Search results for

According to PNC Wealth Management's Christmas Price Index, the cost of the gifts in the holiday song jumped by 7.7 percent. The five golden rings didn't push up the price. It was driven by a spike in the cost of lords-a-leaping and ladies dancing.

Millions of consumers went online to get a crack at shopping deals for Cyber Monday. Online sales were $2 billion for the one day — up nearly 20 percent over the same time last year.

Traffic on the government's health insurance website this week will test whether technical repairs have succeeded in boosting the website's capacity. Technical teams have been working to patch bugs and expand the website's capacity. But there were times on Monday when some users still had to be pushed into an online waiting room.

Vice President Joe Biden's trip to Asia was supposed to be about trade. Biden's first stop is in Japan, which is anxious for support from its U.S. ally in its confrontation with China over the sovereignty of disputed islands in the East China Sea. Biden will then visit Beijing, which wants the U.S. to reign in what it sees as Japanese nationalist aggression. The trip ends in South Korea, which has its own issues with Japan and China.

Sports equipment and apparel company Adidas on Tuesday unveils the soccer ball to be used during next year's World Cup in Brazil. A contest was held to name the ball. The winning name: Brazuca.

Isabel Greenberg's new Encyclopedia of Early Earth weaves a human love story into a quasi-Biblical creation tale, full of capricious gods, feckless shamans and more-or-less doomed love. Reviewer Glen Weldon says the graphic novel is full of tasty visual gags, and "lands with an emotional impact you likely won't see coming."

Long before becoming the head of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis worked some odd jobs. At a church in Rome over the weekend, the pope talked about sweeping floors, working in a chemical lab and teaching in high school. And at one time, he kicked troublemakers out of clubs.

They invited customers to step away from their computers and stop by for a free cup of apple cider. The celebration was first proposed by The Toadstool Bookshops in New Hampshire. They promised their "servers" wouldn't be overloaded.

Look inside most machines today and what do you find? Computer chips functioning mysteriously. Gaze at a 1920's Rube Goldberg cartoon and what do you find? Machines powered by hungry parrots and angry ladies. Will future tools stay inscrutable or become more Rube-like? Here's a guess.

Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich survived a no-confidence vote in parliament Tuesday as the opposition failed to muster a majority to pass the measure. The opposition, and thousands of protesters now gathered in downtown Kiev, are demanding Yanukovitch's resignation because he refused to sign political and trade agreements with the European Union. Ukraine, a former Soviet republic, has been under intense pressure from Moscow to reject membership in the EU and to embrace closer trade ties with Russia and other countries that formerly belonged to the Soviet Union. The protesters in Kiev have vowed to continue their siege of government buildings.

Televangelist Paul Crouch, co-founder of the Trinity Broadcasting Network, died Saturday at the age of 79. The Pentecostal minister's broadcasting network came to be the world's largest Christian television system with Praise-a-Thon fundraising efforts that brought in as much as $90 million a year in mostly small donations.

The bill would cut benefits and push back the retirement age for younger workers in an effort to close a $100 billion shortfall. The governor has said he will sign it, but the state's public employee unions bitterly oppose it.

Bangladesh is the cheapest place in the world to make a T-shirt. But this month, the minimum wage there will rise from $39 a month to $68 a month. That's got some factory owners nervous about whether Western retailers there will pull out.

A federal judge has ruled Detroit qualifies for bankruptcy. But the cash-strapped city, laden with roughly $18 billion in long-term debt, faces a long road to regain financial solvency. Unions whose members face pension payment cuts are appealing the ruling, and the ultimate decision about paying the pensions may be made by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Thousands of protesters in Ukraine continue to occupy Kiev's Maidan square and to prevent the government from functioning after President Victor Yanukovich refused to allow the country to strengthen trade ties with the European Union. Ukraine is under intense Russian pressure to continue aligning itself with a customs union comprising countries of the former Soviet Union.

Also: Joyce Carol Oates on Mike Tyson; remembering the Egyptian poet Ahmed Fouad Negm; NPR launches a "Book Concierge."

The pot of money North Carolina uses to pay for most of its programs grew about 20 percent this year. That's according to the state's annual financial…

Saudi Arabia has millions of unemployed young people, and authorities in the kingdom have been cracking down on undocumented foreign workers in an effort to open up the jobs they hold to local labor. Many Africans who do the lowest wage jobs have been violently threatened and are trying to turn themselves in to leave Saudi Arabia. Robert Siegel talks with Ellen Knickmeyer, Saudi Arabia correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, about the crackdown on undocumented foreign laborers.

The Swedish furniture store Ikea is sending a $2.6 million aid package. China is sending aid worth $1.6 million. It first offered $100,000.

A mollusk named Ming was that old when it was dredged up in the ocean off Iceland several years ago. It was named Ming in honor of the Chinese dynasty it was born into.