National / International News

The Democratic Republic of Congo is to build a town in honour of independence figure Patrice Lumumba, a government spokesman says.

Prince Harry and Prime Minister David Cameron visit Manhattan on a London bus to promote the UK as a place to study, visit and do business.

Richard Crowe, we're happy to tell you, has a job.

Marketplace has been periodically checking in with the long-term unemployed steelworker. After a year out of work he started back up, Monday. A resident of Wintersville, Ohio, he's now commuting to a plant an hour away that produces coke, a fuel used in steel manufacturing.

Because of retirements, the company is hiring. He, too, hopes to retire from there. In the meantime, he's happy to be back at work, earning a paycheck, and saving money for his son's wedding.

Echoing comments made Monday by President Obama, Attorney Gen. Eric Holder also said that even if no laws were broken it was "outrageous" for the IRS to focus on groups who identified themselves as "patriots" or "tea party" supporters when they applied for tax-exempt status.

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'America's Funniest Home Videos' has been on the air for 23 years and has collected over 200,000 of our most appealing home videos.

Now, the show's producers are opening their video archive to advertisers and marketers, offering clips for anywhere from $100 to $100,000.

If 'America's Funniest Home Videos' and YouTube have taught us anything over the years, it's that people will watch adorable babies and cute pets do just about anything over and over again.

It looks like advertisers are beginning to catch on, using those same videos to sell ... just about anything.

1. Google Chrome: For Your Little Man

Google recently re-purposed a well-known YouTube video for an ad they made for Chrome.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. Hostess: Reach for the Gold - Paul Vault

Before Twinkie creator Hostess went out of business, it launched one final ad campaign during the London Olympics.

Using home videos of spectacular athlete bloopers, they encourage the less athletically-inclined to reach for a golden Twinkie, instead of Olympic gold.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. Subaru: Backseat - Canine Caruso

A Subaru-sponsored YouTube channel uses a popular home video angle to advertise its new Forester -- the view from the back seat.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4. Ubisoft: Just Dance Kids

This Ubisoft ad for Just Dance Kids combines loud music, bright colors, and cute home videos of kids dancing. What's not to like?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5. Ragu: Charlie Bit Me, Behind the Finger!

What does 'Charlie Bit My Finger!' have to do with pasta sauce? This ad proves it doesn't really matter.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Do you have a favorite home video/advertisement? Share it in the comments.

The Canadian astronaut didn't just tweet and sing his heart out during his five months as commander of the International Space Station. He also took time out to show the world what it's like to eat up there.

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A Luton council worker left a woman with dementia on a minibus for more than 14 hours overnight, a court hears.

Russia says it will expel a US diplomat arrested with a series of disguises for allegedly trying to recruit a Russian intelligence officer as a spy.

As the head of the IRS turns to this classic "past exonerative," we look at the history of an oft-used phrase. It came up in the Nixon era, again during the Reagan, Clinton and George W. Bush administrations, and now in the Obama years. It goes back much further, though.

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Seven members of a sex grooming ring are found guilty of offences including the rape and exploitation of children from Oxford.

Up to 3,700 British troops will serve longer tours in Afghanistan ahead of their withdrawal in 2015, Defence Secretary Philip Hammond has announced.

An extra 7.3bn euros is due to be added to the EU's budget for 2013 under a compromise which the UK continues to oppose.

The Met Office extends its warning of heavy rain for Wales overnight, with a risk of flooding and hazardous driving conditions.

About 100 people are feared trapped after a four-storey building collapsed in north-eastern Rwanda, the government says.

Marketplace and ProPublica worked together in recent months on an investigative series about what consumer advocates call 'small-dollar, high-cost' loans -- in this case, installment loans offered by a billion-dollar publicly traded company, World Acceptance Corp. of Greenville, S.C.. The company's 1,000-plus loan stores are branded as World Finance across the South and Midwest.

Installment loans can carry high interest and fees, like payday loans. But instead of coming due all at once in a few weeks -- whenever your next paycheck hits your bank account, installment loans get paid down over time -- several months to a few years. Like payday loans, they are often renewed before they're paid off.

Defenders of installment loans say they can help borrowers build a good payment and credit history. Renewing can be a way for the borrower to access additional cash when they need it.

So, we have a few questions we'd like our listeners and followers to weigh in on:

• Are short-term cash loans with high interest and fees really so bad, if people need them to get through an emergency or to get caught up between paychecks?
• Is it better for a low-income borrower with poor credit to get a high-cost installment loan—paid back slowly over time—or a payday- or car-title loan due all at once?
• Is a loan with APR above 36 percent 'predatory'? (Note: the Military Lending Act sets an interest-rate cap of 36 percent for short-term loans to service members, and Sen. Dick Durbin has introduced a bill to impose a 36-percent rate-cap on all civilian credit products.)
• Should government, or banks and credit unions, do more to make low- to moderate-interest loans available to low-income and credit-challenged consumers?
• In the post-recession environment, banks can borrow cheaply from the Fed, and most middle-class consumers can borrow cheaply from banks — for mortgages or credit card purchases. Why can't more disadvantaged consumers access this cheap credit?

Join us here May 16, at 11 a.m. PT

Join us for a live discussion this Thursday, May 16, at 11 a.m. PT, with Marketplace's Mitchell Hartman and ProPublica's Paul Kiel. Just come back to this page, where you'll find the chat window.

We encourage you to leave questions in advance in the comments below. You can also tweet in questions with the hashtag #BeyondPayDay.

Read other stories from the Marketplace and Propublica joint investigation "Beyond payday loans: Installment lending and the cycle of debt." Explore the whole series here.

Two major elements in Britain's space strategy dedicated to satellites and their applications are officially unveiled in Oxfordshire.

Some argue that the FDA's approval process — required before new treatments can be sold on the market — takes too much time and money. A group of experts face off over the balance between safety and urgency in the latest Intelligence Squared U.S. debate.

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Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie undergoes a preventative double mastectomy after doctors told her she had an 87% risk of getting breast cancer.

Sea levels are rising - but how quickly?

Experts have come up with their most accurate estimate yet for the impact of melting ice sheets and glaciers on sea level.