Thursday, May 23, 2013

Procter & Gamble is bringing back former CEO A.G. Lafley to its top post in a surprise move as the world's largest consumer goods maker tries to grow globally.    

A day after she refused to answer questions at a congressional hearing, Lois Lerner was replaced Thursday as director of the Internal Revenue Service division that oversaw agents who targeted tea party groups.

Consumers will soon see labels on their meat telling them where the animal was born, raised and slaughtered.

The Boy Scouts of America's National Council has voted to ease a long-standing ban and allow openly gay boys to be accepted as Scouts.

A businessman was snatched from a New York City street in broad daylight, then held captive for more than a month in a warehouse where he was bound and burned with acid as he was held for a $3 million ransom his family back in Ecuador did not have, authorities said.

WASHINGTON—A day after she refused to answer questions at a congressional hearing, Lois Lerner has been replaced as director the Internal Revenue Service division that oversaw agents who targeted tea party groups.

The attorney for a New York man imprisoned amid accusations he infected 13 young women with HIV in the 1990s says his client doesn't have the virus that causes AIDS.

WASHINGTON—A website partially funded by the oil and gas industry could be a "constructive" tool for federal regulators as they consider requiring public disclosure of chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing operations, Senate Energy Committee Chairman Ron Wyden said Thursday.

The man who famously put down his Big Mac to help rescue three women held captive in a Cleveland house is getting complimentary McDonald's for the next year.

Investors have grown nervous that the Federal Reserve will scale back its efforts to boost the U.S. economy sooner than many expected. Yet almost lost in the anxiety that gripped the stock market this week is that whenever the Fed slows its drive to keep interest rates low, it will be cause for celebration: It would mean policymakers think the economy is strong enough to accelerate with less help from the Fed. "We should be wishing for higher interest rates," says Kevin Logan, HSBC's chief U.S. economist.

BIG PLANS: Johnson & Johnson says it's poised by 2017 to seek regulatory approval for a dozen new medicines and two dozen variations of existing ones. BIG IMPACT: Two experimental medicines could transform current treatments.

Dallas father sentenced to death for drowning 5-year-old, 3-year-old sons in creek    

Sears Holdings Corp. reported a steeper-than-expected loss for its first quarter as the beleaguered retailer struggles to turn itself around.    

A look at 10 of the top topics at the French Open, the clay-court Grand Slam tennis tournament that begins Sunday and ends June 9:

Stocks are ending the day slightly lower after recouping a big loss early on. U.S. markets fell immediately after the opening bell following a global slump prompted in part by an unexpectedly weak report on manufacturing in China. Concern that the Federal Reserve might ease back on its economic stimulus program sooner than expected had also riled investors. The market recovered much of the losses as investors considered those fears overdone. The Dow Jones industrial average fell a fraction or 13 points to 15,295 Thursday.

Internet radio company Pandora reported higher-than-expected revenue in the latest quarter, with losses in line with analysts' forecasts, as the number of subscribers who pay for ad-free listening rose above 2.5 million. The net loss in the three months ending April 30 grew to $28.6 million, or 16 cents per share, from a loss of $20.2 million, or 12 cents per share, a year ago. Excluding items such as stock-based compensation costs, the loss came to 10 cents per share, matching the forecast of analysts polled by FactSet. Revenue rose 55 percent to $126 million, above the $124 million that analysts were looking for. Pandora Media Inc.'s stock rose nearly 9 percent after the results came out. Total listener hours grew 35 percent to 4.18 billion in the quarter.

A New Jersey ex-convict behind the wheel of a van that overturned on an Illinois freeway, killing five passengers returning from a California ministry gathering, had his driving privileges suspended last year for administrative reasons, motor vehicle records show.