WASHINGTON (AP) — Wholesale companies added to their stockpiles of autos, machinery and computers in June. Inventories rose for the 18th consecutive month and sales rebounded after a May decline.
The Commerce Department says wholesale inventories increased 0.6 percent in June after a 1.7 percent gain in May.
Sales at the wholesale level rose 0.6 percent …
To European officials, financial derivatives are dangerous weapons that worsened Greece's debt crisis and should be curbed.
To Wall Street, they're tools that reduce risk and generate profits and should be left alone.
Now, regulators on both sides of the Atlantic are trying to figure out who's right and what to do about it. At stake are billions in profits that banks say would be threatened by too much regulation. Yet supporters of tougher rules say the global financial system is at risk as long as derivatives remain largely unregulated.
Derivatives are instruments whose value depends on an underlying asset, such as mortgages or stocks. They can …
"Skinny Joe" Basinski pleaded guilty Monday to helping formerChicago detective chief William Hanhardt run a national jewelry theftring.
Basinski tailed a Park Ridge jewelry salesman who lived near oneof his in-laws for months, worked with Hanhardt to get amanufacturer's key to the trunk of the salesman's Lincoln Town Carand used it to lift a bag containing $58,000 worth of watches fromthe trunk as the salesman ate at an Indian restaurant, Basinski saidin his plea.
That was just one of many heists Basinski, Hanhardt and the restof the defendants pulled off around the country, adding up to $5million to $40 million in stolen jewelry, prosecutors said.
Basinski is …
BEIJING (AP) — Chinese lawmakers on Thursday touted the country's legal system as the best way to protect the rights of citizens, despite the widespread detention and intimidation of political critics that is fueling a small but growing movement for greater civil liberties.
The system reflects rapid social changes since China instituted economic reforms three decades ago, two deputy directors of the national legislature's legal affairs committee told reporters at a government briefing.
But they refused to address concerns over the illegal harassment and detention of government critics, including Liu Xia, the wife of imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, and Chen …
Shares in Irish banks surged Tuesday after the government issued a sweeping guarantee to insure deposits and bank borrowings against a potential collapse.
The government unveiled an unlimited guarantee on deposits at six banks one day after the Irish Stock Exchange suffered its greatest fall in history _ and rumors spread that millionaire depositors were withdrawing their savings from Irish institutions.
Investors embraced the government's dramatic intervention and Irish bank shares jumped, reclaiming most of Monday's losses.
Finance Minister Brian Lenihan said all deposits in Ireland's six domestically owned banks would be taxpayer-guaranteed if …
A Street man with "a very bad record" of offending has been givena chance to mend his ways after a probation report described him asa likeable person.
Ryan Thrower, 27, of Brooks Road, was arrested after a CCTVcamera filmed him trying doors and a window at the back of anursery premises in Glastonbury which was being renovated. A windowwas broken and repairs cost Pounds 120, Taunton Crown Court wastold.
Some time earlier, on August 13, he was stopped along with twoother men in a car in Glastonbury and admitted ownership of a smallamount of cannabis, worth about Pounds 5, which was found on thedashboard, said Janice Eagles, prosecuting.
It was …
WASHINGTON - The Justice Department is investigating whether its former White House liaison used political affiliations in deciding whom to hire as entry-level prosecutors in some U.S. attorney offices around the country, The Associated Press has learned.
Such consideration would be a violation of federal law.
The inquiry involving Monica Goodling, a conservative Republican who recently quit as counsel and White House liaison for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, raises new concerns that politics have cast a shadow over the independence of trial prosecutors who enforce U.S. laws.
Justice spokesman Dean Boyd confirmed Wednesday that the department's inspector …
