CHICAGO (AFP) - Police have discovered the body of the missing nephew of "Dreamgirls" star Jennifer Hudson who had not been seen since his grandmother and uncle were found murdered, officials said Monday.

PARIS (AFP) - French prosecutors on Monday announced a probe into how the Caisse d'Epargne bank lost more than 700 million euros in risky derivatives trading at the height of the global finance crisis.

FRANKFURT (AFP) - Volkswagen shares soared Monday, helping German stocks into positive territory despite major losses on global markets, as investors cheered luxury automaker Porsche's increased holding in Europe's biggest car company.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US forces in Iraq staged a "successful" raid into Syria against foreign fighters, an American official said on Monday, as a furious Damascus accused Washington of "terrorist aggression."

ALLENTOWN, Pennsylvania (AFP) - White House front-runner Barack Obama traded barbs with John McCain over their plans for the stricken US economy as the presidential campaign entered its final full week.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US markets plunged just ahead of the close Monday as investors shrugged off the start of government capital injections into banks and the possibilities of more interest rate cuts in both the United States and Europe.

KHARTOUM (AFP) - Sudan said Darfur rebels on Monday shot and killed five kidnapped Chinese oil workers and that two others escaped with gunshot wounds in the first deadly foreign hostage ordeal since the war began.

A funeral was held Monday for eight civilians killed in an attack on an eastern Syrian village on the Iraq border that Syria claims was carried out by U.S. forces. The U.S. military in Iraq said in a statement it

Israeli President Shimon Peres on Monday officially cleared the way for snap parliamentary elections to take place in the next few months, after Kadima party leader Tzipi Livni said she had failed to form a coalition government.

A worldwide slide in markets continued Monday on fears that governments' efforts to stabilize the volatile global economy will not be able enough to avoid recession. Japan's Nikkei 225 index dropped to its lowest close in 26 years but the

A jury found Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens, the Senate's longest-serving Republican, guilty Monday of lying about free home renovations and other gifts he received from an oil contractor.

In the summer of 2008, Haiti was slammed by four hurricanes and tropical storms, which killed more than 800 people and left 1 million homeless. In this slideshow, view photos from NewsHour correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro's trip to Haiti

In court records unsealed Monday in U.S. District Court in Jackson, Tenn., federal agents said they disrupted plans to rob a gun store and target a predominantly African-American high school in a murder spree that was to begin in Tennessee.

The helicopter was forced down in Wardak, one province west of Kabul, after insurgents hit it with gunfire Monday, said Lt. Cmdr. Walter Matthew, a U.S. military spokesman. The crew survived and have been extracted from the area, he said.

The reported strike occurred in the South Waziristan region, part of Pakistan's wild border zone that is considered a possible hiding place for Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri.

With only eight days until the U.S. election, Canadians overwhelmingly support Mr. Obama over Republican nominee John McCain, and believe the Illinois senator would do a better job of restoring America's credibility in the world and dealing with the global

The Syrian government said four U.S. military helicopters attacked a civilian building under construction shortly before sundown Sunday, killing eight people in the village of Sukkariyeh — about eight km. inside the Syrian border.

U.S. General David McKiernan's public relations push comes at a time when more NATO troops have died than in any other year since the 2001 U.S. invasion, in part because Taliban militants are launching increasingly complex and deadly attacks.

Julian King had been missing since Ms. Hudson's mother and brother were found shot to death in the home they shared Friday. Police spokeswoman Monique Bond says the boy also had been shot.

UN spokeswoman Sylvie van den Wildenberg says cars are being damaged and windows are being shattered at the UN offices in the provincial capital of Goma.