Private equity pours money into India primary healthcare

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Private equity funds quadrupled their investment in India's primary healthcare, betting the sick and ailing will stop seeing family doctors in often cramped and dingy quarters and check into modern chains sprouting up across Asia's No.3 economy.Goldman Sachs Group Inc, Warburg Pincus LLC, Sequoia Capital and the Government of Singapore Investment Corp are among investors that pumped...

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Fed's Plosser sees lasting blow to potential growth rate

SAN DIEGO (Reuters) - The United States economy likely suffered a lasting decline in its trend potential growth rate as a result of the severe 2007-2009 U.S. recession, a top official of the Federal Reserve said on Friday."Any of you who have looked at the data of the most recent ... recession, it certainly looks like we've had a permanent shock," Charles Plosser, president of the Philadelphia Federal...

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U.S. public schools cut 11,000 jobs in December

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Local U.S. governments cut jobs for the fourth straight month in December, including 11,000 in public schools, dragging down the nation's fragile economic recovery, jobs data showed on Friday. Local government jobs are now at their lowest level since October 2005, with the bulk of the decline coming from layoffs of teachers and other school employees, according...

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Colombia firm makes armored clothes for kids

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — A Colombian firm that makes bulletproof vests is now creating armored clothing for children.Factory owner Miguel Caballero said he never thought about making protective clothes for kids until requests came in following the deadly attack on Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut last month."After the tragedy in Connecticut, we started getting emails from customers asking for protected...

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Chile: Couple dies defending home against Indians

An elderly couple whose family's vast landholdings have long been targeted by Mapuche Indians in southern Chile were killed in an arson attack early Friday while trying to defend their home. The president quickly flew to the scene and announced new security measures, including the application of Chile's tough anti-terrorism law and the creation of a special police anti-terror unit backed by Chile's...

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Chile: Couple dies defending home amid protests

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — An elderly couple whose family's vast landholdings have long been targeted by Mapuche Indians in southern Chile were killed in an arson attack early Friday while trying to defend their home. The president quickly flew to the scene and announced new security measures, including the application of Chile's tough anti-terrorism law and the creation of a special police anti-terror...

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Venezuela's Chavez fighting severe lung infection

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan lawmakers will meet Saturday in a session that could shed light on what steps may be taken if President Hugo Chavez is too sick to be sworn in for a new term next week.Legislators will choose a president, two vice presidents and other leaders of the National Assembly, which is controlled by a pro-Chavez majority. Whoever is elected National Assembly president could...

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Venezuela VP: Chavez could be sworn in by court

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez could be sworn in by the Supreme Court later on if he's not able to take the oath of office before lawmakers next week because of his struggle with cancer, his vice president said Friday.The stance announced by Vice President Nicolas Maduro conflicts with the argument by some opposition leaders that the president of the National Assembly would...

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Lunch meat maker Hormel orders up Skippy sandwich

 Hormel Foods apparently has a hankering for a peanut butter and bacon sandwich. The company primarily known for Spam and other cured, smoked and deli meats said Thursday that it's buying Skippy, the country's No. 2 peanut butter brand, in its biggest-ever acquisition.Skippy, which was introduced in 1932 and is a staple in American pantries, is intended to increase Hormel's presence in the center...

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Economy, year-end sales help auto industry in 2012

DETROIT (AP) — A steadily improving economy and strong December sales lifted the American auto industry to its best performance in five years in 2012, especially for Volkswagen and Japanese-brand vehicles, and experts say the next year should be even better.Carmakers on Thursday announced their final figures, which totaled 14.5 million — 13 percent better than 2011.More than three years after the...

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IMF's economist: budget cuts may hurt growth less now

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Belt-tightening in advanced economies may not be as harmful to growth now as it was during the height of the financial crisis, but governments should still be careful about drastic cuts, an International Monetary Fund research paper found on Thursday.The IMF came under heavy criticism in October when it conceded that austerity programs it recommended during the global economic...

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Transocean to pay $1.4 billion for role in BP oil spill

 Transocean Ltd agreed to pay $1.4 billion to settle U.S. government charges over BP Plc's massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill in 2010 and the rig contractor admitted that its crew on the Deepwater Horizon was partly responsible.Transocean, which employed nine of the 11 workers killed in the accident, had set aside $1.5 billion for the U.S. Department of Justice out of a $1.95 billion Macondo loss...

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U.S. ends long Google probe with only mild reprimand

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In a major victory for Google Inc, U.S. regulators on Thursday ended their investigation into the giant Internet company and concluded that it had not manipulated its Web search results to hurt rivals.The Federal Trade Commission did, however, win promises from Google that it would end the practice of "scraping" reviews and other data from rivals' websites for its own products,...

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Android-powered Ouya console now shipping to 1,200 developers [video]

The Ouya console is no longer vaporware. The company announced on its blog on Friday that 1,200 Ouya console developer kits are boxed up and ready to be shipped out to awaiting programmers. Each kit includes a frosted translucent Ouya console that is about the size of a coffee mug, two frosted translucent controllers with batteries, an HDMI cable, a power cable and a Micro USB cable. As Ouya CEO Julie...

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10 Tech-Industry Predictions for 2013

If you have followed our Big Picture column for the past year, you will know that as industry analysts and observers, we study this industry and the markets that compose it on a daily basis. Because of that, we often get asked about our thoughts concerning trends in the coming year. So we thought we would do a joint column sharing our predictions for the tech industry in 2013.Tim’s PredictionsEach...

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Unreleased ‘BlackBerry X10′ QWERTY phone appears again in new photos

As Research In Motion’s (RIMM) January 30th BlackBerry 10 unveiling draws closer, nearly every last detail surrounding RIM’s first two BlackBerry 10-powered smartphones will likely soon emerge. The vendor has a long history of leaks leading up to its new device announcements, and this time around RIM reps toured the world showing the phones to every carrier that would meet with them. Pictured once...

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Can Samsung survive without Android?

Samsung (005930) is the world’s top Android smartphone vendor by a staggering margin. Aside from LG (066570), which managed a small $20 million profit from its mobile division last quarter, no other global Android vendor can figure out how to make money selling Android phones. Meanwhile, Samsung posted a $6 billion profit on $47.6 billion in sales in the third quarter, thanks largely to record smartphone...

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BlackBerry Z10 with AT&T-compatible LTE uncovered ahead of January unveiling

Hang in there, American BlackBerry fans — your wait for a new device is nearly over. Engadget reports that the Federal Communications Commission has granted approval to what looks like RIM’s (RIMM) BlackBerry Z10 smartphone for use on AT&T’s (T) LTE and HSPA networks. The Z10, which will be the first device released with the new BlackBerry 10 operating system, is rumored to include a Qualcomm...

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China official factory PMI points to steady growth revival

 China's official manufacturing purchasing managers' index held steady in December at 50.6, matching November's seven-month high, as growth in new orders was unchanged and the pace of output softened marginally.With the main index above 50 for three straight months, the survey indicates that China's vast factory sector is expanding. The official PMI was released a day after a similar survey by...

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FDA approves 1st new tuberculosis drug in 40 years

The Food and Drug Administration on Monday approved a Johnson & Johnson tuberculosis drug that is the first new medicine to fight the deadly infection in more than four decades.The agency approved J&J's pill, Sirturo, for use with older drugs to fight a hard-to-treat strain of tuberculosis that has not responded to other medications. However, the agency cautioned that the drug carries risks...

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US hits borrowing limit, moves to avoid default

The U.S. government is running up against its $16.4 trillion borrowing limit and is taking steps to avoid default.Reaching the limit Monday sets up another dispute between the White House and Congress over taxes and spending in the new year.Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner says the government will take a series of accounting measures to avoid defaulting on its debt. On Monday, it suspended the...

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Deal will prevent spike in milk prices

A potential doubling of milk prices will be averted as part of the compromise that White House and congressional bargainers reached on wide-ranging legislation to avert the "fiscal cliff," a leading senator said late Monday.Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., told reporters that negotiators had agreed to extend portions of the expired 2008 farm bill through September....

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Insight: How Colombian drug traffickers used HSBC to launder money

 When several Colombian men were indicted in January 2010 on money-laundering charges, the case in Brooklyn federal court drew little attention.It looked like a bust of another nexus of drug traffickers and money launderers, with mainly small-time operatives paying the price for their crimes.One of the men was Julio Chaparro, a 48-year-old father of four who owned three factories that made children's...

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