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Halal meat butchers have a reputation for quality in France. And with an estimated 6 million Muslims now living there, halal products are becoming increasingly popular, and sometimes political. Now one French-Algerian restaurant is trying to make French-Halal fusion food official.

Those opposed to taxes and big government are putting their money where their mouths are in the state. A food drive there was put together by libertarians and anarchists, and they say they privately funded, voluntary charity is superior to the welfare system.

This year was tumultuous for stocks. But that didn't scare off mega brands in technology. Twenty-eight tech companies went public and raised more than $6 billion — a whopping 85 percent increase over 2010. Winners included LinkedIn; busts included Groupon.

Brazil's economy is still going strong compared to the U.S. and Europe. The country's unemployment rate is just 6 percent — with companies looking overseas to fill top-end jobs.

Illinois' pension gap is estimated at $83 billion — and it costs $12.6 million more every day the state does nothing to address the crisis. The state can't readily come up with the money, and while politicians say they want to help, they're unlikely to act during an election year.

The typical first-time mother takes 6 1/2 hours to give birth these days. Her counterpart 50 years ago labored for barely four hours. That's a finding with big implications for current rates of cesarean sections.

German Catholics are facing a stark choice: Pay a church tax or forget about receiving the sacraments, including baptisms, weddings and funerals. Germany taxes registered Catholics, Protestants and Jews. In 2011, the tax raised $6.5 billion for the Catholic Church alone. Many progressives and conservatives are up in arms over the German bishops' decree.

By now you know that California is preparing to vote Nov. 6 on a ballot initiative to require labels on genetically modified food. While polls show people evenly split on the issue, scientists says such labeling is misleading and may scare consumers.

The job market improved in June, as employers added 288,000 workers to their payrolls and the unemployment rate fell to 6.1 percent. In another welcome development, the ranks of the long-term unemployed declined.

The May jobs report showed steady job creation. Payrolls expanded by 217,000, and unemployment held steady at 6.3%. And there was a milestone: The U.S. economy now has slightly more jobs than it did in December 2007, when the last recession began.