Afghan Law Offering Abused Women Redress Makes Slow Gains

KABUL, Afghanistan — Women who suffer violence in Afghanistan are often afraid to report abuses to government authorities and rarely see their cases taken to trial, though prosecutors regularly obtain convictions when cases do go forward, according to a report released on Tuesday by the United Nations office here. The detailed study of the Elimination of Violence Against Women Act, enacted...

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Web host Go Daddy appoints former Yahoo executive as CEO

(Reuters) – Go Daddy, one of the world’s biggest Internet hosting firms, appointed Yahoo Inc‘s former Chief Product Officer Blake Irving as chief executive.He will take over from interim CEO Scott Wagner on January 7. Irving left Yahoo, where he headed a centralized products group that straddled several client types, on April 27.“Blake Irving’s deep technology experience and his history of developing...

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Man Builds Full-Scale Replica of Noah's Ark

People Pets By Stephen M. Silverman 12/11/2012 at 02:15 PM EST Johan Huibers and his ark Peter Dejong/AP He may have trouble finding two animals of every kind, but Johan Huibers of the Netherlands isn't one to be dissuaded.After 20 years, the professional builder...

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Tech titans, "cliff" hopes push indexes up

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Rising shares in technology companies helped push major stock indexes up around 1 percent on Tuesday, as the S&P 500 reached its best levels since mid-October, recouping its post-election selloff. A 3.1 percent gain in Apple Inc's stock lifted the Nasdaq, as the largest U.S. company by market value rebounded from a week in which investors took profits before...

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Surprise: New insurance fee in health overhaul law

WASHINGTON (AP) — Your medical plan is facing an unexpected expense, so you probably are, too. It's a new, $63-per-head fee to cushion the cost of covering people with pre-existing conditions under President Barack Obama's health care overhaul.The charge, buried in a recent regulation, works out to tens of millions of dollars for the largest companies, employers say. Most of that is likely to be passed...

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Morsi Spokesman Tries to Clarify Military Order

Petr David Josek/Associated PressDemonstrators camping out in Cairo's Tahrir Square on Monday. CAIRO — A day after President Mohamed Morsi formally directed the military to help keep public order and authorized soldiers to arrest civilians, a spokesman on Monday sought to draw distinctions between the order and the forms of martial law that the Egyptian Army had previously imposed. The spokesman,...

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China party chief stresses reform, censors relax grasp on internet

BEIJING (Reuters) – China must deepen reforms to perfect its market economy and strengthen rule of law, Communist Party chief Xi Jinping said in southern Guangdong, echoing groundbreaking comments by reformist senior leader Deng Xiaoping in the same province 20 years ago.Xi’s call for reform was reported on Monday, coinciding with an apparent easing of Internet search restrictions that the party has...

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Pink Offers Sympathy for Kate's Pregnancy Woes

By Andrea Billups 12/10/2012 at 02:30 PM EST Pink and Willow Sage Hart NPG She's tiny, athletic and so fit she can sing while hanging upside down performing Cirque du Soleil-style moves. But Pink says she was just like many other women when she was pregnant last...

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Surprise: New insurance fee in health overhaul law

WASHINGTON (AP) — Your medical plan is facing an unexpected expense, so you probably are, too. It's a new, $63-per-head fee to cushion the cost of covering people with pre-existing conditions under President Barack Obama's health care overhaul.The charge, buried in a recent regulation, works out to tens of millions of dollars for the largest companies, employers say. Most of that is likely to be passed...

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Wall Street edges up, led by McDonald's and tech

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks advanced slightly on Monday, helped by gains in McDonald's after the fast-food giant posted strong sales results, and a move up in technology shares. Technology stocks were the S&P 500's best-performing sector as Hewlett-Packard Co climbed 2.5 percent to $14.14 on rumors that activist investor Carl Icahn is building a stake in the PC maker. The stock is...

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