Hot finance topics

Heads of iceberg lettuce are being removed from grocery store shelves in at least seven states after salmonella was found in an Arizona field adjacent to the grower’s property.
None of the lettuce in the markets has tested positive for salmonella but the grower alerted retailers of the test results and sought a withdrawal of the […]

German authorities say a piece of mail sent to Deutsche Bank chief Josef Ackermann was a fully functional letter bomb capable of exploding.
German prosecutors and police in Hesse state said in a joint statement that a suspicious letter addressed personally to Ackermann and intercepted at the mail room of the bank’s Frankfurt headquarters on Wednesday […]

The unemployment rate, which has refused to budge from the 9 percent neighborhood for two and a half frustrating years, suddenly dropped in November, driven in part by small businesses that finally see reason to hope and hire.
Economists said there was a long way to go but liked what they saw.
The rate fell to 8.6 […]

Under pressure to deliver shock treatment to the ailing euro, European finance ministers failed to come up with a plan for European countries to spend within their means. Such a plan is needed before Europe’s central bank and the International Monetary Fund consider stepping in to stem an escalating threat to the global economy.
The ministers […]

Four people have been arrested in the Philippines for allegedly hacking into AT&T’s phone systems as part of a plan to funnel money to a Saudi-based terror group, according to police.
The Philippine Criminal Investigation and Detection Group said it worked with the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation to arrest the suspects late Thursday. The hackers, […]

Hungary has slammed Moody’s decision to downgrade its credit rating to junk status, describing it Friday as another unjustified financial attack against the country.
Hungary, which last week asked the International Monetary Fund and the European Union for possible financial help, is feeling the fallout from the debt crisis in the 17-country eurozone, even though it […]

The investigation into a bullet train crash in China last summer that killed 40 people has come and gone with scarcely any fresh information released about what led to the disaster.
The secrecy surrounding the investigator’s report, originally due in September and reportedly extended until late November, is typical of the sensitivities shown toward wider troubles […]

WILDWOOD

A maker of coal-mining equipment says it is investing more than $13 million to expand a southern Illinois plant, creating or retaining 150 jobs.
Magnum Steel Works Inc. said Friday the investment will be made over four years to nearly quadruple the size of the Mount Vernon factory to 128,000 square feet.
The company says 52 of […]

Thailand’s former premier says his successor needs to give up her party’s pet projects to free up money for flood recovery.
Abhisit Vejjajiva, whose party lost to Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra’s party this summer, says some campaign promises the government made must be sacrificed.
Abhisit spoke at a parliament session where Yingluck submitted a budget bill calling […]