2011 | featured news

Taylor Swift will be battling the boys at the 2011 Country Music Association Awards....

Experts say 2011 has seen a sharp and worrisome increase inside China of a security tactic that a United Nations international convention has sought to outlaw since 2010.

Job creation came to a halt in August, according to new government data that show an economic recovery that appears to be sputtering out. The Labor Department on Friday reported zero net job creation in August, far worse than the 68,000 net jobs analysts had expected to be added. The unemployment rate was unchanged at 9.1 percent. The July job growth number was revised downward, as well, to only 85,000 jobs added that month — not the 117,000 estimated.

Retail sales at major chain stores beat analysts' expectations, rising 4.4% year-over-year in August, according to Thomson Reuters' tally of 23 retailers. Discounters, including Target Corp. and Costco Wholesale Corp., did well as East Coasters stocked up before Hurricane Irene.

General Motors says its U.S. sales rose 18 percent in August as fuel-efficient vehicles helped offset economic uncertainty and bad weather. Other automakers may not fare as well.

Manufacturing grew a little slower in August than the previous month, but didn't contract as some had feared.

The pace of U.S. private sector job growth slowed in August for the second month in a row with employers adding 91,000 positions, a report by a payrolls processor showed on Wednesday.

Spending rebounded strongly to post the largest increase in five months, the Commerce Department said.

The federal deficit will hit $1.3 trillion for fiscal 2011, the third consecutive year of record shortfalls and an emerging campaign theme for GOP attacks on President Obama and congressional Democrats. The deficits of the last three years are at levels unseen since World War II and stem from the "long shadow" cast on the economy by the financial crisis and recession, the Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday.

Sales of new homes fell for the third straight month in July, a sign that housing remains a drag on the economy. If the current pace continues, 2011 would be the worst year for new-home sales in nearly half a century....