A surprising set of items are helping spur the growth of Dollar Tree, the super-duper discount chain where every item actually sells for a buck or less. We're talking about party supplies: everything from plates to wrapping paper to favors. During an economic crisis, aren't people supposed to be slouching on their couches, rather than honking on noisemakers? Apparently not. "This says a lot about the American consumer," says Timothy Reid, Dollar Tree's vice president of investor relations. "They ...

Asia is set to lead the world out of the global financial crisis in spite of the slow recovery in the US and Europe, according to the latest forecasts by the Asian Development Bank. In a dramatic contrast to its view in March, when it slashed 2009 growth forecasts for Asia excluding Japan from 7.2 per cent to 3.4 per cent, the ADB on Tuesday said the region would grow more strongly than expected both this year and in 2010. ...

New Haven Police Chief James Lewis on Thursday described the killing of Yale graduate student Annie Le as an instance of "workplace violence," but he did not elaborate. Raymond J. Clark III, 24, has been charged with Le's murder and bond has been set at $3 million, Lewis told reporters at a news conference. Thursday morning, police arrested the Yale lab technician in the strangulation of Le, whose body was found in the wall of an off-campus research building. ...

The Phoenix Mars Lander has entered a state of suspended operation called "safe mode" due to low power, mission managers said Thursday. And while they hope to recharge batteries and reactivate the spacecraft in the coming days, they say the rapid onset of the Martian winter means Phoenix's days are severely numbered. "This is a precarious time for Phoenix," Phoenix project manager Barry Goldstein of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said in a written statement. "We're in the bonus round of ...

If you happened on Friday morning to walk into the Temple of Earth in Beijing — the nearly 500-year-old monument where Chinese emperors once prayed for good harvests — you would have noticed a steady drip. The environmental group Greenpeace placed ice sculptures of 100 children — made of the glacial meltwater that feeds China's great rivers — inside the temple, to symbolize the risk that climate change and disappearing ice poses to the more than 1 billion people ...

With irresponsible banking practices taking the blame for bringing about the global economic crisis, there has been a surge of interest in Islamic finance. Now, a slew of academic courses are springing up to meet the demand of those wanting to break into an expanding market. According to ratings agency Moody's, the global Islamic finance sector is worth $700 billion and has the potential to be worth $4 trillion. What's more, the ethical principles underpinning Islamic finance are ...

The damage they do to society is well-known, but drug traffickers, it turns out, also aren't the most environmentally-minded campers. Law enforcement officials say that a wildfire now raging in Santa Barbara's Los Padres National park, burning more than 136 square miles, was sparked by a cooking fire started by the hirelings of a Mexican drug cartel which was growing thousands of marijuana plants in the remote canyons. Far from an isolated incident, the Los Padres fire, according ...

Mexico City's thousands of stores went green Wednesday, as amended ordinances on solid waste now outlaw businesses from giving out thin plastic bags that are not biodegradable. The law affects all stores, production facilities and service providers within the Federal District, which encompasses the city limits. Nearly 9 million people live inside the district and another 10 million reside in surrounding communities that make up greater Mexico City. Mexico City becomes the second large metropolitan area in the Western Hemisphere ...

You're probably not thinking about what you would like for Christmas yet. But ask any environmentalist for their ideal gift and you'll get a version of this answer: a binding agreement at the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen this December that is strong enough to match the science. The talks are the latest in a line of climate conferences that began in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. This year the focus will be on the details of a ...

On World Population Day this year India's new health and welfare minister came out with an idea on how to tackle the population issue: Bring electricity to every Indian village so that people would watch television until late at night and therefore be too tired to make babies. That statement raised eyebrows across this vast country -- but what are the realities and reactions from families who make up the second largest population in the world At 80-plus years old ...