TRENTON, New Jersey (AP) -- U.S. prosecutors are investigating Johnson & Johnson's practices in marketing a line of hip replacements recalled in 2010 because many had to be replaced within a few years -- part of a string of more than 30 product recalls by the health care giant in the last 3 1/2 years.The U.S. Attorney's Office in Massachusetts and the Civil Division of the U.S. Justice Department last August sent Johnson & Johnson an "informal request'' for information about its ASR hip replacem

WASHINGTON (AFP) -- President Barack Obama insisted Friday that mandatory government budget cuts set to kick in on March 1 -- known as the sequester -- were not "inevitable."The cuts to defense and domestic spending were mandated in an agreement between Obama and his Republican foes to end a previous budget battle."I never think that anything is inevitable, we always have the opportunity to make the right decisions," Obama told reporters following a White House meeting with visiting Japanese Pri

WASHINGTON (AFP) -- The United States and Japan said Friday that talks on a Pacific-wide free trade pact would not make prior exemptions of sectors, despite Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's pledges in the last election.Abe, paying his first visit to Washington since his Liberal Democratic Party swept back to power, did not make any commitment on joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership talks but heard that Washington would not budge."Should Japan participate in the TPP negotiations, all goods would be s

WASHINGTON (AFP) -- Moody's stripped Britain of its triple-A debt rating Friday, saying government debt was still mounting and that growth was too weak to reverse the trend before 2016.In an expected rebuff to the Cameron government's hopes that sharp spending cuts would both reduce its deficit and give growth a boost, the rating agency cut Britain's grade by one notch to Aa1.In parallel, it lowered the rating of the country's central bank, the Bank of England, which also fell from AAA to Aa1.Th

The U.S. Department of Energy said as much as $20 million was available for researchers to examine ways to protect the energy sector from cyberattacks.U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu said the funding would target the development of tools and technology to protect delivery systems for oil, natural gas and electricity from cyberattacks."By developing new cybersecurity tools and technologies specifically designed for the needs of the energy sector, utilities and industry will be better equipped to

The European Union predicted Friday that the economy of the 17 member countries that use the euro will shrink again in 2013 even though it will see its fortunes improve in the second half of the year.In its winter forecast, the EU Commission, the EU's executive arm, said the eurozone is likely to shrink a further 0.3 percent this year, in contrast to November's prediction of 0.1 percent growth.Across the eurozone, it said the debt crisis and the associated belt-tightening are weighing on activit

PARIS (AFP) ― Europe’s horsemeat scandal spread Wednesday to Asia where an imported lasagna brand was pulled from the shelves in Hong Kong, as Czech officials ordered similar action on frozen meals mislabeled “beef.”A host of top players have been caught up in the spiraling scandal including Nestle, the world’s biggest food company, top beef producer JBS of Brazil and British supermarket chain Tesco.Hong Kong authorities ordered ParknShop, one of the biggest supermarket chains in the city, to re

LISBON (AP) ― Portugal raised $2 billion in a debt sale at sharply lower rates Wednesday as the bailed-out country continues to benefit from improving market confidence, despite forecasts its recession will deepen.Finance Minister Vitor Gaspar said Wednesday the government expects an economic contraction this year of 2 percent ― double its earlier prediction. It will be Portugal’s third straight year of recession as austerity measures including steep tax hikes and welfare cuts are blamed for a c

German Chancellor Angela Merkel dismissed attempts to manipulate exchange rates, saying the present value of the euro against the dollar is within the currency’s normal range.Merkel, speaking in Berlin, acknowledged concerns over the euro’s strength in southern European countries that have been “at pains to lower their labor unit costs in a fixed exchange rate regime” only to see the gains “melt away like the snow in the sun under certain conditions.”“On the other hand, we have to say that euro

The stock market posted its biggest loss this year on news that Federal Reserve officials suggested the central bank scale back its effort to keep borrowing costs low.Minutes from the Fed's January meeting seemed to catch investors by surprise when they were released at 2 p.m. EST. Several Fed policymakers worried that the bank's program of buying $85 billion of bonds each month could eventually unsettle financial markets or cause the bank to take losses. Even so, most of the Fed officials thoug

European Union car sales fell to the lowest level for a January, with Ford Motor Co. and PSA Peugeot Citroen posting the biggest drops, as economic contractions in the southern part of the region widened to Germany and France.Registrations dropped 8.7 percent to 885,159 vehicles last month from 969,219 cars a year earlier, the Brussels-based European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association, or ACEA, said in a statement. The figure was the lowest start to the year since the group began tracking sal

BERLIN (AP) ― Swiss drugmaker Novartis AG has agreed with its outgoing chairman to scrap plans for a farewell non-compete deal that could have netted him up to $78 million.The announcement followed criticism from some of the Basel-based company’s shareholders and Swiss politicians.Daniel Vasella, 59, who is retiring later this month, said Tuesday that he and the company had agreed to forgo a ‘’non-compete’’ pay-out that many people found ‘’unreasonably high.’’‘’I have understood that many people