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Black Market Pharmacies And The Big Business of Spam

Credit Dave Keck

Acne medicine, in Turkish.

By editor

Originally published on Fri January 11, 2013 7:35 am

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An apparent feud between two black market pharmacies has shed light on a shady global industry.

"Rx-Promotion and SpamIt probably are responsible for upward of 50 or 60 percent of spam that you and I got in our inboxes over the last five years," said Brian Krebs, a cyber-security reporter who chronicled the alleged feud on his website. "It's just a ridiculous amount of problems that these two guys cause for everybody."

2:44 am

Fri January 11, 2013

Geithner Began With 'Smoldering' Economy; What Does He Leave?

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Credit The White House / Getty Images

In this handout image provided by the White House, President Obama talks with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner at the United Nations on Sept. 23, 2010.

Credit T.J. Kirkpatrick / Getty Images

U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner speaks during the Washington Ideas Forum at the Newseum on Sept. 30, 2010, in Washington, D.C.

By John Ydstie

Originally published on Fri January 11, 2013 7:35 am

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Outgoing Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has had a bruising four years. He took office when the U.S. economy was plunging into the worst recession since the Great Depression.

Nominating Jack Lew as Geithner's successor Thursday, President Obama praised his departing Treasury secretary for helping to get the economy back on track.

2:34 am

Fri January 11, 2013

This Butter Sculpture Could Power A Farm For 3 Days

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Credit Bradley C. Bower / AP

A 1,000-pound butter sculpture is unveiled at the 97th Pennsylvania Farm Show in Harrisburg last week.

Credit Scott Detrow / NPR

The butter sculpture will be dumped into this pit of rotting fruit and vegetables on the Reinford family's farm. Then, all that food will get ground up and put into the farm's methane digester.

By editor

Originally published on Fri January 11, 2013 8:49 pm

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For more than a week, it was the belle of the ball, the butter with no better: a giant 1,000-pound dairy sculpture that occupied the place of honor at the annual Farm Show in Harrisburg, Pa.

2:33 am

Fri January 11, 2013

After 50 Years, Cuba Drops Unpopular Travel Restriction

Credit Dwamons Boylan / Reuters/Landov

A traveler stands at the check-in lobby at Havana's Jose Marti International Airport last year. On Jan. 14, Cuba scraps a much-reviled, decades-old exit permit requirement, easing most Cubans' exit and return.

By editor

Originally published on Fri January 11, 2013 7:35 am

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For the first time in five decades, Cubans will no longer need an "exit permit" to travel. The change, which takes effect Monday, is part of a broader immigration reform by President Raul Castro making it easier for Cubans to go abroad — and also to return.

But critics say the communist government continues to treat travel as a privilege, not a right, and a useful tool to punish dissent.

2:19 am

Fri January 11, 2013

'Living' In Color, Long Before 'Girls'

Credit E.J. Camp / Corbis

Living Single (1993-1998) featured four young, black, professional women in New York — including Queen Latifah as the ambitious head of a small magazine.

By Karen Grigsby Bates

Originally published on Fri January 11, 2013 12:14 pm

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The second season of HBO's critically acclaimed series Girls begins Sunday night, but the show about 20-something girls navigating their social and work lives in New York has itself been criticized for not being diverse enough.

By now, most of you have heard the buzz about Girls: It's written by 26-year-old Lena Dunham, and stars a quartet of young women whose plans sometimes crash face-first into life's nasty realities.

The show's smart dialogue attracted writer Allison Samuels, a cultural critic for Newsweek/The Daily Beast.

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2:46 am

Fri January 11, 2013