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Tokyo's flamboyant and ultraconservative governor, Shintaro Ishihara, said last spring that his city would buy some islands in the East China Sea. Today, China and Japan are caught in a war of words over who controls those islands. Some observers call Ishihara's move a power play that has sparked a crisis.

Mo Yan was one of three writers favored to win. He is perhaps best known in the West as the author of Red Sorghum, which was made into a film. He is only the second Chinese writer to win the Nobel — the other is poet Gao Xingjian, who won in 2000.

The Emir of Qatar is scheduled to become the first foreign leader to visit the Gaza Strip since Hamas seized control of the territory in 2007. The Qatari leader is offering Gaza around $400 million in development aid to help Gazans rebuild after the destruction of the 2009 war with Israel.

In races from U.S. Senate to state attorney general, candidates know their fortunes are largely tied to the respective fates of Mitt Romney and President Obama. Many acknowledge that a strong partisan wave threatens to wipe them away, so they're pushing to run ahead of their ticket.

The big donors behind Karl Rove's Crossroads superPAC have started a new project to vet and recruit Republican candidates they believe can win. But some anti-establishment groups have viewed the project as an inside-the-Beltway power grab.

The first pope from the New World must now confront some old problems. He's begun his first full day as head of the church by slipping out of the Vatican to visit an ancient basilica. There, he quietly prayed with priests.

The tropical island set in turquoise water just off the Great Barrier Reef is the site of an experiment to see what will happen to coral reefs as the ocean absorbs ever more of the carbon dioxide and heat we've added to our planet's thin skin. The results weren't so pretty.

President Obama's past relations with Israel's government have not always gone well. The two nations insist they've reached new levels of security cooperation. They have publicly debated issues ranging from Iran to the Mideast peace process.

Both housing and the stock market have been on the upswing in recent months. But a full recovery in the housing market would be more significant to the overall economy. That's because more Americans have something at stake in home values than in stock prices.

U.S. officials and security experts regularly highlight the cyberthreat, but they also note that the prospects of a major cyberattack are remote. Cyberespionage and "nuisance" cyberattacks may be a problem now, but all-out cyberwar is not.