NEW YORK – American Girl, manufacturer of a highly popular line of dolls and children’s books, has become the target of conservative activists threatening a boycott unless the toy maker cuts off contributions to a youth organization that supports abortion rights and acceptance of lesbians. The protest is directed at …

SAN FRANCISCO – Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD), the world’s second-largest microprocessor maker, Tuesday posted net profit above Wall Street’s expectations, fueled by strong demand for its computer chips. Net income for the third quarter ended Sept. 25 rose to $76 million, or 18 cents per share, from $43.9 million, …

NEW YORK – U.S. financial markets will judge the success of the transition to a new Federal Reserve (search) chairman in the next three months by how well President Bush’s nominee, Ben Bernanke (search), responds to rising inflation. Bernanke, the White House economic adviser and a former Fed governor, calmed …

CHICAGO – Make it a burger, fries and nutritional information to go. Seeking to counter charges that its food is unhealthy and contributes to obesity, McDonald’s Corp. (search) announced Tuesday that it will display nutrition facts on the packaging for most of its menu items next year. Patrons of the …

A little abstinence may go a long way for men with infertility problems. A new study shows that sperm from men with low sperm counts reached their peak condition after one day of abstinence and deteriorated after more than one day without sex. They say the findings show that men …

The CDC’s latest numbers on diabetes confirm that the disease is skyrocketing in the U.S. Seven out of 1,000 U.S. adults aged 18-79 years were newly diagnosed with diabetes in 2003. That’s 41 percent higher than the number in 1997 (five new cases out of 1,000 people). The numbers were …

WASHINGTON – Lawmakers are looking to impose mandatory standards to protect chemical plants from terror attacks after a Bush administration report showed that federal legislation is needed to close the gap left by voluntary compliance. Sen. Susan Collins (search), R-Maine, chairwoman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, …

WASHINGTON – The American head of Amnesty International admits his group did not pick the best analogy when it compared detainee conditions at Guantanamo Bay (search) to the Soviet-era “gulag” forced-labor system. “There are only about 70,000 in U.S. detention facilities, and to the best of our knowledge, they are …

MOSCOW – Russia’s defense minister said the Kremlin (search) cannot prevent ex-Soviet republics from joining NATO, but it would view any foreign military bases in neighboring countries as a threat, a news agency reported Friday. Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov (search) said in an interview with Profil magazine that he would …

WASHINGTON – The senator in charge of trying to put President Bush’s Social Security (search) ideas into law says his colleagues “all want it to go away.” Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley (search) said that despite their reluctance, he’s not giving up on Bush’s top domestic priority. “Nobody really …