Pakistani girl shot by Taliban leaves British hospital

LONDON (Reuters) - A Pakistani girl shot in the head by the Taliban for advocating girls' education has been discharged from a British hospital after doctors said she was well enough to spend time recovering with her family.Fifteen-year-old Malala Yousufzai, who was shot by the Taliban in October and brought to Britain for treatment, was discharged on Thursday but is due to be re-admitted in late...

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World shares hit highest since July 2011

 World shares hit their highest level since July 2011 on Wednesday after U.S. markets jumped sharply in response to the deal to prevent a fiscal crunch from sending the giant economy back into recession.MSCI's global share index rose to 346.57 points shortly after Wall Street opened, a peak not seen since July 8, 2011 after which a resurgence in the euro zone debt crisis sparked a sharp sell-off...

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'Cliff' deal sends stocks up, but problems lurk

NEW YORK (AP) — The "fiscal cliff" compromise, even with all its chaos, controversy and unresolved questions, was enough to send the stock market shooting higher Wednesday, the first trading day of the new year.All the major U.S. stock indexes swelled more than 2 percent in early trading and were still up significantly in the afternoon. The Dow Jones industrial average briefly surged to its biggest...

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Stocks surge after Congress passes budget deal

Stocks roared higher on Wall Street and around the world after Congress passed a last-minute budget deal to avert sweeping tax hikes and government spending cuts.The Dow Jones industrial jumped 308 points to close at 13,412 Wednesday, the first trading day of the year. That's the biggest gain the Dow has had since December 2011.The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 36 points to 1,462. The Nasdaq...

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S&P says U.S. fiscal deal will not affect credit outlook

The U.S. budget deal won't change Standard & Poor's perspective on the country's credit outlook, the rating agency said Wednesday, but the risk of another recession in the world's biggest economy has eased.The budget compromise "doesn't affect our view of the country's credit outlook, given that we believe yesterday's agreement does little to place the U.S.'s medium-term public finances on a more...

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Wall Street starts new year with a bang after "cliff" deal

Stocks kicked off the new year with their best day in over a year on Wednesday, sparked by relief over a last-minute deal in Washington to avert the "fiscal cliff" of tax hikes and spending cuts that threatened to derail the economy's growth.In 2013's first trading session, the S&P 500 achieved its biggest one-day gain since December 20, 2011, pushing the benchmark index to its highest close since...

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For Egypt's satirists, Morsi's power is no joke

There are few things dictators hate more than satirists, with their uncomfortable habit of piercing hypocrisy and self-importance with just a few well-placed verbal or written barbs.Under Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian public's rich horde of satirical memes was an underground phenomenon, the province of cafe talk and SMS messages. That former President Mubarak was commonly called La Vache qui rit ("The...

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