When the U.S. Senate last February introduced a clause requiring the purchase of U.S.-made steel and iron in Washington's $787 billion stimulus package, the Chinese government decried the "Buy American" measure as a dangerous step toward trade protectionism, stressing that Beijing would not respond in kind. "We won't practice Buy China," Vice Commerce Minister Jiang Zengwei vowed, according to the state-run China Daily newspaper. ...

The Rev. Ken Pagano knows what Andy Warhol said about fame, but he has learned firsthand that it can last decidedly longer than 15 minutes. Pagano, pastor of New Bethel Church, an Assemblies of God congregation here, has spent the past few weeks inside an international media maelstrom over his church's upcoming "Open Carry Church Service," which is set for this Saturday, June 27. That's when he expects Christians who are both pious and the gun-loving to heed his ...

TLC released another video segment Friday from the network's one-hour "Jon & Kate Plus 8" episode scheduled to air Monday night. The scene focuses on "crooked houses" -- outdoor mini-houses that the Gosselins are putting on their property that kids get to design -- and Jon and Kate's disagreement as to where they should be placed. After briefly showing the excited siblings playing in the houses, the scene gets right to the subject of the couple's troubled marriage. "It doesn't ...

Whether or not health care reform actually passes in the end, this may be remembered as the week that the reality of the challenge such a massive overhaul poses finally dawned on lawmakers. And that reality is this: It's all about the dollars. Coming up with a bill that doesn't add to the deficit is turning out to be even harder than members of Congress thought it would be. The yellow caution light has come from the Congressional Budget ...

Americans relied less on borrowed money in April than they did in March a sign that the pullback on debt-fueled spending continued into the spring. New data from the Federal Reserve shows that outstanding consumer credit which includes credit cards, auto loans and tuition financing, but not mortgages, fell by $15.7 billion to $2.52 trillion, an annualized drop of 7.4%. That marks the second-largest dollar drop on record, following March's $16.6 billion decline. ...

A warning this week from the British aid group Oxfam that the humanitarian crisis in Somalia is the worst in Africa is not new. Last year, the U.N. called the situation in the Horn of Africa nation the world's worst. But Oxfam's is a much needed reminder of the scale of the catastrophe. One million Somalis are refugees. Two million need food. For most of these, malnutrition rates are beyond the U.N. threshold definition of an emergency. Around 400,000 ...

Netbooks may be puny, but they're getting bigger and more feature-packed — and they're more popular than ever. Last year, global netbook sales exceeded those of the iPhone; despite the recession, demand remains strong. Brian Chen, PC analyst for market research firm Display Search, predicts second quarter sales will exceed 9 million units, a 50% increase over the first quarter. "We've already increased our forecast [for netbook sales] to 30 million this year and they'll probably count for ...

Millions of people download 99-cent games for their iPhones. An increasing number of Web sites offer free online games. And consumer spending is down amid a global recession. Is this the time to be promoting $200 video-gaming consoles and $60 games But that's what's going on this week in Los Angeles, California, where the once-booming video game industry will show off its newest hardware and titles at the Electronic Entertainment Expo. As the largest annual trade show for ...

Racing between OPEC meetings in Vienna, Saudi Arabia's powerful oil minister Ali Al-Naimi told a reporter that the cartel was "determined" to keep the price of oil at around $25 a barrel, rather than risk a slump in the market by boosting its production. Wait a minute. $25 Al-Naimi said that in April 2003 — less than five years ago — when a barrel of oil cost one-quarter of this week's whopping $100, and when prices were regarded as ...

A group of students and teachers from a Maryland private school have been quarantined in China because of swine flu concerns, a school spokeswoman said Thursday. The Chinese government has confined 21 students and three teachers to their hotel rooms in Kaili, China, because a passenger on their plane to China was suspected of having swine flu, or H1N1, said Vicky Temple, director of communications for the Barrie School in Silver Spring, Maryland. Temple said the students and ...