By MUNIR AHMAD Feb 16, 6:06 AM (ET)

ISLAMABAD (AP) – The Taliban’s top military commander has been arrested in a joint CIA-Pakistani operation in Pakistan in a major victory against the insurgents as U.S. troops push into their heartland in southern Afghanistan, officials said Tuesday.

Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the group’s No. 2 leader behind Afghan Taliban founder Mullah Mohammad Omar and a close associate of Osama bin Laden, was captured in the southern Pakistani port city of Karachi, two Pakistani intelligence officers and a senior U.S. official said.

They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release such sensitive information.

Washington (CNN) — A federal judge dismissed manslaughter charges Thursday against five Blackwater security guards in the 2007 deaths of Iraqi civilians in a Baghad square, finding that prosecutors wrongly used the men’s own statements against them.

The September 2007 shootout in Baghdad’s Nusoor Square left 17 Iraqis dead and two dozen wounded. The killings led Iraq’s government to slap limits on security contractors hired by Blackwater, now known as Xe, and other firms.

U.S. District Judge Ricardo Urbina found that the government’s case was built largely on “statements compelled under a threat of job loss in a subsequent criminal prosecution,” a violation of the Fifth Amendment rights of the five men charged.

David Lawder Fri Nov 27, 2009
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve on Friday delayed the implementation date for a new Internet gambling payment ban for six months, a move that gives lawmakers time to overturn it or end confusion over illegal practices.

In a joint statement, the Treasury and Fed said the December 1 implementation date for the law passed in 2006 would not be achievable for some financial institutions. They set a new compliance deadline of June 1, 2010.

“Commentators expressed concern that the act and the final regulation do not provide a clear definition of ‘unlawful Internet gambling,’ which is central to compliance,” the two agencies said.

Nov 9, 8:35 AM (ET) By JANE WARDELL

LONDON (AP) – Kraft Foods Inc. made a 9.8 billion pound ($16.4 billion) cash-and-stock offer for Cadbury PLC on Monday – an effectively lower bid than one previously knocked back by the British candy maker.

The hostile offer values each Cadbury share at 717 pence, less than Kraft’s previous rebuffed approach of 745 pence.

Kraft said the new price “represents a substantial premium to the unaffected share price of Cadbury,” referring to a surge in the British company’s stock since the U.S. company’s previous bid was made public in September.

Analysts had said that Kraft, the maker of Oreo cookies, Nabisco crackers and its namesake cheese, needed to sweeten that offer to have any chance of success.

Oct 18, 12:57 PM (ET) By JOELLE TESSLER

WASHINGTON (AP) – With Democrats in charge in Washington, supporters of so-called “net neutrality” rules seem poised to finally push through requirements that high-speed Internet providers give equal treatment to all data flowing over their networks.

These rules – at the heart of a five-year policy debate – are intended to guarantee that Internet users can go to any Web site and access any online service they want. Phone and cable companies, for instance, wouldn’t be able to block subscribers from using cheaper Internet calling services or accessing online video sites that compete with their core businesses.

Yet making that happen is proving thorny – and it’s likely that the courts and perhaps even Congress will ultimately get involved.

By Christopher S. Rugaber, AP Economics Writer
Meltdown 101: Budget gap balloons on lower taxes, higher spending but it has been worse

Buzz up! 0 Print.WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal government’s budget gap is huge — but by some measures, it’s been bigger in the past.

The annual budget deficit reached $1.4 trillion in fiscal year 2009, the Obama administration said Friday, a record sum by far in dollar terms. It’s the result of both a huge jump in spending and a sharp drop in tax revenue.

In effect, the federal government went on a spending binge at the same time it received a sharp pay cut.

Oct 14, 8:43 AM (ET) By ANDREW VANACORE

NEW YORK (AP) – Media mogul Sumner Redstone’s holding company, National Amusements Inc., said Wednesday it is selling a portion of its stake in CBS Corp. and Viacom Inc. to pay off its debts.

The move appears to alleviate concerns that National Amusements could lose control of the companies or run into trouble with its creditors, allowing it to meet a $500 million debt payment coming up later this month.

The company said the move will allow it to retain controlling interests in both CBS and Viacom while paying off its own borrowings in full. It said it will still have 75 percent voting control in each company and does not plan to reduce its stake any further.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – CIT Group Inc was in talks with a bondholder group on Saturday, as the lender tried to hammer out a rescue financing deal before markets opened and avoid bankruptcy, a source close to the situation said.

Talks with the bondholder group, advised by investment bank Houlihan Lokey, for a $2 billion to $3 billion financing were expected to continue into Sunday with the aim of announcing a deal by Monday morning, the source said.

If a deal is not reached, the 101-year-old lender that services nearly one million small- and mid-sized businesses could file for bankruptcy protection as soon as Monday, according to the source, who did not want to be identified because talks are private.