DealBook: More European Bank Loan Sales Expected

11:45 a.m. | Updated LONDON – At the start of 2013, European banks are cleaning out their closets.The Continent’s largest financial institutions, including HSBC and Deutsche Bank, are expected to sell a combined 60 billion euros, or $78 billion, of so-called noncore loans this year, a 33 percent rise compared with 2012, according to estimates from the accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers released...

Read More..

Media Decoder Blog: Al Jazeera Seeks a U.S. Voice Where Gore Failed

9:16 p.m. | Updated Al Jazeera, the pan-Arab news giant, has long tried to convince Americans that it is a legitimate news organization, not a parrot of Middle Eastern propaganda or something more sinister.It just bought itself 40 million more chances to make its case.Al Jazeera on Wednesday announced a deal to take over Current TV, the low-rated cable channel that was founded by Al Gore, a former...

Read More..

The Most and Least Influential Social Media Celebs

While he isn’t currently available for promotional work, businesses would have the most success on social media with President Barack Obama endorsing their goods and services, new research shows.A study by social marketing platform SocialToaster revealed that Obama is considered the most influential celebrity on social media. Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, Ashton Kutcher and Anderson Cooper followed the...

Read More..

NHL negotiations go late. No union disclaimer

NEW YORK (AP) — Hockey players are sticking together as a union for now and are working long and late hours with the NHL to try to reach a new collective bargaining agreement to get the game back on the ice.The sides met in small groups throughout the day Wednesday and then held a full-scale bargaining session with a federal mediator at night that lasted nearly five hours and didn't wrap up until...

Read More..

5-Hour Energy’s ‘No Crash Later’ Claim Is Disputed

The distributor of the top-selling energy “shot,” 5-Hour Energy, has long claimed on product labels, in promotions and in television advertisements that the concentrated caffeine drink produced “no crash later” — the type of letdown that consumers of energy drinks often feel when the beverages’ effects wear off. But an advertising watchdog group said on Wednesday that it had told the company...

Read More..

U.S. Auto Sales End 2012 on Strong Note

DETROIT (AP) — Strong U.S. sales in December capped a remarkable year for the auto industry — especially Japanese brands — and 2013 should be even better. Sales of new cars and trucks are expected to total around 14.5 million after all carmakers announce figures on Thursday. That is 13 percent better than 2011 and the best performance in five years. In 2012, Americans had plenty...

Read More..

Philippines May Curb Pursuit of Marcos WealthPhilippines May Curb Pursuit of Marcos Wealth

MANILA — A commission that has been pursuing the wealth of the former dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos should be abolished, despite the fact that much of his allegedly ill-gotten wealth has not been recovered, the agency’s head said on Wednesday. Andres Bautista, the chairman of the Presidential Commission on Good Government, told reporters on Wednesday that he has recommended to President Benigno...

Read More..

Apple testing new iPhone, iOS 7: report

(Reuters) – Apple Inc has started testing a new iPhone and the next version of its iOS software, news website The Next Web reported.Apple shares were up 2.6 percent at $ 546.06 in premarket trading. The stock closed at $ 532.17 on the Nasdaq on Monday.Application developers have found in their app usage logs references to a new iPhone identifier, iPhone 6.1, running iOS 7 operating system, the website...

Read More..

Stanford holds off Wisconsin 20-14 in Rose Bowl

PASADENA, Calif. (AP) — Andrew Luck, Toby Gerhart and coach Jim Harbaugh started Stanford's improbable football renaissance, yet they never stood in the center of the Rose Bowl with the West Coast's most coveted trophy raised above their heads.In fact, the last Stanford team to do what the Cardinal did Tuesday night had a defense known as the Thunderchickens.Forty years after Stanford's last Rose...

Read More..

Safed Journal: New Insights on Marijuana in Israel, Where It’s Illegal

Baz Ratner/ReutersTikkun Olam, a medical marijuana farm in Israel, blends the high-tech and the spiritual. SAFED, Israel — Among the rows of plants growing at a government-approved medical marijuana farm in the Galilee hills in northern Israel, one strain is said to have the strongest psychoactive effect of any cannabis in the world. Another, rich in anti-inflammatory properties, will not get you...

Read More..