2012 | featured news

Top baby names for boys and girls in 2012.

Talk about high expectations for a newborn: King and Messiah are among the fastest-rising baby names for American boys. They're just a little behind Major, the boy's name that jumped the most spots on the Social Security Administration's annual list of popular baby names.

The economy may have remained sluggish last year but Americans refused to scrimp on their pets, with animal lovers spending upwards of $53 billion on food, veterinary care, kennels and other services in 2012. That's up 5 percent from 2011, when spending first broke the $50 billion barrier, says the American Pet Products Association, a trade group based in Greenwich, Conn. And APPA President and CEO Bob Vetere predicts another 4 percent gain this year.

Sin City cashed in last year with a record 39.7 million visitors, and tourism officials are optimistic that the mark won’t stand for long.

... spike in murders and shootings — much of it gang-related — shocked Chicagoans, spurred new crime-fighting strategies and left indelible images: Mayor Rahm Emanuel voicing outrage about gang crossfire that killed a 7-year-old named Heaven selling candy in her front yard. Panicked mourners scrambling as shots ring out on the church steps at a funeral for a reputed gang leader. Girls wearing red high school basketball uniforms, filing by the casket of a 16-year-old teammate shot on her porch.

Brazil has had a tough two years. This last one in particular has been rough. A crime wave swept Sao Paulo, the nation’s largest city, towards the end of the year. But more importantly, a country that wants to be the country of the future, with all the amenities and a stable economy, has seen its confidence dwindle a bit. This is not the Lula years, in reference to popular president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. The nation that will hold the FIFA World Cup in just two short years and later the Summer Olympics in 2016 is scratching its collective heads. How did Brazil go from one of the biggest economies in Latin America, to be usurped by Mexico now as measured by investor appetite and losing the No. 6 global economy position to the U.K. in less than a 12 months.

Amid a worldwide frenzy of advertisers and new-agers preparing for a Maya apocalypse, one group is approaching Dec. 21 with calm and equanimity - the people whose ancestors supposedly made the prediction in the first place....

The world's attention wavered between the tragic and the silly in 2012, and along the way, Web surfers searched in huge numbers to find out about a royal princess, the latest iPad, and a record-breaking skydiver.

The budget deficit rose in October, the first month of fiscal year 2013, as looming negotiations over expiring tax cuts and imminent spending reductions dominated the post-election political landscape.

The rumors surrounding Apple's press event, scheduled for Oct. 23, are deafening. Will the Cupertino-based company announce a smaller iPad? (It had better.) Will the company offer up a 13-inch MacBook Pro with a Retina display? (Very likely!) How about an Apple-branded coffee maker? (No.)