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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.

Goldman Sachs has invested $9.6 million in a new initiative for juvenile offenders in the New York City prison system. While the Department of Corrections needs the money, some wonder if private investment has a place in government agencies.

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.

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.

You could pay for an awful lot of coffee with the $172.5 trillion needed to make the U.N. development goals come true by 2030. Pledges are trickling in, but will it be enough?

More than 6,000 people have signed up for Ishqr since the app launched over a year ago. Ishq is an Arabic word for love; the "r" at the end was added to make it sound more hip.

Millions of Syrians are crowding into Jordan and Lebanon as well as Turkey. Aid efforts there are already at the breaking point.

The new designations protect nearly 1.8 million acres of public lands that include Southern California's highest peak, thousands of Native American rock carvings, endangered animals and a ghost town.

Momentum for sentencing reform grows as leaders of the House Judiciary Committee introduce a bipartisan bill. But rising violence in some big cities could complicate the legislative forecast.

While Apple's new phones and tablet mostly follow the faster-bigger-sharper formula, Apple TV's voice functionality and app ecosystem could be a breakthrough.