Your customized headlines for Wed, Jul 11, 2012

Vincenzo Di Vita celebrated his retirement after nearly 40 years with the Italian postal service with a modest toast given by his co-workers in early December. He planned to hold a party at his home a few weeks later — but by then, he could no longer afford it.

Americans paid the lowest tax rates in 30 years to the federal government in 2009, in part because of tax cuts President Obama sought to combat the Great Recession, congressional budget analysts said Tuesday.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York said Tuesday it had received word as early as 2007 from the British bank Barclays about problems with the benchmark interest rate that underpins much of global lending.

With the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau approaching its one-year anniversary on July 21, I looked back at the agency's rookie year.

Overall, I would say the consumer watchdog gets a "meets expectations" in its evaluation for accomplishing its primary goal of becoming an unapologetic protector of consumers.

Italy will be stuck in recession for at least another year and is facing some of the same developing problems that have pushed other European countries to request outside aid, the International Monetary Fund reported Tuesday in its latest review of the country's economy.

Italy will be stuck in recession for at least another year and is facing some of the same developing problems that have pushed other European countries to request outside aid, the International Monetary Fund reported Tuesday in its latest review of the country's economy.

Can Melinda Gates move contraception beyond controversy?

After a 2012 news cycle dominated by debates in the United States over women's reproductive lives --from the HHS showdown with the Catholic bishops to Susan G. Komen's conflict with Planned Parenthood to claims about a "war on women"--the philanthropist and co-founder, along with her husband, of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is hosting an international family planning conference in London this week. And she's proclaiming "there is no controversy in empowering women to decide if and when to have a child."

In the wake of the ruling by a regional court in Germany banning circumcision on children too young to consent to the procedure, Rabbi David Wolpe of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles penned the following poem about a decision that some are calling a "frontal attack on Jewish life in Europe." Those who support the ban agree with the court's assertion that the "fundamental right of the child to bodily integrity outweighed the fundamental rights of the parents." The World Health Organization is among groups supporting the practice of circumcision for health reasons.