in legal fights involving a fug...

FRANKFURT (AP)—The European Central Bank kept its key interest rate on hold Thursday and raised its economic growth forecasts as it acknowledged that the recovery is strengthening in the 18 countri...

WASHINGTON (AP)—The top U.S. military officer says it will take two years of study and billions of dollars to overcome the loss of security to military operations and tactics that were revealed in ...

FORT BRAGG, N.C. (AP)—A U.S. general accused of sexual assault pleaded guilty Thursday to three lesser charges, a remarkable admission sure to end the military career of a man once regarded as a ri...

The government does not recognize bitcoin as a currency but income from bitcoin trading is taxable, the government said Friday. The view was adopted at a Cabinet meeting held to answer Diet questio...

WASHINGTON (AP)—Bowing to the Pentagon, the Senate agreed after impassioned debate Thursday to leave the authority to prosecute rapes and other serious crimes with U.S. military commanders in a str...