Latest USA Headlines
All the headlines from our USA Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Petersen International Underwriters Expands Medicare Bridge Plan
Aug 11 2010 // Petersen International Underwriters main product line up, the Bridge Plan, is now renewable annually without any additional health qualifications on each anniversary date. “This plan is now guaranteed to renew...
India’s Nuclear Bill Gives Stiffer Penalties, Higher Insurance Costs
Aug 11 2010 // India is rewriting a bill that will allow global firms to access its $150 billion nuclear power market, suggesting stiffer compensation for industrial accidents and extending liability to cover private suppliers. The...
U.S. Review of Toyota Recorders Finds No New Defects
Aug 11 2010 // A key element of the U.S. government’s investigation of Toyota Motor Corp electronic throttles and other systems found no defects beyond what is known to explain crashes blamed on unintended acceleration, the...
Arizona Has More Plane Crashes Than Rest of U.S.
Aug 10 2010 // A fatal plane crash in north Phoenix was Arizona’s ninth of the year. Safety experts have no clear explanation why Arizona consistently records higher fatal-crash rates for light aircraft than the rest of the United...
Exxon Sues Federal Government for Texas Refinery Cleanup Costs
Aug 9 2010 // Exxon Mobil Corp. is suing the United States to recover more than $45 million in clean-up costs at its refining and petrochemical plants in Baytown, Texas, saying the government controlled the facilities during World War...
Cruise Ships Traveling In Changing Legal, Security Climate
Aug 9 2010 // Crime on cruise ships is rare, considering 10 million North Americans sailed last year. But some crime victims believe that justice also is rare — due to overlapping investigative powers, difficulty obtaining...
U.S. Captive Insurers’ Underwriting Income Drops; Investments Improve
Aug 9 2010 // Net income doubled in 2009 over 2008 for a composite of 195 U.S. captive insurers followed by A.M. Best Co., driven by the recovery of the industry’s investments. Realized capital gains totaled $82 million for 2009,...
Willis Launches PatentWize to Help Manage Intellectual Property Risk
Aug 9 2010 // Willis Group Holdings is partnering with Innography to launch Willis PatentWize, an enterprise-wide business intelligence solution that is part of Willis’ overall plan to help companies better manage their...
AIG Posts Q2 Loss; Chartis Insurance Stable Despite Flood, Oil Spill Claims
Aug 6 2010 // American International Group Inc. reported a $2.7 billion quarterly loss compared to a net profit of $1.8 billion for the same quarter a year earlier. The second quarter 2010 loss was primarily due to a $3.3 billion...
Catlin First Half Profit Falls
Aug 6 2010 // Specialty insurer Catlin Group Limited reported a US$86 million profit before tax for the six months ending June 30, 2010. That compares to US$240 million for the half year 2009. The results include a US$227 million...
Spain $1 Billion Lawsuit Over Sunk Tanker Dismissed
Aug 5 2010 // A U.S. federal judge dismissed Tuesday Spain’s $1 billion lawsuit against an organization that declared seaworthy a tanker whose 2002 sinking created one of the world’s biggest oil spills. U.S. District Judge...
Study Changes Picture of U.S. Quake Hazards
Aug 5 2010 // The risk of earthquakes in the U.S. Midwest may be more widespread than geologists have believed, but a “big one” may be less likely at Missouri’s New Madrid fault, researchers said Aug. 4. They found...
U.S. Tightens Iran Sanctions
Aug 4 2010 // The United States Tuesday took steps to make it harder for Iran to skirt trade sanctions aimed at preventing nuclear proliferation, naming nearly two dozen firms in six countries as controlled by the Iranian...
Missouri Votes to Block Obama Health Insurance Mandate
Aug 4 2010 // Missouri voters Tuesday rejected the new U.S. healthcare bill, approving a measure that would forbid the federal government from penalizing people who do not buy health insurance. With 78 percent of precincts reporting,...
U.S. Says Vast Majority of BP Oil Gone, Remainder Not Serious Threat
Aug 4 2010 // The vast majority of oil from the BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico is gone, President Barack Obama’s energy adviser said Wednesday, and the remaining oil reportedly does not pose a serious threat. The U.S. government...
Utilities Market Still Softening Despite ‘Mega’ Claims: Willis
Aug 4 2010 // Insurance rates in the power sector are expected to soften further in 2010, despite the existence of many of the conditions that would normally presage a hardening market, according to the latest Power Market Review from...
Some States Cheered by Virginia Healthcare Decision
Aug 3 2010 // Nearly half of all U.S. states are fighting President Barack Obama’s healthcare reforms and those that have taken the battle to court were heartened Monday by a judge’s decision to let Virginia proceed with its...
Customers Significantly Less Satisfied With Auto Insurance Companies
Aug 3 2010 // After peaking in 2009, overall customer satisfaction with insurance companies has declined significantly in 2010, largely because of price, according to the J.D. Power and Associates “2010 U.S. National Auto...
China’s Economy Set to Pass Japan’s as World’s Second Biggest
Aug 2 2010 // China is set to overtake Japan as the world’s second-largest economy in a resurgence that is changing everything from the global balance of military and financial power to how cars are designed. By some measures it...
Senate Eyes Guaranteed Lump Sum Benefit for U.S. Soldiers, Workers
Aug 2 2010 // Senator Charles Schumer, D- N.Y., said on Sunday he is drafting legislation that would require U.S. government agencies to guarantee that families of deceased soldiers and other federal workers receive lump-sum payments of...
