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WASHINGTON • Fixed mortgage rates fell once again to a record low, offering a great opportunity for those who can afford to buy or refinance homes. But few are able to take advantage of the historic rates.
Freddie Mac said Thursday that the average rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage fell to 3.89 percent. That’s below […]

China stands to be the biggest beneficiary of U.S. and European plans for sanctions on Iran

The Federal Reserve will pay $76.9 billion to the U.S. Treasury as part of an annual dividend it remits after covering its own expenses from interest on its ballooning bond portfolio and other gains.
Total assets on the Fed

One of the first Canadian digital-era laws was the Uniform Electronic Commerce Act, a model law created by the Uniform Law Conference of Canada in the late 1990s. The ULCC brings together officials from federal, provincial, and territorial governments to work on model laws that can be implemented in a similar manner across all Canadian […]

The International Monetary Fund will make a

Think your programming skills are world class? Facebook wants you to prove it at its second annual Hacker Cup challenge.
"Hacking is core to how we build at Facebook," the company said in a blog post announcing this year’s competition. "Whether we’re building a prototype for a major product like Timeline at a Hackathon, […]

Boeing plans to close its defense operations in Wichita, Ks., a move that will result in about 2,000 people losing their jobs, according to Bloomberg News.
Citing anonymous sources, Bloomberg said the announcement will be made to Wichita employees at a 10:30 a.m. meeting today
Boeing said in November it was studying the Wichita plant’s future, including […]

South Korea

An international arbitration body has awarded Exxon Mobil Corp. nearly $908 million in a dispute with Venezuela over compensation for the nationalization of its assets, the company said Sunday.
Exxon Mobil sought arbitration after President Hugo Chavez’s government nationalized an oil project in the country in 2007.
The decision by the International Chamber of Commerce confirmed that […]

Yemen’s outgoing president decided to stay in the country, reversing plans to leave, his ruling party said Saturday, in an apparent attempt to salvage his control over the regime, which has appeared to unravel in the face of internal revolts and relentless street protests.
In a sign of the fraying, the son and nephew of President […]