World Busines and Finance news

Alton Memorial Hospital in Alton, Ill., fired an undisclosed number of employees this week, according to The Telegraph.
The lay-offs occurred Wednesday and were in response to the shaky economy.
A call to the hospital was not immediately returned.
St. Louis-based BJC HealthCare is a not-for-profit community benefit health-care provider with 13 hospitals, including Alton Memorial, and four […]

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Retail sales in Spain fell for an eighth month in July as record oil prices and higher interest rates eroded consumers' purchasing power.
Sales fell 6 percent from the year-earlier month, after adjusting for the number of days worked, the second-biggest decline since the series began in 2005, the National Statistics Institute said on […]

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Kewaunee Scientific Corp. reports a 46 percent increase in earnings for its fiscal first quarter ended July 31.
The Statesville-based manufacturer earned $981,000, or 38 cents per diluted share, in the quarter, up from $674,000, or 27 cents per diluted share, a year earlier.
Sales increased 22 percent to $25.4 million.
Kewaunee says its earnings were boosted by […]

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Investors are starting to switch their bets on Polish interest rates to cuts from increases, on signs economic growth is slowing and inflation is about to peak.
The CHART OF THE DAY shows the three-month Polish Forward Rate Agreement dropped below the three-month WIBOR interbank rate for the first time in more than two […]

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The Denver Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau said Tuesday it will tweak its website to offer a carbon calculator and offset program.
The website, at denver.org, will allow visitors to determine how large a carbon footprint they would create by visiting Denver. The feature comes as the city is preparing to host the Democratic National Convention, […]

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The newsstand price of The Seattle Times and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer will rise from 50 cents to 75 cents on Sept. 1.
“The reason is a result of increasing costs, including rising fuel prices and a substantial increase in the cost of newsprint,” said Seattle Times Co. spokeswoman Corey Digiacinto. The Times publishes both newspapers as […]

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Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert urged the Cabinet to approve the 2009 budget on time, saying it was a test of the government's ability to carry out its duties in the period before he steps down.
“A government that can't approve the budget according to a timetable it set for itself is effectively declaring […]

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The dollar will appreciate against the euro, yen, pound and Swiss franc in the next six months as economies in Europe and Asia falter, a survey of Bloomberg users showed.
U.S. investors turned bullish on the greenback after incorrectly forecasting a decline last month, according to respondents in the monthly Bloomberg Professional Global Confidence […]

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Speedemissions Inc. said it swung to a loss in the second quarter due to early operating losses at new locations, including in St. Louis.
For the quarter ended June 30, the vehicle emissions testing and safety inspections company lost $174,000, or 3 cents a share, compared to a profit of $102,000, or 3 cents […]

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U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said there are no plans to inject capital into Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac after the two mortgage companies posted combined losses of $3.12 billion last week.
“We have no plans to insert money into either of those two institutions,'' Paulson said in an interview with NBC's “Meet the […]

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