WASHINGTON, Feb. 8, 2012 (Reuters) — A U.S. judge on Wednesday ordered that a 500-page special report detailing federal prosecutors' misconduct in the 2008 corruption trial of the late Senator Ted Stevens be released next month, despite objections by some of the subjects of the report. ...  > full story

ROME, Feb. 8, 2012 (Reuters) — Hiding behind a culture of "omerta" -- the Italian word for the Mafia's code of silence -- would be deadly for the Catholic Church, the Vatican's top official for dealing with sexual abuse of minors by clergy said Wednesday. ...  > full story

MOSCOW, Feb. 8, 2012 (Reuters) — Iran is capable of hitting U.S. military forces anywhere in the world if attacked by the United States, Russia's Interfax news agency quoted the Iranian ambassador to Moscow as saying on Wednesday. ...  > full story

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb. 8, 2012 (Reuters) — Malaysia has halted palm oil exports to Iran because of payments problems and Asian oil buyers have cut crude purchases as Western sanctions tighten a financial noose around Iran. ...  > full story

YOKOHAMA, Japan, Feb. 8, 2012 (Reuters) — Nissan Motor Co <7201.T> pushed up quarterly operating profit by 3.6 percent as record car sales last year boosted its market share in every major region, and it kept its full-year forecast unchanged at the highest level among Japan's top automakers. ...  > full story

BEIJING, Feb. 8, 2012 (Reuters) — A Communist "princeling" fond of small town America and Hollywood war dramas, and brusque critic of Western pressure with a daughter at Harvard, Chinese leader-in-waiting Xi Jinping embodies his nation's contradictory ties with the United States. ...  > full story

WASHINGTON, Feb. 8, 2012 (Reuters) — Mitt Romney's march to a possible Republican presidential nomination just got a lot longer and harder. ...  > full story

SHANGHAI, Feb. 8, 2012 (Reuters) — When it comes to China, Facebook should consider itself forewarned. Cracking the world's biggest internet population might seem an obvious ambition for the social networking giant as it trumpets its global growth before a $5 billion initial public offering, but the chances it will succeed look slim. ...  > full story

BAGHDAD, Feb. 7, 2012 (Reuters) — The U.S. government is looking to cut the size of its embassy in Iraq, by far its largest and most expensive mission, months after the last American troops withdrew, U.S. officials said Tuesday. ...  > full story

WASHINGTON, Feb. 7, 2012 (Reuters) — A plan to fast-track the stalled Keystone XL pipeline was passed by a key committee in the House of Representatives on Tuesday, as Republicans made yet another attempt to spur approval of the project that has become a major issue in the 2012 elections. ...  > full story