Facebook Inc shares fizzled on their first day of trade on the Nasdaq, erasing early gains of as much as 18 percent to trade close to their initial public offering price.

Nothing is easier to mock in politics right now than the apparent reluctance of leading Republicans to sign on as Mitt Romney’s second banana. A few weeks ago, Jon Stewart summarized the way that Rob Portman was plugging his Senate colleague Marco Rubio, who in turn was passing the baton to Jeb Bush, with the line, “Doesn’t anyone want the rock in crunch time?”

Visiting French President François Hollande told President Barack Obama on Friday that France's combat troops would leave Afghanistan by year's end and pledged to find a way "for our allies to pursue their mission" in talks at a looming NATO summit. The two leaders also bonded over jokes about fast-food, a move that recalled ugly [...]

John Edwards is facing the biggest vote of his life as the case against the former president candidate was given to the North Carolina jury this morning.

This is a good time to compare the giant social network with some of the other well-known tech outfits of the modern day, such as Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT) and Apple (AAPL).

Mitt Romney's campaign has begun the vetting process to find a suitable running mate, a source close to the campaign told The Hill's Alexander Bolton: The team for Beth Myers, the Romney adviser leading the search for the GOP's vice presidential nominee, has already contacted potential running mates.

Billionaire political donor Joe Ricketts clearly has President Barack Obama in his line of fire this election season, as we learned this week. But when it comes to Ricketts writing checks, apparently all Republicans--and even some libertarians--are welcome.

Michael J. Fox now believes the controversial therapy may not ultimately yield a cure for his disease, he told ABC’s Diane Sawyer in an exclusive interview.

In 2001, when I was a political/metro columnist for The Charlotte Observer, I had lunch with Sen. John Edwards at a Southern soul food restaurant on Tryon Street between the headquarters buildings of the twin banking colossi that defined this city.

BRUSSELS/LONDON (Reuters) - European officials are working on contingency plans in case Greece bombs out of the euro zone, the EU's trade commissioner said on Friday, while Berlin said it was prepared for all eventualities. German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, one of Greece's harsher critics, said market turmoil fuelled by the euro zone debt crisis could last another year or two. "Regarding the crisis of confidence in the euro ... in 12 to 24 months we will see a calming of the financial markets," he said. ...