WASHINGTON (AP) ― A dispute over budget cuts that threaten dozens of smaller control towers with closure slowed Senate progress Tuesday on legislation to avoid a government shutdown on March 27.Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kansas, refused repeatedly to permit final passage of the measure unless Democrats first allow a vote on his plan for erasing most of the cuts aimed at towers operated by Federal Aviation Administration contract employees.Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, just as persistentl

SYDNEY (AFP) ― The head of BlackBerry has taken a swipe at Apple, saying the iPhone’s operating system was outdated, while promising thousands of new apps as it prepares to launch its Z10 model in Australia and the U.S.Thorsten Heins said there were signs users were switching to the Canada-based firm, which rebranded itself on launching its BlackBerry 10 platform this year, as it works to win back those who had shifted to the iPhone or Android devices.He told the Australian Financial Review that

NEW YORK (AP) ― Cigarettes would have to be kept out of sight in New York City stores under a first-in-the-nation plan unveiled by Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Monday, igniting complaints from retailers and smokers who said they’ve had enough with the city’s crackdowns. Shops from corner stores to supermarkets would have to keep tobacco products in cabinets, drawers, under the counter, behind a curtain or in other concealed spots. Officials also want to stop shops from taking cigarette coupons and

Cyprus must decide levy structure but must total 5.8 billion euro: ECB

PARIS (AFP) ― European aerospace giant Airbus will sign Monday what would mark one of its biggest orders ever from Indonesia’s Lion Air for more than 200 A320 medium-haul jets, business daily Les Echos reported.The deal is expected to be worth more than $20 billion with a standard A320 model priced at $91.5 million. Its newer and more fuel-efficient NEO plane has a price tag of more than $100 million.French President Francois Hollande’s office said that he would host the chief executive of Airbu

Incoming Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda will have a veteran of quantitative easing as his top policy planner, after Masayoshi Amamiya Monday was brought back from running the bank’s Osaka branch.Amamiya, who worked in the monetary affairs department for six years before being sent to Osaka in May, got his old job back as one of six executive directors, according to a BOJ statement in Tokyo. The veteran central banker did a stint at the Finance Ministry earlier in his career, an experienc

President Anastasiades in desperate bid to prevent run on banks

YANGON (AFP) ― Google chairman Eric Schmidt will visit Myanmar this week, highlighting increasing Internet freedom in the former pariah state just weeks after a controversial trip to communist North Korea.Schmidt will speak in Yangon on March 22 as part of an Asian tour, the Internet giant said, aiming to boost web access in the country, ruled for decades by a repressive military junta. Under the military regime the Internet was strictly controlled, with access to anti-government sites and sites

Obama pushes for clean-energy research, says U.S. must wean cars and trucks off of oil

Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Richard Fisher said the government should break up the biggest U.S. banks rather than allow them to hold a “too-big- to-fail” advantage over smaller firms. The 12 largest financial institutions hold almost 70 percent of the assets in the nation’s banking system and profit from an unfair implicit guarantee that the government would bail them out, Fisher said Saturday in a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Maryland.

Cyprus gets $13 billion rescue loan package from eurozone, IMF; bank depositors being taxed to contribute