Latest USA Headlines

All the headlines from our USA Topic Page, ordered by recency.

AXA Asia Pacific Profit Upgrade Stirs Talk of Higher Bid

Jan 21 2010 // Life insurer and fund manager AXA Asia-Pacific Holdings Ltd expects to report a forecast-beating profit for 2009, putting pressure on rival bidders to raise their offers in a $12 billion battle for the company.AXA...

U.S. Senate Vote Dims Hopes for Stronger World Climate Pact

Jan 21 2010 // Hopes for stronger world action in 2010 to curb climate change have dimmed after the U.S. Democrats lost a key Senate seat to a Republican opposed to capping emissions, experts said Wednesday.The election of Republican...

AIG Owes $195 Million to Financial Product Unit Employees

Jan 21 2010 // A substantial number of AIG’s Financial Products employees set to get some $195 million in retention payments no longer work with the bailed out insurer, sources familiar with the matter said Wednesday.This will be...

West Virginia Seeking to Restore Confidence In State Supreme Court

Jan 20 2010 // Gov. Joe Manchin and the state Supreme Court hope to shore up public confidence in a West Virginia judicial system that has been scrutinized by the nation’s highest court and branded a “hellhole” by the...

General Re Settles Fraud Charges Over AIG, Pru Financials

Jan 20 2010 // The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged General Re Corp. for its involvement in separate schemes by American International Group (AIG) and Prudential Financial, Inc. to manipulate and falsify their reported...

Best Affirms Aspen’s ‘A’ Ratings

Jan 19 2010 // A.M. Best Co. has affirmed the financial strength ratings of ‘A’ (Excellent) and the issuer credit ratings (ICR) of “a” of Aspen Insurance UK Limited (AIUK), Bermuda-based Aspen Insurance Limited...

U.S. Senator Seeks Details on AIG Exec’s Severance

Jan 19 2010 // A watchdog senator Friday asked the Obama administration pay czar to explain why a top AIG executive stands to get a multi-million dollar severance package.Sen. Chuck Grassley sent a letter to pay czar Kenneth Feinberg...

Former N.D. Regulator Possibly a Candidate to Lead Insurance Lobby

Jan 19 2010 // U.S. Rep. Earl Pomeroy of North Dakota is not seeking the presidency of a Washington lobbying group for life insurers, a spokeswoman said, although an industry representative called the North Dakota Democrat a...

Wall Street Barons Concede Failures, Offer No Apologies

Jan 14 2010 // Wall Street’s chiefs acknowledged taking on “too much risk” and having “choked” on their own cooking, but stopped short of an apology as they sparred with a commission looking into the...

Obama to Seek Fees From Banks, AIG to Recoup Bailout Funds

Jan 14 2010 // President Barack Obama will propose a fee Thursday to recoup from the country’s top financial institutions up to $117 billion lost on a taxpayer bank bailout fund, a senior administration official said.Obama will...

Troops, Food Headed for Haiti As Quake Toll Soars

Jan 14 2010 // Troops and planeloads of food and medicine trickled in to Haiti Thursday to aid a traumatized nation still rattled by aftershocks from the catastrophic earthquake that flattened homes and government buildings and buried...

Congressional Pressure Builds to Disclose AIG Payments to Banks

Jan 13 2010 // U.S. lawmakers moved Tuesday to force release of documents that may show whether the New York Federal Reserve pressured insurer AIG to limit discussions about payments to banks when current Treasury Secretary Geithner led...

XL Insurance Adds to Aviation Team, Expands West

Jan 13 2010 // New York-based XL Insurance, the global insurance operations of XL Capital Ltd., has expanded its U.S. Aviation underwriting team with an aviation branch office in San Francisco and by adding to its New York-based...

Tens of Thousands Feared Dead, Capital in Ruins From Haiti’s Catastrophic Quake

Jan 13 2010 // Traumatized Haitians slept out in parks and streets Thursday, fearing aftershocks to the catastrophic earthquake that flattened homes and government buildings and buried countless people.Tens of thousands of people were...

Companies Offer Aid for Haitians; Caribbean Risk Pool Pays $8M

Jan 13 2010 // Companies pledged millions of dollars in aid Wednesday to help victims of a powerful earthquake in Haiti that devastated much of the impoverished country’s capital and killed thousands.Digicel Group, a top mobile...

Greenberg Urges U.S. Stake in AIG Below 20% to Attract Capital

Jan 12 2010 // Former AIG chief Maurice “Hank” Greenberg is campaigning for the U.S. government to cut its stake in the insurer to less than 20 percent, saying this would attract new capital to AIG and help taxpayers fully...

SEC Order Keeps Some AIG Bailout Terms Sealed Until 2018

Jan 12 2010 // It could take until November 2018 to get the full story behind the U.S. bailout of insurance giant American International Group because of an action taken last year by the Securities and Exchange Commission.In May, the SEC...

U.S. Senator Urges SEC to Probe N.Y. Fed Over AIG E-mails

Jan 12 2010 // U.S. regulators should investigate whether laws were violated when the New York Federal Reserve Bank urged insurer American International Group Inc. to limit discussions about payments to banks, a Republican member of the...

Ratings Recap: Berkshire H. (Notes), AXA US, Chartis PR, AGCS Marine

Jan 12 2010 // Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services has assigned its ‘AAA’ senior debt rating to Berkshire Hathaway Finance Corp.’s (BHFC) $1.0 billion senior notes. The notes will have various maturity dates....

Inadequate Warning Claims Against Generic Drugs OK Under State Law

Jan 11 2010 // A federal appeals court said Friday that patients may sue generic drugmakers under state law for failing to provide adequate warnings about their drugs’ potential side effects, extending a 2009 U.S. Supreme Court...