UPDATE 2-American Football-Alabama crush Notre Dame to win championship

MIAMI, Jan 7 (Reuters) - Alabama's 'Crimson Tide' swept aside Notre Dame in the BCS Championship game on Monday, dominating the 'Fighting Irish' 42-14 to win their third college football title in four years.Notre Dame, 12-0 in the regular season, had been looking for their first national title since 1988 but were all at sea against irresistible Alabama, who set the tone of the game with an utterly...

Read More..

ING Bank may cut more costs as bad loans weigh

Dutch banking and insurance group ING said it may need to cut more costs to cope with new regulations and high provisions for bad loans, highlighting the pressures on banks to shrink their businesses.Banks globally are facing higher capital requirements to satisfy regulators at a time when a weak economy is reducing demand for investment banking and credit services, forcing them to reduce costs by...

Read More..

Japan to compile 12 trillion yen extra budget: sources

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's government will compile a 12 trillion yen ($136.30 billion) extra budget with up to 10 trillion yen set aside for economic stimulus, several sources told Reuters on Monday.The government will sell more than 5 trillion in new bonds to fund the budget, the sources said. The remaining funds will come from unspent money from last fiscal year's budget and money originally allocated...

Read More..

Canada leading indicator edges up 0.1 percent in November

OTTAWA (Reuters) - The composite leading indicator for Canada rose 0.1 percent in November, slowing down from October on a housing market downturn and weak manufacturing as the economy hits a soft patch.The index rose 0.2 percent in October and was up every month in 2012 except July, said a report on Monday by the Macdonald-Laurier Institute. The think tank developed the modified indicator last year...

Read More..

Venezuela's official statement on Chavez's health

English translation of statement read by Vice President Nicolas Maduro in Havana on Sunday about the health of President Hugo Chavez:"The Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela fulfills its duty by informing the Venezuelan people about the course of President Hugo Chavez's medical treatment after the surgery performed in Havana, Cuba on Dec. 11."As is known, on December 28 we traveled...

Read More..

Venezuelans offer prayers, songs for Hugo Chavez

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelans gathered on plazas and in churches to pray for President Hugo Chavez amid what seems an increasingly gloomy outlook for the ailing leader in his fight against cancer.Following an announcement that Chavez had suffered "new complications" from a respiratory infection after undergoing cancer surgery in Cuba, people were out in the streets of Caracas on Monday talking...

Read More..

Venezuelans take in shifting news on Chavez health

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelans began 2013 with a respite from shifting news about the health of President Hugo Chavez, who hasn't been seen in public since his fourth cancer-related surgery three weeks ago.The country was largely peaceful Tuesday after a New Year's Eve that saw a main government-organized celebration canceled due to Chavez's illness.Jorge Rodriguez, a Chavez ally and mayor...

Read More..

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...

Read More..

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...

Read More..

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...

Read More..