Seeking court’s help, GM hopes to stop suits
An unusual meeting took place this week at a law office high in a Times Square skyscraper. Lawyers from about 100 law firms participated, either in person or by phone. The agenda: solidifying a strategy for taking on General Motors in bankruptcy court.
Report: Transparency in online data collection needed
WASHINGTON — The White House, hoping to move the national conversation on privacy beyond data harvesting by intelligence agencies to the practices of companies like Google and Facebook, released a long-anticipated report on Thursday that recommends requiring private companies to release information they gather from their customers online.
String of deadly storms hits across Midwest and South
ATLANTA — Residents of Arkansas began assessing the damage Monday after a night of deadly storms left at least 17 people dead across the central and southern United States.
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MINYA, Egypt — An Egyptian court here on Monday sentenced to death the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood and more than 680 other people after a swift mass trial on charges of inciting or committing acts of violence that led to the destruction of a police station and the killing of an officer.
Syria announces Assad’s bid for re-election as war rages
BEIRUT — The Syrian government announced Monday that President Bashar Assad will compete in a presidential election scheduled for June 3 that is widely seen as an attempt to enhance his perceived legitimacy despite a raging civil war that has pushed his government out of much of the country and displaced millions of citizens.
Same court weighs different effects of similar abortion laws
NEW ORLEANS — For the second time this year, a federal appeals panel here heard arguments about the constitutionality of a new state law governing abortion. But despite much in common between the two laws — one in Texas, and the other, the subject of Monday’s hearing, in Mississippi — their effects would differ substantially, raising the possibility that the same court weighing similar laws might arrive at different conclusions.
French company Sanofi says dengue vaccine succeeds in late-stage trial
LOS ANGELES — The French pharmaceutical company Sanofi said Monday that its experimental vaccine for dengue fever had succeeded in its first late-stage clinical trial. The results could help pave the way for introduction of the first vaccine to prevent a disease that afflicts as many as 100 million people a year.
Severe weather threatens southeastern U.S., cool and cloudy in Boston
It’s been an active few days across the Southern Great Plains and the Southeast as a multi-day, multi-state severe weather outbreak affected the region. On Sunday, preliminary storm reports indicated that 32 tornadoes touched down from Iowa and Nebraska to Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisiana, killing at least 18 people in three states. At the time of this writing Thursday afternoon, the severe threat persisted as tornado-warned storms continued to affect Mississippi and Alabama. Unfortunately, this severe threat will stick around for at least today and possibly tomorrow for parts of the
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Pfizer, the maker of best-selling drugs like Lipitor and Viagra and a symbol of business prowess in the United States for more than a century, no longer wants to be an American company.
U.S. announces more sanctions against Russia over Ukraine
WASHINGTON — The United States on Monday imposed additional sanctions against Russian government officials and companies deemed close to President Vladimir Putin, accusing Moscow of failing to live up to its agreement to defuse the crisis in Ukraine.
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PARIS — Same-sex marriage has been gaining acceptance in France a year after a law allowing such unions was passed following vociferous public opposition and heated debate in Parliament.
FCC could allow fast lane on web in net neutrality policy shift
WASHINGTON — The principle that all Internet content should be treated equally as it flows through cables and pipes to consumers looks all but dead.
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Hundreds of thousands of Syrians have no access to medical supplies because the warring sides in the country’s civil war are blocking humanitarian relief, according to a report from the United Nations secretary-general.
Panel recommends ditching plagued Oregon health exchange
WASHINGTON — With encouragement from the Obama administration, an Oregon panel recommended Thursday that the state scrap the website for its beleaguered health insurance exchange and use the federal marketplace instead.
Dual setbacks for Obama on a strategic Asian tour
TOKYO — President Barack Obama encountered setbacks to two of his most cherished foreign-policy projects Thursday, as he failed to advance a trade deal that undergirds his strategic pivot to Asia and the Middle East peace process suffered a potentially irreparable breakdown.
Wind dies down before rainy weekend
Though yesterday was notably windy, today will come to be a nice normal Spring day, with dispersed clouds. Afternoon temperature today should peak above 60 Fahrenheit.
Apple, Google, Intel, Adobe settle hiring collusion suit
SAN FRANCISCO — Four major Silicon Valley companies, including Apple and Google, settled a high-profile suit Thursday over charges that they conspired not to hire one another’s workers, according to a court filing Thursday.
Lawmakers push to raise wages at biggest chains
NEW YORK — A group of Democratic lawmakers from New York City on Wednesday announced a new push to raise the minimum wage for many low-paid workers, calling for a $15-an-hour “fair wage” for employees of McDonald’s and Wal-Mart and other businesses with yearly sales of $50 million or more.
UN Council considers human rights abuses in North Korea
The United Nations appeared to move a step closer on Thursday to holding North Korea’s government accountable for what an investigative panel has called a history of crimes against humanity and egregious human rights abuses, as the Security Council convened a special session to hear the panel’s views on what should be done.