HOME > July 2009

HAVANA — on Friday suspended plans for a Communist Party congress and dropped economic growth projections in 2009 nearly a full percentage point to 1.7 percent as the island's economy struggles through a "very serious" crisis. In a closed-door meeting of the Communist Party Central Committee, officials agreed to postpone indefinitely the first congress since 1997, which had been announced for the second half of this year. The...

ROME — police squad for art says a pre-Christian warrior's skeleton has been found floating in a tomb filled with sea water on...

BRUSSELS — European air safety regulators told world airlines on Friday they will have to replace hundreds of air speed sensors of the type that may have contributed to the Airbus A330 crash in the Atlantic Ocean in June. The announcement came after Airbus recommended that airlines flying its planes exchange some of the speed sensors manufactured by Thales Corp. for another model. Investigators have focused on the possibility that the external monitors on the A330, known as pitot tubes, iced over and gave false speed...

— The Irish Times newspaper has won a long-running legal battle to protect the identity of a key source who leaked legal...

RICHMOND, Va. — Inc., the nation's largest auto dealership chain, said Friday that its second-quarter profit fell 29 percent as consumers bought fewer cars in a stressed economy, but remained optimistic that the industry is beginning to stabilize. AutoNation CEO Mike Jackson said new vehicle sales are likely to improve due to the "Cash for Clunkers" program designed to encourage consumers to replace aging and fuel-inefficient cars with new ones. Jackson said the company will increase its inventories in "a disciplined manner" to meet the budding...

MUNICH — Four European countries signed Friday a euro9 billion deal to build 112 more Eurofighter Typhoon fighter planes, a boost for the companies involved in production of the advanced jet. The German Defense Ministry said the deal, also signed by , and , will see its air force receive 31 of...

NEW YORK — Chevron Corp. says its second-quarter profit fell 71 percent as demand for crude oil and gasoline plunged. Chevron, the second-largest U.S. oil company, said Friday its net income amounted to $1.75 billion, or 87 cents per share, for the three-month period that ended June 30. That compared with $5.98 billion, or $2.90 per share, in the same period last year. The company said its net...

NEW YORK — turned a profit in the second quarter as growth in its education and cable TV divisions helped offset declines in newspaper, magazine and broadcast revenue. The company, which owns Newsweek magazine, Kaplan...

BRUSSELS — Under pressure from the Eropean Union, banks in Europe will start processing complex financial contracts known as credit default swaps through a central clearing house by the end of July, regulators said Friday. Swaps offer insurance against securities for lenders worried about a borrower's ability to pay them back. The unregulated $60 trillion market lost its main central clearing house to...

WASHINGTON — Employment compensation for U.S. workers has grown over the past 12 months by the lowest amount on record, reflecting the severe recession that has gripped the country. The Labor Department said Friday that employment costs rose by 1.8 percent for the 12 months ending in June, the smallest annual gain on records that go back to 1982. The department said that for the April-June quarter, its Employment Cost Index rose by just 0.4 percent, just...

LONDON — Bobby Robson, who coached England to the 1990 World Cup semifinals and won soccer trophies in four countries, has...

By BRADLEY S. KLAPPER - THE ASSOCIATED PRESS GENEVA — The United Nations said Friday the number of civilians killed in conflict in Afghanistan has jumped 24 percent so far this year, with bombings by insurgents and airstrikes by international forces the biggest single killers. In a grim assessment of the first half of 2009, the U.N. assistance mission in Afghanistan said the Taliban and other anti-government militants have become more deadly by shifting from ambush attacks to suicide bombings, roadside explosives and targeted assassinations. It warned that more civilians would likely be killed as insurgents try to battle a troop increase by the administration of President Barack Obama,...

By JEANNIE NUSS - THE ASSOCIATED PRESS BOSTON — A Boston police officer who was suspended for using a racial slur to describe black Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. apologized for his comments and declared he is not a racist. Boston police put two-year officer Justin Barrett on administrative leave Tuesday, pending a termination hearing. Barrett is a captain in the Massachusetts National Guard, which also suspended him pending an investigation. Barrett’s Boston-based lawyer, Peter Marano, told reporters his client will fight the department...

A Justice Department attorney told a federal judge Friday morning that the U.S. and Swiss governments have reached an agreement in principal on settling a high-profile clash over Swiss banking secrecy and the IRS' right to pursue tax cheats. Terms weren't disclosed. The Justice...

BRUSSELS - European air safety regulators told world airlines on Friday they will have to replace hundreds of air speed sensors of the type that may have contributed to the Air France Airbus A330 crash in the Atlantic Ocean in June. The announcement came after Airbus recommended that airlines flying its planes exchange some of the speed sensors manufactured by Thales Corp. for another model. Investigators have focused on the possibility that the external monitors on the A330, known as pitot...

NEW DELHI -- Rights activists lashed out Friday at local officials who allowed hundreds of infants to be dropped from the roof of a mosque in western India in the belief that the fall -- which ends when the babies are caught in a bedsheet -- would ensure good health and...

ROME -- Italy has approved the use of the abortion drug RU-486, drawing fierce protests by the Vatican. The drug, which terminates pregnancy by causing the embryo to detach from the uterine wall, is already available in several other European countries. But approval in Italy had been held up so far by the Catholic Church, which opposes abortion and contraception. The Italian Drug Agency ruled after a meeting that ended...

TEHRAN, Iran -- President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad lashed out at critics within his own hard-line camp on Friday, denying any rift with Iran's supreme leader, who he said was like a father. The bitter feud with conservatives has shaken Ahmadinejad's government at a time when he is already trying to fend off a major challenge from the other end of the political...

LONDON -- The British government said Friday that it plans to ban private organ transplants from dead donors to allay fears that prospective recipients can buy their way to the front of the line. A government-commissioned report recommended that organs donated within the state-run National Health...

LONDON -- A scientific journal has retracted a controversial paper claiming to have created the first human sperm from embryonic stem cells. The journal's editor told the science publication Nature that the study by scientists at Britain's Newcastle University was retracted because two paragraphs in its introduction had been plagiarized. Newcastle University blamed the plagiarism on a research associate who has left the institution, and said the science behind the...

 

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