Science and technology

BANGKOK (AP) — Evidence of a steady economic recovery in the U.S. helped push Asian stock markets higher Monday.

For most of her 20-year marriage to Steve Jobs, Laurene Powell Jobs was content to be a behind-the-scenes philanthropist.

BEIJING (AP) — China is urging North Korea to release a Chinese fishing boat whose owner says it was seized by gun-toting North Koreans earlier this month and held for ransom, in the latest irritant in relations between the neighboring allies.

BANGKOK (AP) — The price of oil fell Monday ahead of the release later this week of economic data from the U.S. and China, the world's two largest economies, and a speech by the Federal Reserve chief.

LYON, France (Reuters) - A British father living in France has admitted to killing his two children by slitting their throats, blaming a rocky divorce from his wife, prosecutors said on Sunday. Police arrested the 48-year-old unemployed man on Saturday after the bodies of his 5-year-old daughter and 10-year-old son were found at his apartment in a suburb of the eastern city of Lyon. "He offered explanations linked to the children's custody," an official from the Lyon prosecutor's office told Reuters. ...

DEAR ABBY: I have worked in the field of education for more than 40 years, with the last 25 years serving in adult education, helping students complete their high school equivalency diploma.Big changes are impending worldwide in this very important educational service. Starting in 2014, the cost may go up. Up until two years ago, the classes in our community were free. The testing cost $7.50, which paid for a printed diploma. Since then, the cost has gone up -- first to $25 and then to $35.Now the GED program has been bought by a for-profit organization and the costs will go higher than ever. ...