Global Update: Investing in Eyeglasses for Poor Would Boost International Economy

BSIP/UIG Via Getty ImagesEliminating the worldwide shortage of eyeglasses could cost up to $28 billion, but would add more than $200 billion to the global economy, according to a study published last month in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization. The $28 billion would cover the cost of training 65,000 optometrists and equipping clinics where they could prescribe eyeglasses, which...

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Dark Warnings About Future of Internet Access

PARIS — Every time an Internet user watches “Gangnam Style” on YouTube, packets of digital data course through the global telecommunications system, converging on an iPhone, a tablet or a laptop. Having missed out on most of the lucrative revenue that the explosion of digital content has generated for Internet companies, telecommunications providers in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and...

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Congress returns as 'fiscal cliff' talks slow

WASHINGTON – Congress returned in a lame duck session with no signs of quick compromise to prevent a tax hike for most Americans...

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Peter Jackson Races to Complete <em>The Hobbit</em> in Time for Premiere

Peter Jackson makes epic films, and epic films take an extraordinary amount of time to produce. In the case of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, the trek to completion is coming down to the wire.Jackson has been working on The Hobbit, which opens next month, at the Park Road Post Production facility in Wellington, New Zealand, for weeks to complete every last VFX trick, CGI shot and sound...

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Actor: CBS comedy ‘Two and a Half Men’ is ‘filth’

NEW YORK (AP) — The teenage actor who plays the half in the hit CBS comedy “Two and a Half Men” says it’s “filth” and through a video posted by a Christian church has urged viewers not to watch it.Nineteen-year-old Angus T. Jones has been on the show since he was 10 but says he doesn’t want to be on it. He says, “Please stop watching it. Please stop filling your head with filth.”The video was posted...

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Amid Hurricane Sandy, a Race to Get a Liver Transplant

It was the best possible news, at the worst possible time. The phone call from the hospital brought the message that Dolores and Vin Dreeland had long hoped for, ever since their daughter Natalia, 4, had been put on the waiting list for a liver transplant. The time had come. They bundled her into the car for the 50-mile trip from their home in Long Valley, N.J., to NewYork-Presbyterian...

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DealBook: Mortgage Interest Deduction Is Now Seen as Vulnerable

A tax break that has long been untouchable could soon be in for some serious manhandling.Many home buyers deduct their mortgage interest when assessing their tax bill, a perk that has helped bolster the income of millions of families — and the broader housing market.But as President Obama and Congress try to hash out a deal to reduce the budget deficit, the mortgage interest deduction looks vulnerable....

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Graham, King depart from Norquist's anti-tax pledge

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New Naval Era Dawns as China's Carrier Launches First Jet

China's aircraft carrier has launched and landed her first jet fighters, as shown in photos and videos released over the weekend by Beijing's state media.The milestone comes 14 years after the communist state acquired the derelict flattop Varyag from Ukraine, and nearly 18 months after the refurbished, rechristened Liaoning set sail from northern China.With the commencement of fixed-wing flight operations...

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U.S. musician Marcus Miller hurt in Swiss bus crash

ZURICH (Reuters) – U.S. jazz musician Marcus Miller was injured on Sunday along with members of his band when their bus crashed in Switzerland, killing the driver, police said.The two-time Grammy winner was travelling with 10 members of his band from Monte Carlo in Monaco to Hengelo in the Netherlands when the bus crashed on the highway near the town of Schattdorf in central Switzerland.A Swiss police...

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