Latest USA Headlines
All the headlines from our USA Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Despair after Climate Conference Inaction, but UN Still Offers Hope
Dec 10 2012 // At the end of another lavishly-funded U.N. conference that yielded no progress on curbing greenhouse emissions, many of those most concerned about climate change are close to despair. As thousands of delegates checked out...
UPDATE: Chinese Group to Buy AIG’s Plane Leasing Unit for up to $4.8 Billion
Dec 10 2012 // American International Group has agreed to sell nearly all of ILFC , the world’s second-largest airplane leasing business, to a Chinese consortium for up to $4.8 billion, giving the fastest growing aviation market...
Time Running Out for Senate on Farm, Crop Insurance Bill
Dec 7 2012 // With a week left to act, agricultural leaders in Congress are still deadlocked on two major issues for a new U.S. farm bill, cuts in crop subsidies and reductions in food stamps, said two of the four key negotiators on...
Judge Names Lead Plaintiffs in Facebook IPO Claim
Dec 7 2012 // A group of investors including state pension funds in North Carolina and Arkansas will be the lead plaintiffs in securities lawsuits arising out of Facebook Inc.’s $16 billion initial public offering, a U.S. judge...
Liberty International Underwriters Promotes Aggarwal to U.S. Construction Post
Dec 7 2012 // Liberty International Underwriters has promoted Chaman Aggarwal to the newly-created position of senior vice president, USA Construction. In the position, Aggarwal is responsible for LIU’s U.S. construction product...
Marsh Names Sheehan Leader of U.S. Financial Institutions Practice
Dec 7 2012 // Insurance broker Marsh has named Eugene “Tripp” Sheehan, a 19-year veteran of the firm, as U.S. Financial Institutions practice leader. Since joining Marsh in 1993, Sheehan has held a variety of positions...
Aon Benfield’s Monthly Cat Report Highlights UK Floods
Dec 7 2012 // Impact Forecasting, the catastrophe model development center of excellence at Aon Benfield, the global reinsurance intermediary and capital advisor of Aon plc, has released its latest edition of its monthly Global...
US Senate OK’s Russia Trade w/ Human Rights Bill; Angry Russian Reaction
Dec 7 2012 // The U.S. Senate on Thursday approved legislation to punish Russian human rights violators as part of a broader bill to expand U.S. trade with Washington’s former Cold War enemy. Passage of the bill, by a 92-4 vote,...
UPDATE: 7.3 Quake off Japan; Tsunami Warnings Cancelled
Dec 7 2012 // News reports are describing an earthquake off the east coast of Japan with a magnitude, estimated by the U.S. Geological Survey, of 7.3. The quake struck approximately 245 kms (153 miles) east-southeast of Kamaishi early...
El Niño Unlikely Before Spring
Dec 6 2012 // The U.S. national weather forecaster said on Thursday the much-feared El Niño weather phenomenon is unlikely to appear before the Northern Hemisphere spring, further reducing the chances of a drought in Asia and flooding...
Ohio Senate Panel Advances Asbestos Lawsuit Bill
Dec 6 2012 // An Ohio Senate committee advanced a bill on Dec. 4 aimed at curbing duplicate lawsuits over on-the-job asbestos exposure in a state with one of the largest backlogs of such cases in the nation. The bill cleared the...
Business Should Prepare for Potential East, Gulf Coast Port Strike: Marsh
Dec 6 2012 // A potential labor strike by longshoremen in ports from Maine to Texas at the end of the year could have devastating economic consequences as inventory depletion, rerouting, hoarding, and price speculation ripple through...
Viewpoint: Trade Sanctions and Risk Management
Dec 5 2012 // The U.S. government has increasingly used laws and regulations that impose economic sanctions on others as an instrument to advance foreign policy and national security goals, with some of the most recent efforts aimed at...
Thai Group Buys Ping An Stake from HSBC for $9.38 Billion
Dec 5 2012 // A conglomerate controlled by Thailand’s richest man, Dhanin Chearavanont, has bought a minority stake in China’s Ping An Insurance for $9.38 billion from global bank HSBC, a bold move that ranks as Asia’s...
Extreme Weather is New Normal, U.N.’s Ban Tells Climate Change Talks
Dec 5 2012 // Extreme weather is the new normal and poses a threat to the human race, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Tuesday as he sought to revive deadlocked global climate change talks. Ban’s intervention came as...
Supreme Court Denies Appeal of Kentucky Fen-Phen Lawyer
Dec 4 2012 // The U.S. Supreme Court refused on Monday to hear an appeal by a Kentucky lawyer accused of cheating clients out of millions of dollars paid in a settlement over the diet drug combination fen-phen. The high court, without...
Supreme Court Allows GM Workers’ Pension Claim Against State Street Bank
Dec 4 2012 // The U.S. Supreme Court is allowing General Motors Co. employees whose pension plans lost money to pursue their case against a State Street Corp. unit over its management of their retirement savings plans before the...
Court Finds Rating Agencies Not Liable on Toxic Mortgages
Dec 4 2012 // Major credit rating agencies won a fresh legal victory on Monday when a federal appeals court rejected a lawsuit by Ohio pension funds that sought to recoup millions of dollars of losses on risky mortgage debt they said...
Supreme Court to Rule If Human Genes Patentable
Dec 3 2012 // The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday agreed to decide whether human genes can be patented, a hotly contested issue with broad consequences for the future of gene-based medicine. The nation’s highest court agreed to...
Official Urges Collaboration On Wildfire Projects in West
Dec 3 2012 // As the western U.S. comes off a tough wildfire season, more collaboration is needed to guard against catastrophic fires and to restore charred forests and rangeland, a senior federal official said at a Western...
