When it comes to crafts and hobbies, I am an ?instant-gratification? crafter. ?Scrapbooking is fine; I can complete a page or two in an afternoon, and I have something decent to show for my efforts. ?Cross-stitching, not so much! ?It just takes too long for anything resembling a design to appear (or maybe I?m just [...]

BANGKOK ? Asian stocks rose sharply Monday after Japan’s economy grew for the first time in four quarters and Europe moved closer to resolving a debt crisis that threatens to hurl the region into recession. Benchmark oil hovered near $99 per barrel while the dollar gained against the euro but fell against the yen. The [...]

CONCORD, New Hampshire (Reuters) ? Texas Governor Rick Perry renewed his attack on Republican presidential rival Mitt Romney as untrustworthy, and defended Texas illegal immigration policy that has been criticized by conservative Republicans. Campaigning in New Hampshire, Perry accused the former Massachusetts governor of changing positions on gun control, the causes of global warming and [...]

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) – Texas should be playing a role in Republican politics this year as big as, well, Texas. The fast-growing state – the most populous by far in the Republican column – has four new seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, a big U.S. Senate race and more than a 10th of [...]

(Reuters) ? General Mills Inc (GIS.N) posted disappointing quarterly earnings, hurt by higher ingredient costs, and its shares fell nearly 3 percent, while rival ConAgra Foods Inc (CAG.N) topped Wall Street’s expectations. Both packaged food companies backed their fiscal 2012 outlooks on Tuesday despite higher ingredient costs and lingering economic uncertainty. General Mills, which makes [...]