NEW YORK (AP) ― Apple is set to report another record quarterly profit on Tuesday, continuing the relentless string of results that’s made it the world’s most valuable company. Those profits don’t come out of thin air: A range of businesses ― from the company’s wireless carrier friends to its PC-making foes ― are seeing their profits melt away and flow to Apple’s bottom line. Apple’s success is good for the U.S. economy, and some businesses, like software developers and memory-chip makers, have

WASHINGTON (AP) ― High energy prices and an economy that has been slow to rebound are worsening Social Security’s finances, shortening the life of the trust funds that support program by three years, the government said Monday. Those trust funds will now run dry in 2033, according to a report issued by the trustees that oversee the massive retirement and disability program. Medicare’s hospital insurance fund is projected to run out of money in 2024, which is unchanged from last year. The trustee

MADRID (AP) ― Spain slipped back into recession as the country’s economy contracted for the second quarter in a row, the central bank said Monday.A Bank of Spain monthly report recorded that economic output shrank 0.4 percent in the first quarter of the year, following a 0.3 percent decline in the last quarter of 2011. A technical recession is commonly defined as two consecutive quarters of economic contraction.The news of recession comes as no surprise, however ― the new conservative government

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) ― Europe’s plan to fix its debt crisis by imposing budget cuts frayed Monday. Heavy selling rocked financial markets, uncertainty gripped two governments, and the economic outlook darkened across the continent.The German stock market suffered its worst day in six weeks. In the United States, the Dow Jones industrial average lost more than 100 points.Across Europe, the debt crisis appeared at its most perilous point since December, when most of the continent united behind

RUBKONA, South Sudan (AP) -- Sudanese warplanes bombed a market and an oil field in South Sudan, killing at least two people after Sudanese ground forces had reportedly crossed into South Sudan with tanks and artillery, elevating the risk of all-out war between the two old enemies.The international community urged Sudan and South Sudan to talk out their disputes, which include arguments over where the border lies and over ownership of oil resources.U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned th

KABUL (AP) ― A new strategic partnership that commits the U.S. to defend Afghanistan militarily for 10 years after most foreign forces leave in 2014 is intended to signal that the U.S. will not tolerate a resurgent al-Qaida or attacks launched by militants from neighboring Pakistan.The agreement, parts of which were read out Monday in the Afghan parliament, is big on symbolism but light on substance. It leaves out specifics, including how much funding the U.S. will provide to support Afghan secu

WASHINGTON (AFP) ― U.S. President Barack Obama Monday ordered new sanctions on Syria and Iran and the “digital guns for hire” who help them oppress their people with surveillance software and monitoring technology.Obama announced additions to the pile of U.S. sanctions already faced by the two governments as part of a wider effort to crack down on human rights abuses, atrocities and genocide, at a speech at the U.S. Holocaust Museum.The measures will hit the two governments but also companies th

DHAKA (AFP) ― Two demonstrators were killed and more than 20 police injured in Bangladesh on Monday as officers fought to control a crowd of 10,000 people protesting over the disappearance of opposition leader Ilias Ali.Police said mobs armed with sticks and stones set fire to a local council building and attacked a police station in Sylhet city, home to Ali, a prominent Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) figure who has been missing for six days.“There were more than 10,000 protesters. They atta

Authorities in Georgia say a grandmother foiled a robbery attempt by two armed men by getting into a shootout with them, wounding one man.Police told The Telegraph that Lulu Campbell had just dropped off her grandson at her daughter's house early Saturday morning when someone demanded money outside her car, threatening to shoot her.Campbell says the man fired at her, missing. The 57-year-old fired

Standard & Poor's on Monday downgraded its credit rating outlook for Argentina from stable to negative, after Buenos Aires seized control of the country's largest oil company YPF."In our view, the recent government policies could increase risks to Argentina's macroeconomic framework, squeeze its external liquidity, and hinder medium-term growth prospects," the ratings agency said in a statement.As