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For some people, overspending might mean ordering the lobster or splurging on an extra pair of shoes at Macy's. For Julie Fast it's different. The Portland, Oregon, author woke up one day and decided to go on a trip to China . She obtained a visa, hopped on a flight, enrolled in language school and was conversing in Mandarin within weeks. Along the way, she blew through around $10,000.   Shortly after that, and partly as a result of the impromptu and costly spree, she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Wild overspending often goes along with the manic highs that, when interspersed with depressing lows, characterize the disorder, which afflicts roughly 5.7 million Americans. "When you have manias, that voice of caution is literally taken away. It is gone," says Fast, 49, who co-wrote the book "Take Charge of Bipolar Disorder" and helped advise actress Claire Danes for her role as a federal agent afflicted with bipolar disorder on the popular TV series

Swiss lawmakers dealt a death blow on Wednesday to a draft law which aimed to protect the country's banks from criminal charges in the United States for helping wealthy Americans evade tax. The Swiss government has warned that the bill's failure could prompt impatient U.S. prosecutors to indict banks, though it could still use an executive order to allow them to hand over data to try to avoid criminal charges.   The bill, which lawmakers from both the center-left and right opposed for widely differing reasons, was designed to let banks sidestep Swiss secrecy laws by disclosing their U.S. dealings so they could avoid prosecution. With or without the law, they will still seek out of court settlements with U.S. authorities that could cost the industry as much as $10 billion. Parliament's lower house voted 123 to 63 against debating the legislation, effectively killing the law, even though the upper house had confirmed its support earlier in the day. Switzerland's ban

Imagination Technologies , the British chip designer whose graphics technology is in smartphones from Apple and Samsung, reported lower full-year profits as licensing slows. The British company, which licenses its designs to chipmakers and receives a royalty on every unit shipped, has lost business it had expected from customers such as Texas Instruments and ST Ericsson as the smartphone market consolidates around a few big players.   It warned last month that the shift would hurt license revenues this year and next, leading to sharp profit forecast downgrades from analysts. "The number of players in that segment has reduced over the last few months, there have been winners and losers," Chief Executive Hossein Yassaie said in an interview on Wednesday. Its competitor ARM has also been winning market share in graphics in smartphones, mobile computers and digital TVs. But Yassaie said the company would retain a strong position in what was still a growing smartphone market

Imagination Technologies, the British chip designer whose graphics technology is in smartphones from Apple and Samsung, reported lower full-year profits as licensing slows. The British company, which licenses its designs to chipmakers and receives a royalty on every unit shipped, has lost business it had expected from customers such as Texas Instruments and ST Ericsson as the smartphone market consolidates around a few big players.   It warned last month that the shift would hurt license revenues this year and next, leading to sharp profit forecast downgrades from analysts. "The number of players in that segment has reduced over the last few months, there have been winners and losers," Chief Executive Hossein Yassaie said in an interview on Wednesday. Its competitor ARM has also been winning market share in graphics in smartphones, mobile computers and digital TVs. But Yassaie said the company would retain a strong position in what was still a growing smartphone market

Vodafone is discussing a bid of about $10 billion with Germany's No. 1 cable operator Kabel Deutschland and is confident its raised all-cash offer and absence of antitrust issues put it in a better position than rival Liberty Global, two sources familiar with its thinking said on Wednesday. Liberty Global, which owns Unity Media, Germany's No. 2 cable operator, made an 85-euros-a-share offer on Tuesday, two people familiar with the matter said, just days after sources said Vodafone had offered 81-82 euros a share or 7.2 billion euros ($9.6 billion) in cash. Vodafone is now mulling an offer of about 85-86 euros a share, or at least 7.5 billion euros, a separate source close to the company told Reuters on Wednesday. The British mobile operator had considered raising its initial offer before Liberty Global joined the bidding race, one source close to the matter said last week. Vodafone wants to buy the cable company so that it can offer television, fixed line and broadband

Crop forecaster Lanworth on Wednesday lowered its expectations for world corn and soybean production due to wet weather in key growing areas of the United States that caused it to reduce yield expectations. _0"> Lanworth said it expects 2013/14 world corn production of 957 million tonnes and soybean production of 284 million tonnes, down from its earlier forecasts for 961 million tonnes and 286 million tonnes, respectively.   For wheat, the forecaster trimmed its global production view for the 2013/14 crop year to 693 million tonnes from 694 million. In the United States, Lanworth said it expects corn production of 13.65 billion bushels, down from its last forecast of 13.8 billion. It lowered its U.S. soybean harvest estimate to 3.35 billion bushels from 3.4 billion. The firm's U.S. corn yield forecasts were cut to 156.7 bushels per acre from 158.8 bushels per acre and its U.S. soybean yield outlook was lowered to 43.3 bushels per acre from 43.8 bushels per acre. The

Sony Corp's top investor Daniel Loeb will miss its shareholder meeting on Thursday and those attending will not be considering his proposal to partially spin off the lucrative entertainment business, sources familiar with the matter said. But his suggestion, which strikes at the heart of whether Sony remains both a consumer electronics maker and a provider of music, movies and TV programmes, will be the elephant in the room at the annual gathering - and for months to come.   Loeb, who heads New York-based hedge fund Third Point, wants Sony to spin off as much as one-fifth of the electronics empire's profitable entertainment unit and use the proceeds to strengthen its struggling hardware division. The sources gave no reason why he would miss the annual meeting. But he is expected to continue pressing his case with Sony's board and, if no action is taken, will have the right as a major shareholder to eventually call an extraordinary shareholders' meeting. Sony's

Sony Corp's top investor Daniel Loeb will miss its shareholder meeting on Thursday and those attending will not be considering his proposal to partially spin off the lucrative entertainment business, sources familiar with the matter said. But his suggestion, which strikes at the heart of whether Sony remains both a consumer electronics maker and a provider of music, movies and TV programs, will be the elephant in the room at the annual gathering - and for months to come.   Loeb, who heads New York-based hedge fund Third Point, wants Sony to spin off as much as one-fifth of the electronics empire's profitable entertainment unit and use the proceeds to strengthen its struggling hardware division. The sources gave no reason why he would miss the annual meeting. But he is expected to continue pressing his case with Sony's board and, if no action is taken, will have the right as a major shareholder to eventually call an extraordinary shareholders' meeting. Sony's s

The world should stop arguing about whether humans are causing climate change and start taking action to stop dangerous temperature rises, the president of the World Bank said on Wednesday.   Jim Yong Kim said there was 97 to 98 percent agreement among scientists that global warming was real and caused by human activity. "If you disagree with the science of human-caused climate change you are not disagreeing that there is anthropogenic climate change. What you are disagreeing with is science itself," Kim told a Thomson Reuters Newsmaker event in London. "It is time to stop arguing about whether (climate change) is real or not," he said. A study last month found that 97 percent of around 4,000 scientific reports giving an opinion about the cause of climate change since the 1990s said it was mainly human. Sceptics said the survey wrongly omitted thousands of papers which did not give a view. Governments across the world have agreed to limit global temperature ri

One measure of our culture's disdain for whistle-blowers like Edward Snowden can be culled from the pages of a thesaurus. Beyond "source" and "leaker," few neutral antonyms exist to describe people who divulge alleged wrongdoing by the government or other organizations to the press, while negative synonyms abound - spy, double-agent, rat, snitch, informer, fink, double-crosser, canary, stoolie, squealer, turncoat, betrayer, traitor and so on.   We bristle at the scent of whistle-blowers for atavistic reasons: They've violated the norms that bind the group together and must be scorned and punished, and their only allies are like-minded individuals who've deserted the pack-or joined opposing packs-and portions of the press, which occupies a floating niche somewhere between the individual and the group that allows it to thrive on such principled perfidy. But even the press in aggregate is not a friend to whistle-blowers, as its recent treatment of Snowd

Vodafone is discussing a 7.6 billion euros ($10 billion) cash bid with Germany's No. 1 cable operator Kabel Deutschland and is confident its offer and absence of antitrust issues put it in a better position than rival Liberty Global, two sources familiar with its thinking said on Wednesday.   Liberty Global, which owns Unity Media, Germany's No. 2 cable operator, made an 85-euro-a-share offer on Tuesday, two people familiar with the matter said, just days after sources said Vodafone had offered 81-82 euros a share or 7.2 billion euros in cash. Vodafone is now mulling an offer of about 85-86 euros a share, or at least 7.5 billion euros, a separate source close to the company told Reuters on Wednesday. Vodafone and Kabel Deutschland declined to comment. The British mobile operator had considered raising its initial offer before Liberty Global joined the bidding race, one source close to the matter said last week. Vodafone wants Kabel so that it can offer more competitive, c

The U.S. teacher training system is badly broken, turning out rookie educators who have little hands-on experience running classrooms and are quickly overwhelmed by the job, according to a report released Tuesday by the National Council on Teacher Quality. The review found "an industry of mediocrity," with the vast majority of programs earning fewer than three stars on a four-star rating scale - and many earning no stars at all. The council, a bipartisan research and advocacy group, spent eight years developing the methodology, fighting in court to gain access to data and analyzing the information before issuing the report. It contains detailed analysis of 608 colleges and universities with teacher training programs and partial data on 522 others.   Those 1,130 institutions collectively turn out more than 170,000 novice teachers annually, about 80 percent of the new teachers entering classrooms each year. Most of the rest come from non-traditional training programs that

Individual charitable giving in the United States grew almost 4 percent last year, while corporate donations rose at triple that rate, according to a report that shows donations by Americans to nonprofit groups mirroring the slow recovery of the larger economy. Overall, U.S. donations to bolster the arts, health, religion and other activities totaled $316.2 billion in 2012, a 3.5 percent increase from the $305.5 billion donated in 2011, according to the report, "Giving USA." That was just a 1.5 percent increase when adjusted for inflation.   The annual report is published by the Giving USA Foundation and the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. Donations are still down about 8 percent from their 2007 peak of $344.5 billion. Giving levels fell sharply during the subsequent recession. "In 2012, Americans were feeling better - but not great," Gregg Carlson, chair of the foundation, wrote in the study. But he said even the small increase in givi

U.S. consumers are more satisfied with airlines in recent years but the industry still gets relatively low marks, mainly due to the onboard experience, according to a new customer poll released on Tuesday. The American Consumer Satisfaction Index, which surveys some 70,000 U.S. customers annually on more than 40 industries ranging from apparel and hospitals to banks and insurance, found only television and internet service providers ranked lower. ACSI found that full service and fast food restaurants, hotels and shipping companies provided consumers with a better experience.   But ACSI said airlines were making progress, with a ranking of 69 on a 100-point scale, up three percent from 67 last year for their best marks in nearly two decades. Discount airlines won the best grades, with JetBlue atop the list for a second straight year, up two percent to 83, followed by Southwest, which rose five percent to 81. Major airlines trailed far behind in the upper or low 60s. "Airline

Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal says he is looking at the world's largest cities, including Shanghai, Moscow, London and New York, as possible locations to build a mile-high skyscraper that would be the world's tallest building by far. The prince is inviting Dubai's biggest real estate developer Emaar Properties, chaired by Mohammed Alabbar, to team up with his investment firm Kingdom Holding on the project.   "Right now we are discussing and evaluating the possibility of building a one-mile (1.6-kilometer) tower," Alwaleed told Reuters by telephone late on Monday. "We also need good partners. I invite Emaar and Mr. Alabbar to join forces with us and see how we can build the ultimate one-mile tower somewhere in the world." Alwaleed did not say how the project would be financed if it went ahead, or when it might be completed. He said the cost had yet to be decided. But his ambition reflects the growing confidence of many Gulf companies

Record prices at art auctions in recent weeks and oversubscribed holidays by private jet are among signals that a stock market slump is approaching, if followers of behavioral finance are to be believed. They insist social mood governs human action, including investment on stock markets, and their theories are gaining ground as tools for financial analysis.   To gauge the mood and the likely impact on markets, behavioral analysts look at traditional measures such as investment polls and options but also at social media, including Twitter and Facebook, and even at developments in art and sport. The theory goes that people make bad decisions at moments of extreme fear or optimism and that studying their behavior could provide clues to where equities are headed. Now may be just such a moment. "Markets either have topped or will soon top, based on the behaviors I see outside of the markets, especially in art, automobiles and residential real estate," Peter Atwater, presid

Hungarian prosecutors on Tuesday charged a 98-year-old man who tops the Nazi-hunting Simon Wiesenthal Center's wanted list with war crimes, saying he had helped to deport Jews to Auschwitz in World War Two. Laszlo Csatary was found guilty in absentia in 1948 of whipping or torturing Jews and helping to deport them to the death camp while serving as police commander in the Nazi-occupied eastern Slovak city of Kosice in 1944. He was sentenced to death and lived on the run for decades until Hungarian authorities detained him and put him under house arrest in Budapest in July last year. He has denied any guilt. In March, a Slovak court commuted his death sentence to life imprisonment. "He is charged with the unlawful execution and torture of people, (thus) committing war crimes partly as a perpetrator, partly as an accomplice," said Bettina Bagoly, a spokeswoman for the Budapest Chief Prosecutor's Office. She said Csatary's case would go to trial within three mo

Few religious communities have gone as far in fighting climate change as a church in Queensland, Australia , which has 24 solar panels bolted to the roof in the shape of a Christian cross. "It's very effective. It's inspired some members of our congregation to install panels on their homes," Reverend David Lowry said of the "solar cross" mounted in 2009 on the Caloundra Uniting Church, which groups three Protestant denominations.   Many religions have been wary of moving to install renewable energy sources on their places of worship, from cathedrals to mosques - or of taking a strong stand on climate change in general - despite teachings that people should be custodians of nature. But slowly, that may be changing, thanks to new religious leaders including Pope Francis, the head of the Roman Catholic Church. Francis's stress on environmental protection since he was elected in March and his choice of the name of a 13th century nature lover - Saint Fr

Most adults in developed countries favor gay marriage or some type of legal recognition for same-sex couples and think they should be able to adopt children, according to an international poll released on Tuesday. With the U.S. Supreme Court poised to rule on gay marriage this month and France's recent decision to legalize same-sex unions, an Ipsos poll for Reuters showed that 52 percent of people in 16 nations favor full marriage equality for gays and 21 percent support legal recognition but not marriage.   Only 14 percent of the 12,484 adults questioned in the survey objected to same-sex marriage, or any type of legal recognition, and 13 percent were unsure how they felt. "What we see is that in every one of the 16 countries we surveyed, there is a majority in favor of allowing same sex couples to have some sort of legal recognition," said Nicolas Boyon, an Ipsos senior vice president. "In nine out of 16 countries we see an outright majority in favor of full

The marketing of unhealthy foods to children has proven "disastrously effective", driving obesity by using cheap social media channels to promote fat-, salt- and sugar-laden foods, the World Health Organisation's Europe office said on Tuesday. The United Nations health agency called for tighter controls on such marketing, saying tougher regulations were crucial to winning the fight against childhood obesity. "Children are surrounded by adverts urging them to consume high-fat, high-sugar, high-salt foods, even when they are in places where they should be protected, such as schools and sports facilities," said Zsuzsanna Jakab, director of the WHO's regional unit for Europe. The promotion of foods high in saturated and trans-fats, sugars and salt has for years been recognized as a significant risk factor for obesity in children and for diet-related chronic diseases such as heart disease and some cancers later in life. In a report on food marketing, WHO Eu

A woman who says she is the unrecognized daughter of Belgian King Albert II has summoned the monarch and two of his children to appear in a Brussels court in her bid to prove he is her father, her lawyer said on Tuesday. _0"> Delphine Boel, a 45-year-old artist, has repeatedly stated that she is the daughter of the king and has used this as a theme in some of her work. First reports about Boel's claims appeared in the Belgian media in the late 1990s. The king has never made any official statement on the subject.   Boel's lawyer, Alain De Jonge, confirmed that his client had launched the legal action, but declined to give details. The palace confirmed that the king, Crown Prince Philippe and Princess Astrid had received a summons to appear in court but gave no further comment. There was no summons for the king's other son, Laurent. According to Belgian law, the king cannot be compelled to appear in court, which limits the chances of Boel succeeding with her ca