German Education Chief Quits in Scandal Reflecting Fascination With Titles

Tobias Schwarz/ReutersEducation Minister Annette Schavan, left, with Chancellor Angela Merkel on Saturday. BERLIN — For 32 years, the German education minister’s 351-page dissertation sat on a shelf at Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf gathering dust while its author pursued a successful political career that carried her to the highest circles of German government. The academic work...

Read More..

Stars salute MusiCares honoree Bruce Springsteen

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Be it concert or charity auction, Bruce Springsteen can bring any event to a crescendo.Springsteen briefly took over auctioneering duties before being honored as MusiCares person of the year Friday night, exhorting the crowd to bid on a signed Fender electric guitar by amping up the deal. The 63-year-old rock 'n' roll star moved the bid north from $60,000 by offering a series of...

Read More..

In Nigeria, Polio Vaccine Workers Are Killed by Gunmen

At least nine polio immunization workers were shot to death in northern Nigeria on Friday by gunmen who attacked two clinics, officials said. The killings, with eerie echoes of attacks that killed nine female polio workers in Pakistan in December, represented another serious setback for the global effort to eradicate polio. Most of the victims were women and were shot in the back of...

Read More..

Digital Domain: Digital Tags Help Ensure That the Price Is Right

SOME decades ago, a grocery store’s aisles were often filled with “chunk-a-chunk-a” sounds, as clerks stamped prices to the tops of cans and boxes before putting them on shelves. It was a labor-intensive operation, but it did result in a price being affixed to most every item in the store. Randy StrossA paper “Sale” sign accompanies an Altierre screen in a Kohl’s store. ...

Read More..

Your Money: For This Girl Scout, It’s More Than Pushing Cookies

Chris Hinkle for The New York TimesLast year, customers of 10-year-old Mary Ruiz of Tucson bought 5,007 boxes of Girl Cookies.  TUCSON — When you buy a box of Girl Scout cookies and devour 10 in a single sitting, as untold numbers of people will in the next month, you are propping up a pretty sizable enterprise. During last year’s sales season, scouts sold $785 million worth of Thin...

Read More..

Year after Houston's death, Davis gala returns

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) — Last year, Whitney Houston died hours before Clive Davis' annual pre-Grammy gala went on. This year, the music executive says she'll be remembered."In saying I'm proud of her legacy, I'm going to make sure that she's felt somehow during that night, yes," the 80-year-old said in an interview Thursday.Davis' gala will take place Saturday night at the Beverly Hilton, where...

Read More..

Well: One Dish, One Hour

Fast-food from a restaurant is not as fast as you think. There is drive time to and from the restaurant, waiting time to pay and collect your food, and then it still takes a few minutes to sort through it and set it on the table at home. (Assuming you don’t just eat it in the car.) But if you are willing to invest a few more minutes of time for a more healthful option, you can still make a homemade...

Read More..

Bits Blog: Google Changes Its Ad Program to Try to Solve the Mobile Ad Riddle

Google has a mobile problem, and it is trying to fix it.Searches on desktop computers, Google’s most lucrative way to sell ads, are slowing. Searches on mobile devices are increasing, but mobile ads cost less.The result has been that an important business metric for Google — the amount that advertisers pay each time someone clicks on an ad — has declined for five quarters in a row.This week, Google...

Read More..

Massive Manhunt On for Ex-Cop Accused of Killing 3

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Thousands of police officers throughout Southern California and Nevada hunted Thursday for a former Los Angeles officer who was angry over his firing and began a deadly shooting rampage that he warned in an online posting would target those on the force who wronged him, authorities said. Authorities issued a statewide "officer safety warning" and police were sent to protect...

Read More..

Afghan boys from nominated film to walk red carpet

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Fawad Mohammadi has spent half his life peddling maps and dictionaries to foreigners on a street of trinket shops in Kabul. Now the 14-year-old Afghan boy with bright green eyes is getting ready for a trip down the red carpet at the Oscars.It will also be his first time out of the country and his first time on a plane.Mohammadi was plucked from the dingy streets of the Afghan...

Read More..

Well: Expressing the Inexpressible

When Kyle Potvin learned she had breast cancer at the age of 41, she tracked the details of her illness and treatment in a journal. But when it came to grappling with issues of mortality, fear and hope, she found that her best outlet was poetry.How I feared chemo, afraidIt would change me.It did.Something dissolved inside me.Tears began a slow drip;I cried at the news storyOf a lost boy found in the...

Read More..

Fed Official Sees Tension in Some Credit Markets

WASHINGTON – Some credit markets are showing signs of overheating as investors take larger risks in response to the persistence of low interest rates, a senior Federal Reserve official said Thursday. Kevin Lamarque/ReutersJeremy Stein, a Federal Reserve governor, said some credit markets were showing signs of overheating. The official, Fed Governor Jeremy...

Read More..

DealBook: R.B.S. to Pay $612 Million Over Rate Rigging

LONDON – The Royal Bank of Scotland on Wednesday struck a combined $612 million settlement with American and British authorities over accusations that it manipulated interest rates, the latest case to emerge from a broad international investigation.In an embarrassing blow to the bank, its Japanese subsidiary also pleaded guilty to criminal wrongdoing in its settlement with the Justice Department....

Read More..

Monopoly fans vote to add cat, toss iron tokens

PAWTUCKET, R.I. (AP) — The Scottie dog has a new nemesis in Monopoly after fans voted in an online contest to add a cat token to the property trading game, replacing the iron, toy maker Hasbro Inc. announced Wednesday.The results were announced after the shoe, wheelbarrow and iron were neck and neck for elimination in the final hours of voting that sparked passionate efforts by fans to save their...

Read More..

The New Old Age Blog: For Women, Reduced Access to Long-Term Care Insurance

“This was a very, very good business for a short time, with people buying long-term care insurance like it was candy in a candy store,’’ said Michael Perry, a vice president at the Opus Advisory Group, a strategic financial planning firm in Purchase, N.Y.No more. Mr. Perry has sold only one long-term care policy in the last six months and is “backing off from marketing’’ them as he watches this corner...

Read More..

Tool Kit: Protecting Your Privacy on the New Facebook

Facebook is a personal vault that can contain photos of your firstborn, plans to bring down your government and, occasionally, a record of your indiscretions. It can be scoured by police officers, partners and would-be employers. It can be mined by marketers to show tailored advertisements. And now, with Facebook’s newfangled search tool, it can allow strangers, along with “friends”...

Read More..

Judge Denies Request for Delay in Trayvon Martin Case

MIAMI – A judge on Tuesday rebuffed George Zimmerman’s request for a five-month delay of his trial in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, saying it would begin as scheduled on June 10. “We are four months away from a trial date,” Circuit Judge Debra Nelson told defense lawyers during a contentious hearing. “I don’t see any of your issues to be insurmountable.” The decision came on...

Read More..

Slain Navy SEAL sniper had new book in the works

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — A publisher says a former top Navy SEAL sniper and best-selling author who was fatally shot at the weekend had a second book in the works.Sharyn Rosenblum says Chris Kyle was working on "American Gun: A History of the U.S. in Ten Firearms" with co-author William Doyle. Rosenblum is a spokeswoman for publisher William Morrow.Kyle's book, "American Sniper," written with Scott...

Read More..