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Small businesses that provide health insurance must now make extra efforts to protect their employees’ personal information, under a new federal regulation. The goal of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act’s new security rule, which went into effect on Friday, is to adopt national standards to protect the confidentiality …

WASHINGTON – Brand-name pharmaceutical companies have resumed paying generic drug manufacturers to stay off the market under the terms of some legal settlements, attracting renewed scrutiny from federal regulators, trade officials said Monday. For the first time since 1999, brand-name and generic drug makers are entering patent challenge agreements under …

CAMDEN, N.J. – After Ellen Krips’ cousin died of an overdose of extremely potent drugs last week, the heroin addict’s first thought was not how she could avoid the bad junk. It was more like: I have to get some of that stuff. A bad batch of drugs for sale …

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – A suspected Islamic militant killed in a shootout in northwestern Pakistan was believed to have been a close associate of Al Qaeda No. 2 leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri, two intelligence officials said Friday. The man, suspected to be a Saudi known as Abu Marwan al-Suri, died Thursday in …

BOSTON – The people who visit this space are nothing if not inquisitive about mutual funds. Here is what those inquiring minds want to know after reading some of my recent work: Q: I just finished my taxes for 2005, and I owed money because one fund had a big …

NEW YORK – The union president who called an illegal strike that halted New York City’s subways and buses in December should be jailed for 10 days and fined $1,000 for criminal contempt, a judge ruled Monday. The judge said he would allow Transport Workers Union Local 100 President Roger …

BOGOTA, Colombia – The bodies of more than 30 people were found in a series of mass graves in a violent area of northeastern Colombia home to drug traffickers, far-right paramilitaries and leftist guerrillas. Colombian investigators excavated 20 sites between April 2 and April 9 looking after residents reported 31 …

NEW YORK – Banned by Comedy Central from showing an image of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, the creators of “South Park” skewered their own network for hypocrisy in the cartoon’s most recent episode. The comedy — in an episode aired during Holy Week for Christians — instead featured an image …

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka – Some 40,000 civilians fled homes in northeastern Sri Lanka to escape government airstrikes on Tamil rebel areas in recent days that have killed at least a dozen people, the rebels said Thursday. No new strikes were launched Thursday, the Defense Ministry said, following two days of …

TEHRAN, Iran – In an apparent bid to keep it’s nuclear program from coming to a sanctions vote in the U.N. Security Council, an Iranian nuclear official said Saturday that Tehran was ready for a conditional return to intrusive inspections but that uranium enrichment will continue. “If the issue is …