Modern upgrade, authentic charm

This turn-of-the-century townhouse on Beacon Hill with five levels of living space was updated in a way that preserved its authentic charm while adding contemporary features.

The 10-room single-family brick rowhouse at 22 Joy St. — built in 1890 — was completely redone in 2006 with a granite, cherrywood and stainless-steel kitchen and a spacious top-floor master bedroom suite. The 3,096-square-foot home with formal dining and living 
areas, double Victorian parlors with wood-burning fireplaces, and a private courtyard and third-floor deck is listed for $2,700,000.

The makeover also 
included a two-zone gas-fired heating and central air-conditioning system, new electrical and plumbing, five updated bathrooms and 
recessed lighting throughout. The brick exterior was repointed and large four-pane windows had their rope-and-pulley systems updated with custom shutters. But much of the original woodwork, including door and window moldings, wide-pine floors, staircases, wood-burning fireplaces and top-floor wood beams, has been retained.

You enter through a double set of wood doors into an oak-floored foyer with a sweeping staircase. A formal dining room to the right is walled off from the foyer and accessed through French doors around a corner. The dining room has a wood-burning fireplace, recessed lighting and an original 
exposed beam.

The adjacent living room also has an original wood-burning fireplace and a 
recessed-lit tray ceiling with an exposed beam. In one corner is a wet bar added in 2006 with Green Goddess granite counters and a Marvel wine cooler. Windows from this room and the adjacent kitchen look out on a narrow 
private courtyard.

You step down from here into a long kitchen and breakfast nook with four large windows overlooking the courtyard and a leaded glass door that opens onto it.

Redone in 2006, the 
kitchen has dark cherry­-wood floors, light cherrywood cabinets and Green Goddess granite countertops. There are also two stainless-steel sinks, two wall ovens and two wine coolers. Stainless-steel appli­ances also include a Sub-
Zero refrigerator, G.E. Profile dishwasher and gas stovetop with a Zephyr hood.

A restored original winding staircase leads up to the second floor, where there are two Victorian parlors with original wide-pine floors and pine wainscoting. The front parlor, currently outfitted as a home office, has two tall windows, recessed lighting, and a wood-burning fireplace with a marble mantel.

The back parlor, currently outfitted as a den, has its own wet bar with Green Goddess granite and a Marvel wine cooler and an original brick fireplace. Off this room is a small bedroom, and there's a half-bath off the hallway.

There are two more bedrooms on the third floor with restored pine floors, recessed lighting and large windows. The front bedroom has a wood-burning fireplace, and the rear bedroom opens out onto a good-sized private deck. There's a full bathroom on this floor with a Green Goddess granite vanity and a white-tiled walk-in shower.

The entire fourth floor of the townhouse is a master bedroom suite with vaulted
ceilings, original wood beams and exposed brick walls. The oak-floored bedroom has custom lighting and lots of closet space. The en-suite master bathroom, also with oak floors, has a clawfoot tub as its centerpiece.

There's a marble-line shower and wood vanity topped by white vessel sinks and high-end wall faucets.

The finished basement has beige ceramic tile floors. There's a family room, off which is a European full bathroom with a showerhead in the wall. Off the family room is a closet with a Kenmore washer and 
dryer, and closets holding the home's two-zone heating and central air-conditioning system replaced in 2006.

There's also an exercise room with barrel vaulted openings for storage, and stairs up to a bulkhead that opens into the courtyard.

Parking is on-street with a residential permit, as there is no on-site space.

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Judge orders limited use of Falmouth wind turbines

BARNSTABLE, Mass. — The town of Falmouth was ordered by a judge on Friday to limit the hours two town-owned wind turbines operate after neighbors blamed them for a series of health problems.

Effective immediately, the energy-generating turbines at the Cape Cod town's wastewater treatment facility are only allowed to operate from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. on every day of the week except Sunday, and are not allowed to operate at all on Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day and New Year's Day, Superior Court Judge Christopher Muse wrote in the decision.

Neil and Elizabeth Andersen, who live about a quarter of a mile from the turbines, said they caused "continuous insomnia, headaches, psychological disturbances, dental injuries, and other forms of malaise" they had not suffered prior to the turbines' construction.

"The court finds the Andersens claims that they did not experience such symptoms prior to the construction and operation of the turbines, and that that each day of operation produces further injury, to be credible," the judge wrote.

Continued operation of the turbines at previous levels put residents at risk of "irreparable physical and psychological harm," he judge wrote.

The environmental group Wind Wise Massachusetts called it a landmark decision.

"This is believed to be the first time that a court in the U.S. has ruled that there is sufficient evidence that wind turbines near residential areas are a health hazard to families living nearby," said Virginia Irvine, president of Wind Wise Massachusetts.

The decision has repercussions in other Massachusetts towns where wind turbines are being blamed for health problems, Neil Andersen said.

"It's torture," he said of the turbines' noise and pressure effects. "But this decision is a victory. It gives us some relief."

The 1.65 megawatt turbines were erected about 3½ years ago to power the treatment plant and to create revenue for the town by selling electricity back to the grid.

They ran 24/7 at first, but more recently have been running from 5 a.m. until 9 p.m. daily, he said.

Each turbine is almost 400 feet tall from the ground to the tip of the blade at its highest point.

They have been the subject of disagreements and lawsuits between town boards and townwide votes on whether to dismantle them entirely.

The town argued against restricting the hours of operation, saying shorter hours would reduce revenue from sales of energy back to the grid. The judge rejected that argument.

The town's lawyer was not immediately available to comment on the judge's decision.

The judge told the sides to work on a mitigation plan and submit it to the court in 75 days.

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Guilty plea in bird deaths at wind farms a first

WASHINGTON — A major U.S. power company has pleaded guilty to killing eagles and other birds at two Wyoming wind farms and agreed to pay $1 million as part of the first enforcement of environmental laws protecting birds against wind energy facilities.

Until the settlement announced Friday with Duke Energy Corp. and its renewable energy arm, not a single wind energy company had been prosecuted for a death of an eagle or other protected bird — even though each death is a violation of federal law, unless a company has a federal permit. Not a single wind energy facility has obtained a permit.

The Charlotte, N.C.-based company pleaded guilty to killing 14 eagles and 149 other birds at its Top of the World and Campbell Hill wind farms outside Casper, Wyo. All the deaths, which included golden eagles, hawks, blackbirds, wrens and sparrows, occurred from 2009 to 2013.

"Wind energy is not green if it is killing hundreds of thousands of birds," said George Fenwick, president of the American Bird Conservancy, which supports properly sited wind farms. "The unfortunate reality is that the flagrant violations of the law seen in this case are widespread."

There could be more enforcement. The Fish and Wildlife Service is investigating 18 bird-death cases involving wind-power facilities, and about a half-dozen have been referred to the Justice Department.

Wind farms are clusters of turbines as tall as 30-story buildings, with spinning rotors as wide as a passenger jet's wingspan. Though the blades appear to move slowly, they can reach speeds up to 170 mph at the tips, creating tornado-like vortexes. Eagles are especially vulnerable because they don't look up as they scan the ground for food, failing to notice the blades until it's too late.

"No form of energy generation, or human activity for that matter, is completely free of impacts, and wind energy is no exception," the American Wind Energy Association said in a statement.

The case against Duke Energy and Duke Energy Renewables Inc. was the first prosecuted under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act against a wind energy company. The Obama administration has championed pollution-free wind power and used the same law against oil companies and power companies for drowning and electrocuting birds.

"In this plea agreement, Duke Energy Renewables acknowledges that it constructed these wind projects in a manner it knew beforehand would likely result in avian deaths," Robert G. Dreher, acting assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division, said in a statement.

Duke has a market capitalization of nearly $50 billion.

"We deeply regret the impacts of golden eagles at two of our wind facilities," Greg Wolf, president of Duke Energy Renewables, said in a statement. "Our goal is to provide the benefits of wind energy in the most environmentally responsible way possible."

A study in September by federal biologists found that wind turbines had killed at least 67 bald and golden eagles since 2008. Wyoming had the most eagle deaths. That did not include deaths at Altamont Pass, an area in northern California where wind farms kill an estimated 60 eagles a year.

An investigation in May by The Associated Press revealed dozens of eagle deaths from wind energy facilities, including at Duke's Top of the World farm, the deadliest for eagles of 15 such facilities that Duke operates nationwide.

In 2009, Exxon Mobil pleaded guilty and paid $600,000 for killing 85 birds in five states. The BP oil company was fined $100 million for killing and harming migratory birds during the 2010 Gulf oil spill. And PacifiCorp, which operates coal plants, paid more than $10.5 million in 2009 for electrocuting 232 eagles along power lines and at its substations.

The wind farms in Friday's settlement came on line before the Obama administration drafted voluntary guidelines encouraging wind energy companies to work with the Fish and Wildlife Service to avoid locations that would impact wildlife. Companies that choose to cooperate get rewarded because prosecutors take it into consideration before pursuing prosecution.

Once a wind farm is built, there is little a company can do to stop the deaths. Some companies have tried using radar to detect birds and to shut down the turbines when they get too close. Others have used human spotters to warn when birds are flying too close to the blades. Another tactic has been to remove vegetation to reduce the prey the birds like to eat.

As part of the agreement, Duke will continue to use field biologists to identify eagles and shut down turbines when they get too close. It will install new radar technology, similar to what is used in Afghanistan to track missiles. And it will continue to voluntarily report all eagle and bird deaths to the government.

The company will also have to apply for an eagle take permit and draft a plan to reduce eagle and bird deaths at its four wind farms in Wyoming.

Duke's $1 million will be divided. The fine — $400,000 — will go into a wetlands conservation fund. The state of Wyoming gets $100,000. The remainder will be used to purchase land or easements to protect golden eagle habitat and for projects aimed at minimizing interactions between eagles and wind turbines in Wyoming.

___

Associated Press writer Mead Gruver in Cheyenne, Wyo., contributed to this report.

___

Follow Dina Cappiello on Twitter at www.twitter.com/dinacappiello

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Obama seeks to shift focus to economic progress

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama says the U.S. economy is improving even if its progress has been overshadowed by political gridlock and the messy rollout of his health care law.

In his weekly radio and Internet address, Obama is seeking to shift the focus away from negative headlines. He says jobs have been created, the auto industry is recovering and deficits are falling.

But Obama says if Democrats and Republicans were working together, the economy could be even further along. He's accusing Republicans of wasting time with dozens of votes to repeal his health care law.

In the Republican address, Rep. Michael Burgess of Texas says despite Obama's promise, some who like their doctor may lose their doctor. He says the U.S. should scrap Obama's health law and start over.

___

Online:

White House address: www.whitehouse.gov

Republican address: www.gop.gov

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China company sorry for oil blasts that kill 47

BEIJING — China's largest oil refiner apologized Saturday for explosions from a ruptured oil pipeline that killed 47 people and injured 136 others in one of the country's worst industrial accidents of the year.

Sinopec's expansion of petrochemical projects has met with resistance from members of the public, and Friday's blasts in the eastern port city of Quingdao will likely add to growing concern about safety and environmental risks. The accident was the deadliest involving Sinopec.

The explosions ripped slabs of pavement, and online photos showed bodies, overturned vehicles and shattered windows in nearby buildings. Black smoke rose above gigantic fuel silos and darkened much of the sky over a bay area.

The pipeline, owned by Sinopec, ruptured and leaked for about 15 minutes onto a street and into the sea before it was shut off. Hours later, as workers cleaned up the spill, the oil caught fire and exploded in two locations, the city government said.

Fu Chengyu, chairman of Sinopec, issued a public apology Saturday morning, according to a company statement. He said that Sinopec will collaborate with a State Council investigation group.

"We will investigate the incident with responsibility and give timely reports," another Sinopec statement said.

The Qingdao Environmental Protection Bureau said barriers had been set up to contain the oil as it spread into the sea, but that a mixture of gas and oil from a storm sewer exploded and caught fire over the sea.

More than 3,000 square meters (32,000 square feet) of sea surface was contaminated, the city government said.

Authorities said the oil seeped into underground utility pipes, which could have been a factor in the blasts, but they did not elaborate. They assured the public that the explosions did not affect any petrochemical plants or military facilities in the seaside district and that air quality remained good after the disaster.

About 18,000 residents were evacuated in the wake of the blasts, and power was restored to all but two residential neighborhoods, authorities said.

Of the 136 people hospitalized, 10 were in critical condition, the city government said.

The Beijing News cited a resident surnamed Gao as saying he was driving past Qingdao's Huangdao district when he felt the force of the blasts, and then realized the ground in front of him had fractured. The air was pungent, many cars on both sides of the road were overturned and there was dark smoke rising in the distance, he said.

"It felt like an earthquake, and I was dumbstruck," Gao said, adding that there was chaos on the street as people ran, panicking, in all directions.

Authorities ruled out terrorism but the incident remained under investigation, it said.

President Xi Jinping urged local officials to go all out in finding missing people, treating the injured and finding the cause of the accident, state TV broadcaster CCTV said.

It was China's second-deadliest industrial accident of the year, behind a chicken factory fire in June in Jilin that killed 121 people.

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Mass. jobless rate at 7.2 percent in October

BOSTON — The Massachusetts unemployment rate stood at 7.2 percent in October, up slightly from the previous month, while the state added more than 9,000 jobs, according to the state Office of Labor and Workforce Development.

The agency on Friday released two months of jobs data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The report for September had not been previously released because of delays caused by the partial federal government shutdown in October.

The September unemployment rate in Massachusetts was 7.1 percent, down from 7.2 percent in August. It rose back to 7.2 percent in October.

During the past 12 months, the state's jobless rate has climbed one-half point from 6.7 percent in October 2012.

During the same period, however, the state has added 52,100 private sector jobs, according to Friday's report.

Revised estimates from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed the state gained 6,000 jobs in August and 9,400 jobs in September, along with the preliminary estimate of 9,100 jobs gained in October.

Among the sectors of the state's economy that picked up jobs last month were leisure and hospitality; trade, transportation and utilities; education and health services; and construction.

Losses were reported in the manufacturing sector and in government.

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Luxury rental tower springs up

If you've driven down Essex Street in Boston heading toward South Station, you've undoubtedly noticed the construction project that's been in development at 120 Kingston St.

The project, which broke ground in September 2012, is within months of completion. For Forest City, which is developing it with the Hudson Group, it's the first such project in Boston to date.

Located on the edge of Boston's Chinatown, this new luxury rental development will include 240 studio, one-bedroom, two-bedroom and penthouse contemporary residences available for lease in the spring. Officially known as the Radian, the development will offer modern rentals on the Rose Fitzgerald ­Kennedy Greenway and will feature panoramic views of Boston along with luxury amenities and services for residents.

Additionally, Radian will have 4,500 square feet of retail space available on the ground floor with an outdoor patio perfect for a restaurant and cafe.

The retail space is being marketed by Jesse Baerkahn and Dave Downing of Graffito SP, a team with extensive experience in ­urban place-making in Boston and Cambridge. Graffito SP helped transform Kendall Square into a retail and restaurant destination by bringing Area Four, Commonwealth, FireBrand Saints and Tatte Bakery to the neighborhood. In Boston, the firm just completed work on the restaurant and coffee bar at District Hall and The Club by George Foreman III in Fort Point.

"Radian is the premier rental tower opening downtown next year. As the gateway to the Greenway, Radian is at the nexus of three vibrant neighborhoods and will become a new icon in the Boston skyline," said Doug Arsham, vice president of development for Forest City Boston. "Our vision is to offer an enhanced living experience through top-of-market finishes, services and amenities, while also offering a respite from the bustling city life. We are very pleased with the initial response we received for Radian, on the first day that our teaser website launched we received approximately 100 inquiries."

Keep this property on your list if you're in the market to lease. With a location that's ideal for the downtown professional, it's set to fill up very quickly.

Charlie Abrahams is a licensed real estate agent in Boston who works with buyers and sellers and can be reached for any additional information at: Bostonrealestate@charlieabrahams.com

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Land deal may not hurt Wynn bid

The head of the state Gaming Commission yesterday said a federal investigation into whether a businessman with a criminal record is a secret part-owner of the Everett site of Steve Wynn's proposed $1.3 billion casino may not affect Wynn's chances of being approved for the sole gaming license in Eastern Massachusetts.

"We are investigating this. We have been for some time," Stephen Crosby, the commission's chairman, said when asked about the probe into whether Charles A. Lightbody is a hidden investor who stands to make millions if the casino is awarded the license.

Based on what he's seen so far, Crosby added, "It didn't have anything to do with Wynn. This is nothing Wynn knew anything about."

Lightbody, 59, was originally one of the owners of the 30-acre site, but withdrew before Wynn optioned it late last year, Lightbody's attorney, Timothy Flaherty said.

Wynn Resorts yesterday said in a statement the gaming commission's Investigations and Enforcement Bureau raised concerns about "potential participants who had not been disclosed to us. Those concerns were denied by the selling group ... but the IEB still had outstanding concerns regarding the selling group."

As a result, Wynn Resorts is amending its option agreement to clearly confirm ownership and cut the option price to reflect fair-market value without casino use, the company said.

Lightbody, who was convicted of assault in 2001 and larceny in 2007, was arrested last month on charges of assault and battery for allegedly hitting the head of the union that represents Suffolk Downs' betting clerks at a pro-casino rally in Revere.

Everett City Councilor Michael McLaughlin said he trusts the gaming commission to conduct its own investigation.

"The people of Everett have spoken," McLaughlin said, referring to last summer's overwhelming vote in favor of the casino. "We welcome Steve Wynn and his development."

The gaming commission yesterday scheduled a suitability hearing for Wynn's project Dec. 16, and one for MGM's proposed Springfield casino Dec. 9.

Also yesterday, Suffolk Downs, whose former partner, Caesars Entertainment, withdrew because of concerns about debt and purported mob links, told the commission that it expects to have a new gaming partner in the coming weeks. Chip Tuttle, the racetrack's chief operating officer, proposed shifting the site of the casino from East Boston and Revere to Revere only after East Boston voters rejected the project. The commission said it would consult with its lawyers before deciding whether to permit the change.

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Jury awards $24.4M to parents of Tufts patient

The parents of a boy whose intestines were damaged by an infection that went undetected in Tufts Medical Center's neonatal intensive care unit for nearly a day have been awarded a 
$24.4 million judgment by a jury, but will receive only $5.3 million under a prior deal between the parties.

Edward Xu, who is now 9 years old, was a premature newborn when he got the infection that distended his belly.

Lawyer Benjamin Nov­otny, with Lubin and Meyer, said Edward's parents 
alerted a doctor who ordered
X-rays after 11 hours, but 
those only captured the
half of his belly that was not infected. Nov­otny said it took another 13 hours before doctors realized what was wrong.

Yesterday, a jury returned a verdict that orders the hospital to pay $24.4 million to Edward's parents. However, both sides had agreed to limit the payout to $5.3 million under a deal that would have ensured some payment to the family regardless of the verdict.

"I'm just happy to see the family get the help that they need," Novotny said. "His parents take a bag of fluid and they tie it to a pole 
beside his bed. The bag feeds a tube in his chest. For eight to 10 hours a night he stays hooked up to these machines. It will be like this for the rest of his life."

The boy underwent emergency surgery to remove the damaged and infected lengths of his intestine, but the medical costs involved in his care are more than $2,000 a week, Novotny said.

Tufts yesterday defended its care of the boy.

"We have reviewed this case thoroughly and Edward was monitored closely by a team of experienced medical experts. They performed early medical and surgical interventions to save his life, using the most advanced techniques," the hospital said in a statement following the verdict. "Our care team is saddened that the best medicine available could not give him a better outcome."

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Apple takes $290M bite of Samsung

In an industry where ripping off another company's ideas is the norm, Samsung took copycatting too far with its mobile devices, according to a federal jury that ruled yesterday that the Korean manufacturer must pay Apple $290 million on top of $600 million from a previous judgment.

Samsung took a calculated risk by using design elements that were dangerously similar to Apple's. The original model of its Samsung Galaxy series of mobile devices, the S i9000, has the same outer frame, screen and icon placement as the iPhone, specifically the 3Gs model — including those handy phone and mail shortcuts anchored to the bottom of the home screen. And the original Galaxy Tab is nearly the mirror-image of the original iPad in terms of appearance.

Many have argued that it was unfair for the government to issue such broad patents in the first place. Should Apple really own design characteristics as basic as a rectangular frame with curved edges? But guess what — before the iPhone, there were no smartphones that looked like that. And not every smartphone that followed looked like that.

Microsoft smartphones are the best example. They neither look nor act like 
Apple devices. But the U.S. consumer electronics market isn't necessarily the greatest judge of innovation, with Windows phones still struggling to gain market share.

Samsung actually sold more mobile phones nat­ionwide than Apple in 2011. The smartphones cited in the lawsuit generated 
$7.5 billion in revenue from June 2010 to June 2012, 
so I'd say that calculated risk paid off for Samsung. Big time.

And Samsung's troubles with Apple might not be over. While testing the new Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom yesterday — which is supposed to be a 
truly unique smartphone 
because its face looks like a digital camera — I realized the back of the device is the twin to my iPhone 5. They literally share a footprint.

Not that Apple has the moral high ground on 
intellectual property. The company has been subject to its own set of patent claims, including one by Boston University alleging that it stole an engineering professor's manufacturing technique for blue LEDs.

So don't expect the 
mob­ile patent wars — which have embroiled Google and HTC as well — to end anytime soon. The greatest idea these com­panies have had in a long time is to lawyer up.

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US unemployment benefit applications drop to 323K

WASHINGTON — The number of people applying for U.S. unemployment benefits fell 21,000 to a seasonally adjusted 323,000 last week, the lowest since late September and further evidence of an improving job market.

The Labor Department said Thursday that the less volatile four-week average fell for the third straight week to 338,500. Both figures are near pre-recession levels.

Applications are a proxy for layoffs. They had spiked in early October because of the partial government shutdown and processing backlogs in California. But first-time applications have now fallen in five of the past six weeks. The decline indicates that employers are laying off fewer workers.

"If claims can remain at this week's level it would be easier to believe in the idea that ... payroll growth could break out to the upside," said Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics.

The steady declines suggest hiring will remain healthy in the coming months. Employers added 204,000 jobs in October, shrugging off the 16-day shutdown.

Job growth accelerated over the summer. Employers added an average of 202,000 jobs per month from August through October. That's up sharply from an average of 146,000 in May through July.

The solid gains should help boost economic growth next year. Greater hiring, combined with modest increases in pay, appears to be supporting more spending. Higher retail spending last month has raised hopes that the holiday shopping season will be better than many analysts expected.

Still, the economy is far from healthy. More than four years after the recession officially ended, the unemployment rate remains high at 7.3 percent.

And nearly 3.9 million people received benefits during the week ended Nov. 2, the latest data available. That's down about 33,000 from the previous week. That total has fallen 26 percent in the past year. Many of the former recipients have likely found jobs. But most have likely used up all the benefits available to them

The Federal Reserve is closely monitoring the job market in deciding when to reduce its economic stimulus. The Fed has been buying bonds to keep long-term interest rates low and encourage more borrowing and spending.

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Harvard sues over bell crack

Harvard University has resorted to legal action to settle a dispute over a cracked church bell whose morning tolls were the bane of many a bleary-eyed freshman.

The Ivy League school is suing Chime Master Systems, accusing the Ohio company of installing a defective clapper that allegedly caused the almost 5,000-pound Harvard Yard bell to crack in 2011 and produce an "abnormally loud and noticeably harsh" sound when rung, according to documents filed in U.S. District Court in Boston on Monday.

Harvard wants Chime Master, which was hired in 2006 to maintain the bell and recommended a custom replacement clapper in 2011, to pay damages for alleged negligence and breach of warranty.

"As a result of Chime Master's improper work, Harvard has incurred costs in determining the cause of the crack in the Memorial Church bell and will incur great expense for its replacement," Harvard's complaint states.

Chime Master president Jeff Crook referred calls to his insurance company's attorney, who declined comment.

Cast in England, the Memorial Church bell was donated in 1932 by then-Harvard president A. Lawrence Lowell and installed as part of the church's dedication in honor of Harvard students who died in World War I.

A 24- to 30-inch crack in the bell was noticed a little more than two months after the clapper was installed, according to court documents. An electronic chime is now used and, like the bell, is rung at 8:40 a.m., and every hour on the hour from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

"Regarding repair or replacement, no final determination has been made about next steps," a Harvard official said yesterday.

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Two biotechs get $100M-plus injections

Two Cambridge biotech companies added more than $100 million to their coffers yesterday, but for every different reasons.

Moderna, a biotech company that developed a way to force specific cells to manufacture drugs on demand, announced it raised $110 million in a new financing round, led by Flagship Ventures.

"We are pleased with the confidence and enthusiasm that our investors continue to demonstrate by providing the resources to advance Moderna's clinical development platform," Stephane Bancel, president and CEO of Moderna, said in a statement.

Bancel, noting Moderna has now raised 
$450 million in total, said the funding will allow it to continue its work without jumping on the recent biotech IPO bandwagon.

Also yesterday, pharmaceutical giant Vertex announced it had sold the royalty rights to Incivo — a hepatitis C drug — to Janssen Pharmaceutica N.V. for $152 million.

Vertex said the sale will allow it to continue to focus on its cystic fibrosis drug.

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Fed tapering concern weighs on markets

LONDON — Renewed jitters over when the U.S. Federal Reserve will start reducing its monetary stimulus kept markets in check Thursday.

The catalyst to the caution was the publication Wednesday of the minutes to the last Fed policy meeting.

The minutes showed that the central bank would likely start tapering off its bond purchases in "coming months" if the job market improved further. Fed members also weighed the possibility of slowing the $85 billion worth of monthly purchases even without clear evidence of a strengthening job market.

The Fed's stimulus, in its various guises, has helped shore up risky assets such as stocks and emerging market currencies over the past few years as the money created was recycled through financial markets.

The release of the minutes prompted a retreat on Wall Street and that negative finish largely dominated trading in Asia and Europe on Thursday.

"Barring some untoward data in the intervening period, they will embark on the tapering path, quite possibly in December, but at the very latest in January," said Marc Ostwald, market strategist at Monument Securities.

In Europe, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was flat at 6,681 while Germany's DAX lost 0.4 percent to 9,170. The CAC-40 in France shed 0.5 percent to 4,248.

Futures suggested a modest recovery on Wall Street, with Dow futures and S&P 500 futures up 0.2 percent.

Earlier in Asia, Hong Kong's Hang Seng shed 0.5 percent to 23,580.29 and China's Shanghai Composite eased 0.04 percent to 2,205.77. Seoul's Kospi was down 1.2 percent to 1,993.78 and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 retreated 0.4 percent to 5,288.32.

Japan's Nikkei 225 bucked the trend to rise 1.9 percent to 15,365.60, boosted by a weaker yen, which helps the competiveness of the country's exporters. The dollar was up 0.6 percent at 100.76 yen.

The euro, meanwhile, was up 0.3 percent at $1.3466 even though a closely watched survey pointed to a waning economic recovery in the 17-country eurozone.

Financial information company Markit said its purchasing managers' index — a gauge of business activity — fell in November to a three-month low of 51.5 points from 51.9 the previous month. The fall was unexpected — most economists had been predicting a modest rise to around 52.

Even though the index remained above the 50 mark that indicates expansion for the fifth month running, the decline adds to the recent evidence suggesting that the eurozone recovery is not gaining traction.

"These figures just go to show that the eurozone recovery is not going to be straight forward from here," said Craig Erlam, market analyst at Alpari.

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Pinterest launches location-based pins

NEW YORK — Pinterest, the online pinboard for sharing everything from wedding china ideas to travel inspiration, is now letting users add location to their pins.

San Francisco-based Pinterest says that its "Place Pins," were designed to "combine all the beautiful imagery of a travel magazine with the utility of a map and put it all online so you can share it with friends."

Pinterest says there are more than 750 million travel-related pins on the site already. With the new location-based pins, users will be able to create maps for friends visiting from out of town, or vacation spots they want to see.

According to comScore, Pinterest has more than 53 million users. The San Francisco-based company is privately held and is only testing the waters of generating any revenue.

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German official cautions over more ECB stimulus

FRANKFURT, Germany — Germany's top central banker said it's too soon for the European Central Bank to talk about a further shot of stimulus for the struggling eurozone economy.

Jens Weidmann said the ECB only this month loosened monetary policy with an interest rate cut to a record low of only 0.25 percent.

"I don't think it's a good idea to announce the next round right away," he said in an interview with Die Zeit newspaper made available Wednesday.

Weidmann's warning follows remarks by ECB executive board member Peter Praet last week that the ECB could take the additional step of purchasing financial assets such as bonds — if the bank thought the economy was threatened by deflation, a corrosive, chronic fall in prices. Deflation undermines growth and investment as people hold off on purchases as goods become cheaper. It also makes debts harder to pay.

Deflation concerns have ratcheted up in recent weeks after inflation in the 17-country eurozone fell to 0.7 percent in the year to October, well below the ECB's target of keeping prices increases just below 2 percent.

In theory, pumping money into the eurozone economy could help ease those deflation concerns and help the eurozone recovery from recession. Other central banks including the U.S. Federal Reserve and the Bank of England have made such purchases with newly created money to lower interest rates and spur growth.

The ECB, the chief monetary authority for the eurozone, had until recently said little about using the bond-purchase stimulus tool, or "quantitative easing" in economic jargon.

Last week, the Wall Street Journal quoted Praet as saying the bank could purchase assets if its mandate to maintain price stability was threatened.

If the price stability mandate is at risk, Praet said, then "we are going to take all the measures that we think we should take to fulfill that mandate." That includes "outright purchases that any central bank can do."

The idea of quantitative easing faces resistance in Germany, Europe's largest economy. Many in Germany are skeptical of central bank measures seen as potentially inflationary, or as bailing out troubled euro member governments that won't take steps themselves to improve growth.

Weidmann is only one vote however on the 23-member ECB rate-setting council, a post he holds as head of Germany's national central bank, the Bundesbank.

Weidmann said that Europe's troubles over slow growth, uncompetitive eurozone member economies and too much debt "certainly cannot be solved through the money printing press."

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US consumer prices drop 0.1 pct. on cheaper gas

WASHINGTON — Cheaper gasoline lowered overall U.S. consumer prices slightly in October. But outside the steep drop at the pump, inflation stayed mild.

The consumer price index fell 0.1 percent last month, down from a 0.2 percent increase in September, the Labor Department said Wednesday. The October decline was due mainly to a 2.9 percent drop in gasoline costs, the largest since April. Over the past 12 months, overall prices have risen 1 percent, well below the Federal Reserve's inflation target of 2 percent.

PNC Bank chief economist Stuart Hoffman said the low inflation reading ensures that the Fed will continue its extraordinary measures to spur growth.

"From the Federal Reserve's perspective, inflation is too low, one reason why the central bank continues to provide massive stimulus to the economy," Hoffman said in a note to clients.

Excluding volatile energy and food costs, so-called core prices rose 0.1 percent in October from September and have risen just 1.7 percent over the past 12 months. The prices for new vehicles, clothing and medical care declined last month. But airfares rose a whopping 3.6 percent.

U.S. gasoline prices began falling in the spring and reached two-year lows earlier this month. The average price of a gallon of gas was $3.21, according to AAA's Daily Fuel Gauge Report.

The drop in fuel prices may be offset somewhat by slight increases in the cost of food, which rose 0.1 percent. That increase was driven by a 0.6 percent rise in the prices of meats, poultry, fish and eggs, the largest advance for any of the food categories.

Inflation has been modest over the past four years, with prices held down by the weak recovery from the Great Recession. High unemployment and modest wage hikes have made it difficult for Americans to spend more and retailers to charge more.

Low inflation gives the Fed more latitude to pursue its extraordinary stimulus to help drive economic growth. The Fed has been buying $85 billion a month in bonds to keep long-term interest rates low and encourage more borrowing and spending. It has also kept its key short-term interest rate near zero since late 2008.

Critics of the bond-buying program fear it will spark higher inflation in the future.

But a number of Fed officials have objected to slowing the program because inflation remains below 2 percent.

A small amount of inflation can be good for the economy, because it encourages consumers and businesses to spend and invest before prices rise further.

The Fed will release on Wednesday the minutes of its policymaker meeting that ended on Oct. 30. Economists expect the minutes to provide little insight into what steps the central bank will take next in terms of its bond buying and plans to keep the short-term interest rate it controls at nearly zero.

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Frederick Sanger, double Nobel winner, dies at 95

LONDON — British biochemist Frederick Sanger, who twice won the Nobel Prize in chemistry and was a pioneer of genome sequencing, has died at the age of 95.

His death was confirmed Wednesday by the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology — which Sanger helped found in 1962.

The laboratory praised Sanger, who died in his sleep Tuesday at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge, as an "extremely modest and self-effacing man whose contributions have made an extraordinary impact on molecular biology."

Sanger was one of just four individuals to have been awarded two Nobel Prizes; the others being Marie Curie, Linus Pauling and John Bardeen.

Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust, called Sanger "the father of the genomic era."

Sanger first won the Nobel Prize in 1958 at the age of 40 for his work on the structure of proteins. He had determined the sequence of the amino acids in insulin and showed how they are linked together.

He later turned his attention to the sequencing of nucleic acids and developing techniques to determine the exact sequence of the building blocks in DNA.

That work led to Sanger's second Nobel Prize, awarded jointly in 1980 with Stanford University's Paul Berg and Harvard University's Walter Gilbert, for their work determining base sequences in nucleic acids.

Venki Ramakrishnan, deputy director of the MRC Laboratory, said it would be "impossible to overestimate the impact" Sanger had on modern genetics and molecular biology.

Sanger was born on Aug. 13, 1918, in Gloucestershire, southwestern England. While he initially planned to study medicine like his father, he switched fields and earned a degree in natural sciences from Cambridge University 1939. A conscientious objector in World War II, he went on to earn a PhD working on protein metabolism from the same university.

In addition to the Nobel Prizes, Sanger was made a fellow of the Royal Society in 1954, Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1963 and the Order of Merit in 1986.

Sanger declined a knighthood, however, because he preferred not to be called "sir," according to the laboratory he helped found.

According to The Sanger Institute, when he was asked if he would mind an institute being named after him, Sanger agreed — but said "It had better be good."

Sanger is survived by three children — Robin, Peter and Sally.

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Follow Cassandra Vinograd at http://twitter.com/CassVinograd

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Markets remain lackluster in run up to Fed minutes

AMSTERDAM — Markets got a modest lift Wednesday after tame U.S. inflation figures eased investor fears that the U.S. Federal Reserve will feel pressure to reduce its monetary stimulus soon.

U.S. consumer prices fell slightly in October, due to lower energy and housing prices, according to a Labor Department report Wednesday. Over the past 12 months, inflation has been just 1 percent, the smallest increase since late 2009.

"With limited inflation pressure and even perhaps a whiff of deflation, the Fed isn't likely to feel any urgency to pull in the reins on policy," said Jim Baird, chief investment officer at Plante Moran Financial Advisors.

Following the inflation figures, stocks in Europe recovered some lost ground while the U.S. opened steadily.

In Europe, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was down 0.2 percent at 6,688 while Germany's DAX was a tad lower at 9,190. The CAC-40 in France was 0.3 percent lower at 4,260.

In the U.S., the Dow Jones industrial average was flat at 15,967 while the broader S&P 500 index rose 0.1 percent to 1,790.

The main focus later will be the publication of the minutes to the Fed's last policy meeting are published later in the U.S. trading session.

"Investors remain hesitant to enter the markets before tonight's minutes," said Max Cohen, a trader at Spreadex.

Earlier, Asian markets generally fell, though Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 0.2 percent to 23,700.86 and China's Shanghai Composite reversed losses to gain 0.6 percent to 2,206.61 after the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development made positive remarks about the Chinese economy.

Seoul's Kospi was down 0.7 percent to 2,017.24. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 ceded 0.8 percent to 5,307.70. Japan's Nikkei 225 stock average shed 0.3 percent to 15,076.08, hurt by a rise in the yen.

Other markets drifted. Among currencies the euro was 0.1 percent lower at $1.3539 while the dollar fell 0.3 percent to 99.87 yen.

In the oil markets, the benchmark New York crude rate was up 45 cents at $93.34 a barrel.

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US creates economic advisory team for Puerto Rico

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — The U.S. is sending a team of federal officials to help Puerto Rico manage an economic crisis as the island braces for its eighth year of recession.

A U.S. administration official said Wednesday that the team will be composed of officials from the departments of Education, Health and Human Services, and Housing and Urban Development, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency.

They will travel to Puerto Rico starting in December to work with the island's government on how to best maximize federal funds in those areas to help boost its economy. The officials will work in an advisory capacity and no additional federal funds are planned beyond current allocations.

The team was created by a presidential task force that previously worked with Puerto Rico on political status issues.

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Oxford Dictionaries: 'Selfie' is word of the year

LONDON — Michelle Obama shared one with her "first dog" Bo, Hillary Clinton tweeted one with her daughter Chelsea. Now "selfie" — the smartphone self-portrait — has been declared word of the year for 2013, according to Britain's Oxford University Press.

The publisher of the Oxford dictionaries said Tuesday that "selfie" saw a huge jump in usage in the past year, bursting from the confines of Instagram and Twitter to become mainstream shorthand for any self-taken photograph.

Researchers behind the renowned dictionaries pick a prominent word or expression in the English language each year that best reflects the mood of the times. Previous words of the year have included "unfriend" in 2009, "credit crunch" in 2008, "carbon footprint" in 2007 and "Sudoku" in 2005.

Judy Pearsall, the editorial director for Oxford Dictionaries, said "selfie" appeared to have been first used in 2002 on an Australian online forum, and the hashtag #selfie appeared on the photo-sharing website Flickr in 2004.

"But usage wasn't widespread until around 2012, when 'selfie' was being used commonly in mainstream media," she said.

Australian English sometimes uses the suffix "-ie" — such as barbie for barbeque and tinnie for a can of beer — which helps to explain where "selfie" may have come from, Pearsall added.

Oxford usually assigns a separate word of the year to the U.S. and to the U.K., but it said "selfie" captured the imagination on both sides of the Atlantic this year.

The term beat other buzzwords including "twerk," the sexually provocative dance move that got a huge boost in usage thanks to an attention-grabbing performance by pop star Miley Cyrus; "showrooming," the practice of visiting a shop to look at a product before buying it online at a lower price; and "Bitcoin," the digital currency that gained widespread media attention.

Also making the shortlist was "binge-watch," a verb that describes watching many episodes of a TV show in rapid succession.

The words were chosen by a research program that monitors online content and collects around 150 million words of English in use each month.

"Selfie" was added to the online version of the Oxford dictionary in August and is being considered for future inclusion in the more traditional Oxford English Dictionary.

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Follow Sylvia Hui on http://www.Twitter.com/sylviahui

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Bangladesh police clash with garment workers

DHAKA, Bangladesh — Police said they fired rubber bullets and tear gas Tuesday to disperse thousands of garment workers who rampaged through industrial towns in Bangladesh to protest the killing of two factory workers during a demonstration for higher wages.

At least 30 people were injured in the violence, said police official Mohammad Nazrul Islam.

The two factory workers died earlier Tuesday, a day after they were seriously wounded by rubber bullets fired by police outside the capital, Dhaka.

Garment workers in Bangladesh have been protesting since last month to press for a wage hike.

In the latest violence, security forces fired rubber bullets and tear gas to stop angry workers from vandalizing factories, Islam said.

The workers also set up roadblocks with burned tires and abandoned vehicles, disrupting traffic in the industrial towns of Gazipur and Ashulia, outside of Dhaka.

A protest leader, Delwar Hossain, said the workers were demonstrating peacefully and were attacked by police "without provocation."

Since the protests began in October, the government has deployed paramilitary border guards to boost security in Gazipur, a hub of several hundred garment factories.

Police said about 50 garment factories shut down for the day Tuesday because of the protests.

Garment workers in Bangladesh are poorly paid and are forced to work under poor and unsafe conditions in an industry that earns up to $20 billion a year — about 70 percent of the country's export earnings.

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OECD cuts global growth forecasts

PARIS — Global growth is expected to lag this year and next, but for the first time in a long time, it's not all Europe's fault.

That's the view of a leading international economic body, which said Tuesday that a slowdown in emerging economies and the potential for another U.S. budget crisis are the main sources of concern for the global economy.

In its half-yearly forecast, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development lowered its forecast for global growth this year to 2.7 percent and 3.6 percent for next. In May, it had predicted 3.1 percent and 4 percent growth, respectively.

"We can't get (the world economy) out of first gear," said Angel Gurria, the secretary-general of the organization, which brings together the world's most developed economies.

Just as the economy of the 17-country eurozone is emerging from its longest-ever recession brought on by a debt crisis, other economies are beginning to slow.

Emerging markets, which have helped shore up global growth in recent years, are beginning to lag, partially over fears that a pickup in the U.S. economy will spell the end of cheap credit.

"The BRIICS (Brazil, Russia, India, Indonesia, China, South Africa) have been big machines of growth, they were pulling the world, and they are decelerating," said Gurria.

Among those economies, Indonesia, for instance, is projected to grow 5.2 percent this year and 5.6 percent next. In May, the OECD was predicting at least 6 percent growth for both years. In India, the growth projection for this year has slid from 5.7 percent to 3.4 percent.

The Federal Reserve has pumped trillions of dollars into the U.S. economy in an attempt to keep interest rates low and get money flowing. The stimulus, which has been going on in various guises for years, has also helped sustain growth in emerging countries. Now businesses there are bracing themselves for the policy's end.

The OECD also cautioned about the impact of another damaging fight over the U.S. budget. A little over a month ago, the U.S. narrowly avoided technically defaulting on some of its debts following a protracted and often dysfunctional battle in Congress over the budget and the raising over the debt ceiling.

"Brinkmanship over fiscal policy in the United States remains a key risk and uncertainty," Pier Carlo Padoan, the OECD's chief economist, wrote in a commentary accompanying the report.

The OECD recommended that the U.S. scrap its policy of capping borrowing with a debt ceiling and instead come up with a more reasoned plan to reduce debt.

But with the risk that the U.S. won't come up with such a plan in mind, the OECD slightly lowered its expectations for U.S. growth, saying GDP would rise 1.7 percent this year and 2.9 percent next.

The eurozone, on the other hand, is beginning to improve, the OECD said, although risks remain. It predicted that, overall, the eurozone will shrink 0.4 percent this year, as compared with the 0.6 percent slide forecast in May.

But the report warned that the recovery is uneven, and unemployment won't begin to fall — from very high levels — until next year.

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United aims for $2B in cost savings

United Airlines says it will cut costs, overhaul its website, and shift flying from Asia to Europe as it aims to keep shareholders happy.

United disclosed the initiatives Tuesday as part of a presentation to investors.

The airline, run by United Continental Holdings Inc., is aiming to cut costs by $2 billion per year. A spokeswoman says the plan announced Tuesday does not include furloughs. The airline is also aiming to burn less fuel, make workers more productive, and improve its maintenance processes.

It plans to overhaul its United.com website in phases next year.

United will drop Seattle-to-Tokyo flights, replacing them with a second daily flight from Houston. United has faced strong competition in Seattle from Delta Air Lines Inc.

United is also shifting some flying from Asia to Europe.

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EU parliament finally approves budget cut

BRUSSELS — The European Union's parliament on Tuesday finally approved the first spending cut in the history of the 28-nation group.

Over two years of haggling ended when the EU legislature approved the budget, which will fall to 960 billion euros ($1.3 trillion budget), from 975 billion euros, for the seven years between 2014 and 2020.

The cut had been sought by several EU countries which wanted to see austerity at the EU level at a time when many were pursuing cutbacks at home.

EU President Herman Van Rompuy called the spending commitments "a realistic budget for Europe" which has been struggling through years of financial crisis.

The budget fell some 40 billion euros short of the first proposals of the EU head office which had wanted more clout to push through investment and employment programs.

Britain had been first in line to hammer home the message that the EU should limit spending, if only to contain its ambitions to encroach on national policies.

"The difficult budgetary situation in the member states has resulted for the first time in a lower budget," said Jean-Luc Dehaene, who negotiated the deal for the parliament. He saw difficult times ahead.

"This is especially problematic as in times of national austerity the EU budget should be higher to compensate for declining investments in the member states."

The Parliament meeting in Strasbourg, France, approved the budget by 537 votes to 126, with 19 abstentions. The member states only need to reconfirm the agreement in the coming weeks, which is not expected to pose any problem.

Also on Tuesday, the EU's highest court ruled that the member states were within their rights to block automatic pay increases for EU officials in 2011 amounting to 1.7 percent.

The European Court of Justice ruled that EU nations were within their rights to consider the economic downturn sufficed to block the increase.

Again, Britain was happy to applaud the ruling.

"When governments and families across Europe are taking difficult decisions to make savings, it would be wrong and irresponsible for the EU to not show similar restraint," said Nicky Morgan, a British Treasury minister.

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Dow hits 16,000 for first time, S&P 500 hits 1,800

NEW YORK  — Stock market indexes are hitting new milestones on Wall Street.

The Dow Jones industrial average crossed 16,000 points for the first time early Monday and the Standard & Poor's 500 index crossed 1,800 points.

Stocks have been rising sharply this year as the U.S. economy improves, companies report bigger profits and the Federal Reserve keeps up its easy-money policies.

The S&P 500 index has risen for six weeks straight and is up 26 percent so far this year. A growing number of market watchers are calling for caution after the steep rise.

Boeing rose the most of the 30 stocks in the Dow after the plane maker booked $100 billion in orders at the opening of the Dubai Airshow.

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Colorado mine accident kills 2, injures 20

OURAY, Colo. — Authorities are trying to determine exactly what sort of accident occurred in a mine in southwestern Colorado that left two miners dead of carbon monoxide poisoning and injured 20 others.

The Ouray County sheriff's office was called to the Revenue-Virginius mine at 7:20 a.m. Sunday, Ouray County spokeswoman Marti Whitmore said.

The miners were underground and were confirmed dead Sunday afternoon.

Authorities said at a late night news conference that the two died from carbon monoxide poisoning, according to The Denver Post. But the source of the gas was under investigation.

Both the Montrose Daily Press and the Post reported that investigators are looking at whether a blast on Saturday played a role.

The 20 injured were taken to three area hospitals, and most were treated and released.

The Daily Press reports four of the men were hospitalized and were listed in fair condition, according to information from hospital officials. Whitmore, however, said only two were admitted.

The Daily Press reported that 10 miners went to Montrose Memorial Hospital, where officials say they were treated for carbon monoxide exposure. It wasn't immediately clear if the remaining 10 also suffered from exposure to the gas.

Rory Williams, the operations manager for Denver-based Star Mine LLC, said all of the men are required to wear personal respirators and the two who died had them. He said that it doesn't appear to be an equipment malfunction, the Post reported.

Both newspapers identified the dead as 34-year-old Nick Cappanno of Montrose, Colo., and Rick Williams, 59, of Durango, Colo.

"I knew both of these individuals personally," said Rory Williams, who said he is no relation to Rick Williams. "They were hard-working men. They were great men. They will be remembered indeed."

Though the cause of the accident hasn't been determined, Rory Williams told the Ouray Watch newspaper that it wasn't related to a cave-in or mine collapse.

The U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration is at the accident site, which is about 270 miles southwest of Denver.

The Post said that the company has a permit to mine silver, gold and sulfides. About 100 miners work at the site, which will be closed until the end of the investigation, Williams said.

The last major mining disaster in Colorado occurred on April 15, 1981, when an explosion killed 15 people at the Mid-Continent Dutch Creek No. 1 Mine near Redstone.

There have been eight mining deaths in the state since 2002, not including the two Sunday, according to the mine safety agency.

In 2011, a New Mexico contract worker died after being hurt at the West Elk Coal Mine in Somerset, in western Colorado. The agency found the 53-year-old slipped and fell from a beam at a tower construction site.

In 2012, a 25-year-old water truck driver died after losing control of his vehicle at Colowyo Mine in Moffat County.

The Watch reported that in its heyday, between 1876 and the late 1940s, the Revenue-Virginius mine produced more than 14.5 million ounces of silver, enough to weather the Silver Panic of 1893.

Star Mine Operations acquired the property in late 2011.

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Photographer shot at French newspaper office

PARIS — A gunman opened fire in the lobby of a French newspaper office in Paris on Monday, gravely wounding a photographer's assistant before fleeing. Soon afterward, shots were fired at the headquarters of a major French bank west of Paris, and a gunman briefly took a man hostage nearby.

The Paris police headquarters said that it is not clear whether the three incidents are linked, but that authorities are increasing security in all three places as well as media offices around Paris. As police hunt for the attacker or attackers, a helicopter is flying over the neighborhood that includes the French president's office and the nearby Champs-Elysees avenue.

The motivation behind all three attacks is unclear.

The shooting at the offices of prominent daily newspaper Liberation came three days after a shooting at the BFM-TV news network in Paris that is still under investigation.

Police and representatives of Liberation say a 27-year-old photographer's assistant is in serious condition after being shot in the chest and arm. The culture minister called the newspaper — an outspoken left-leaning voice founded by Jean-Paul Sartre that has seen financial difficulties and layoffs in recent years — a "pillar of our democracy."

Witnesses reported the gunman said nothing during the brief time he was in the lobby Monday morning soon after 10 a.m. Yoann Maras of the police union Alliance said the gunman fired a pump-action rifle.

Less than two hours after the shooting at Liberation, three shots were fired in front of the headquarters of bank Societe Generale in the Paris suburb of La Defense, according to Paris police. Societe Generale, based about 10 kilometers (6 miles) northwest of the Liberation offices, said in a statement that a lone gunman opened fire in front of the building, and no one was hurt.

And very soon after that, a man called police to say he had been taken hostage by a gunman in the town of Puteaux, next door to La Defense. Police said the gunman forced his hostage to drive six kilometers (3½ miles) back toward central Paris, and then let him go on the Champs-Elysees, a chic and busy shopping thoroughfare.

Police are searching the neighborhood and other sites around the French capital, the Paris police headquarters said.

The government positioned police at all major media organizations in Paris, according to Interior Minister Manuel Valls. BFM-TV said authorities were comparing Monday's surveillance footage with video taken Friday, when an armed man fired a weapon and threatened journalists in the news network's lobby before fleeing. The bullet casings are also being compared.

President Francois Hollande, said in a statement he ordered authorities to "mobilize all means to clarify the circumstances of these acts and arrest the perpetrator or perpetrators." Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders denounced the attacks on the journalism facilities.

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Associated Press writers Angela Charlton and Sarah DiLorenzo and Milos Krivokapic contributed to this report.

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Activists: Kuwait, UAE sentences for tweets

KUWAIT CITY — Twitter users in two Gulf Arab countries received prison terms Monday, rights activist said, in the latest sign of widening crackdowns in the region on social media for posts considered offensive or against state security.

The court decisions in Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates are likely to bring renewed protests from international rights groups accusing Gulf authorities of using codes against dissent to try to muzzle open expression on the Internet.

In Kuwait, a court sentenced a Twitter user, Musaab Shamsah, to five years in prison after he was convicted of insulting the Prophet Muhammad, said activist Nawaf al-Hendal.

Sahmsah was arrested following a Twitter post he allegedly made in May that made references to the descendants of Islam's prophet. The post, since taken down, could be taken as endorsing Shiite beliefs in the Sunni-ruled country.

In the UAE, a state worker, Waleed al-Shehhi, received a two-year sentence and a fine of 500,000 dirhams ($137,000) after conviction on state security charges for Twitter posts in May about the trial of 94 people suspected of ties to an Islamist faction, which authorities claim seeks to undermine the country's ruling system, said prominent UAE activist Ahmed Mansoor.

In July, 69 of the defendants were convicted of trying to overthrow the state.

There was no immediate comment from authorities in either country on the cases.

In Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, three lawyers are facing trial over social media posts allegedly criticizing authorities.

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Washington Post Co. will become Graham Holdings

NEW YORK — The Washington Post Co. is changing its name to Graham Holdings to reflect the sale of its namesake newspaper.

The switch will become official on Nov. 29, and its New York Stock Exchange ticker symbol will change to "GHC" from "WPO."

Washington Post Co. closed the sale of most of its newspaper business to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on Oct. 1. Bezos reached a deal to buy the venerable Capital broadsheet and other newspapers from the Graham family for $250 million in August.

The company's remaining holdings include the Kaplan education business; several television stations and Phoenix-based Cable One; Slate and Foreign policy magazines, and TheRoot.com; home health care provider Celtic Healthcare, and Forney Corp., which serves the electric utility sector.

Shares slipped 74 cents to $653.85 in morning trading.

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Geithner to join private equity firm

Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who played a central role in the government's response to the financial crisis of 2008-2009, is joining private equity firm Warburg Pincus LLC.

The firm announced Saturday that Geithner will serve as its president and managing director starting March 1.

Geithner led the Federal Reserve Bank of New York for more than five years before becoming Treasury secretary in 2009, when the economy had sunk into a deep recession.

Few Treasury secretaries received as much scrutiny. Supporters credited Geithner with helping prevent the recession from spiraling into a second Great Depression by stabilizing the banking system and restoring investor confidence. Critics said he was too cozy with Wall Street.

Warburg Pincus said that Geithner would advise the firm on strategy, investing, investor relations and other topics. The New York-based firm has been involved in buyouts of such well-known companies as luxury department store chain Neiman Marcus and contact lens maker Bausch + Lomb.

The firm declined to comment on Geithner's compensation. Through an aide, Geithner declined an interview request.

Geithner, 52, stepped down from Treasury in late January, days after President Barack Obama was sworn in for a second term. He was the last of Obama's original economic advisers to leave the administration, and was succeeded as Treasury secretary by Jack Lew.

In an interview with The Associated Press on his last day in office, Geithner said that the economy was "stronger than people appreciate" and predicted a pickup in growth. He defended his role in bailouts for large banks — steps designed to stabilize the financial system — but acknowledged that he would never win over his critics because it was hard to convince people about the dangers posed by the financial crisis.

The official who oversaw taxpayer bailouts of the banks, for example, criticized Geithner for allowing insurance giant American International Group to pay huge bonuses to executives. AIG got the biggest bailout of the financial crisis.

Geithner's appointment calendar from 2009 detailed his extensive contacts with CEOs of Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup.

Since leaving office, Geithner signed a deal with Random House's Crown Publishers to write a behind-the-scenes book about the response to the economic crisis and has given speeches.

Geithner has spent most of his career in government, although he had an early stint at Kissinger Associates, the consulting firm formed by former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Geithner joined the Treasury Department in 1988 and served as undersecretary for international affairs during the Clinton administration. He worked at the International Monetary Fund from 2001 until 2003 before being named president of the New York Fed.

Private equity firms pool money from clients such as pension funds and other institutional investors to buy companies or stakes in companies. They try to improve the financial results of a company with the goal of reselling it at a profit.

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Obama struggles to save his cherished health law

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama's health care law risks coming unglued because of his administration's bungles and his own inflated promises.

To avoid that fate, Obama needs breakthroughs on three fronts: the cancellations mess, technology troubles and a crisis in confidence among his own supporters.

Working in his favor are pent-up demands for the program's benefits and an unlikely collaborator in the insurance industry.

But even after Obama gets the enrollment website working, count on new controversies. On the horizon is the law's potential impact on job-based insurance. Its mandate that larger employers offer coverage will take effect in 2015.

For now, odds still favor the Affordable Care Act's survival. But after making it through the Supreme Court, a presidential election, numerous congressional repeal votes and a government shutdown, the law has yet to win broad acceptance.

"There's been nothing normal about this law from the start," said Larry Levitt, an insurance expert with the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation. "There's been no period of smooth sailing."

Other government mandates have taken root in American culture after initial resistance. It may be a simplistic comparison, but most people automatically fasten their seat belts nowadays when they get in the car. Few question government-required safety features such as air bags, even if those add to vehicle costs.

Levitt says the ACA may yet have that kind of influence on how health insurance is viewed. "An expectation that everybody should have health insurance is now a topic of conversation in families," he says.

That conversation was interrupted by news that the HealthCare.gov website didn't work and that people with coverage were getting cancellation notices despite Obama's promise that you can keep your insurance.

Obama maneuvered this past week to extricate Democrats from the cancellations fallout.

The president offered a one-year extension to more than 4.2 million people whose current individual policies are being canceled by insurers to make way for more comprehensive coverage under the law. This move by the White House was intended to smooth a disruption for which his administration completely failed to plan.

But it also invited unintended consequences, showing how easily the law's complicated framework can start to come loose.

State insurance commissioners warned that the president's solution would undermine a central goal of the law, the creation of one big insurance pool in each state for people who don't have access to coverage on their jobs. Fracturing that market could lead to higher future premiums for people buying coverage through the law's new insurance exchanges, which offer government-subsidized private insurance.

That Obama is willing to take such a gamble could make it harder for him to beat back demands for other changes down the line.

On the cancellations front, the president seems unlikely to break through. He may yet battle to a political draw.

Obama realizes it's on him to try to turn things around, and quickly. In the first couple of weeks after the website debacle, Obama played the sidelines role of "Reassurer-in-Chief." Now he's on the field, trying to redeem himself.

"I'm somebody who, if I fumbled the ball, I'm going to wait until I get the next play, and then I'm going to try to run as hard as I can and do right by the team," Obama said Thursday at a news conference.

Making sure the website is running a lot better by the end of the month may be his best chance for a game-changing play.

Although only 26,794 people signed up in health plans through the federal site the first month of open enrollment, 993,635 applied for coverage and were waiting to finalize decisions. For many it took hours of persistence, dealing with frozen screens and error messages. When states running their own sites are included, a total of 1.5 million individuals have applied.

The law's supporters believe that's evidence of pent-up demand, and so far the insurance industry agrees. Public criticism of the administration by industry leaders has been minimal, even though insurers also have been on the receiving end of the website problems. Compounding the lower-than-expected sign-ups, much of the customer data they got was incomplete, duplicative or garbled.

Insurers, eager for the new business expanded coverage would bring, are pressing the administration to clear a route for them to sign up customers directly. Such workarounds may put Obama back on track toward his goal of signing up 7 million people for 2014. Medicaid expansion, the other arm of the law's push to cover the uninsured, signed up 396,000 people last month, a promising start.

With the website troubles, a national effort to promote insurance enrollments has been dialed down. Groups ranging from liberal activists and civic clubs to health promoters were mobilized and waiting. But there was little they could do. Advertising campaigns have been postponed. As the year-end holidays approach, both volunteers and the people they would be trying to reach have other priorities.

Whether enthusiasm among the rank-and-file supporters of the law will come surging back is one of the big unknowns for a president who has acknowledged the need to restore his credibility on health care.

"I think people have lost confidence in the ability of this working," said Kansas Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger. "And we've still got the anti-Obamacare folks out there taking full advantage." Praeger is a Republican who believes her state should have helped implement the law.

Skittishness among supporters was evident in the 39 House Democrats who Friday bolted their party to vote for Republican legislation on cancellations, ignoring Obama's veto threat.

Politics is not the only consideration.

The people who are signing up now are likely to be those with unmet medical needs. Younger, healthier customers probably don't see much reason to spend their time tangling with the website. To hold down costs, the law aims for a mix that includes a hefty proportion of younger enrollees whose medical expenses are low.

"Everybody said the website would be up and running the first day," said Praeger. "The longer it takes, the more people are going to question whether this is going to work."

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Trans fat ban irks eateries

Many local restaurants and bakeries could be forced to revise their menus and change their food — thanks to the Food and Drug Administration's decision to ban artery-clogging trans fats — not long after they scrambled to meet different trans fat guidelines.

Bob Luz, president of the Massachusetts Restaurant Association, said many establishments already made major modifications to their food in order to be officially "trans fat-free," a description the FDA said required less than .5 grams of trans fats per serving in 2006. Now, more modifications will have to be made to completely eliminate the artificial trans fats.

"All of the hard work and effort that everybody put into achieving that .5" is for naught, Luz said. "They're going to have to go back to the drawing boards. That's going to be costly, that's going to take time."

The FDA is collecting comments for two months before determining a timetable to phase-out trans fats. Different foods may have different schedules, depending on how easy it is to find substitutes.

Luz said he would have no problem with the FDA regulation if it did not undo the previous guidelines.

"This would not be a major hurdle if not for the .5 definition," Luz said.

Several towns in Massachusetts already have banned trans fats, including Brookline and Chelsea.

Richard Katz, owner of Katz Bagel Bakery in Chelsea and an ardent opponent of the ban, said he was forced to stop making his popular apple and raspberry turnovers. He said he tried to make them without shortening, but "customers came back the next week and said what was wrong with your turnovers?"

While he has no illusions about trans fats' lack of nutritional value, Katz said restaurants and customers should be able to choose what to eat.

"You don't have to eat trans fats every single day, have them once in a while," he said. "People continue to smoke, they continue to drink and they continue to eat."

Katz decided to continue to use trans fats in his chicken pot pie and pie crusts, although he no longer makes the turnovers.

"People love my chicken pot pies. They love the crust because my crust is good," Katz said.

The Grocery Manufacturers Association, which represents the country's largest food suppliers, said in a statement that manufacturers have lowered the amount of trans fats in food by more than 73 percent since 2005.

Many high-profile restaurants have largely eliminated trans fats already, including Friendly's and Dunkin' Donuts. Only 18 items out of 547 on the Dunkin' Donuts master menu contain trans fats. The Canton-based chain voluntarily eliminated a majority of the trans fats in its menu items in 2007.

Dunkin' Donuts spokeswoman Michelle King said the company is "assessing" the FDA decision to phase out trans fats and "will continue to monitor the issue."

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Young entrepreneurs get real

A group of entrepreneurs, armed with business plans, prototypes and mock-ups, pitched their start-ups to a panel of potential investors, and then got back to work on college applications.

High school seniors taking an entrepreneurship class at Beaver Country Day School in Chestnut Hill, presented business plans Wednesday for companies ranging from a recipe website that links with grocery delivery companies to a running-shoe sole that tells the wearer when shoes need to be replaced.

"We're putting them in real situations. It's so authentic," said teacher Kevin Bau.

Students pitched their companies to a panel of "sharks," including Michael Bronner, founder of Digitas and natural food company UNREAL, and Jeremy Levine, founder of StarStreet and a BCDS alum.

"I actually felt like I was running a small business," said Isabel Hechavarria, who pitched Bella, her line of swimwear made from material that lets the wearer get an all-over tan.

Bronner said the students' detailed pitches and business plans impressed him. "I've seen presentations from kids coming out of college, honestly, that are not as strong as these," he said.

After the pitches, Hechavarria was approached by one of the judges about setting up a "game-changing" conversation, according to Lisa Trask, the other teacher in the class.

"This is definitely a case of the classroom and real-world experience overlapping and transitioning, and she'll have the support of the school to pursue this endeavour," Trask said.

Trask would not say which entrepreneur was involved or what the talks were regarding, but during Hechavarria's pitch and after, several of them expressed interest and said if they became involved they would seek a celebrity endorsement.

Other CEOs said they were interested in pursuing the proposals beyond the class, but said they would likely take some time before they did so.

Steve Gold, an entrepreneurship professor at Babson College who is not involved in the BCDS class, said the program will be valuable for all the students. He said skills critical to entrepreneurship, such as communication, organization and leadership, all translate to nearly every other job.

"It's the kind of thing that benefits everybody, no matter what path these students take in life," Gold said.

Bau said one of the main goals of the class, now in its second year, is to help students understand that they can make an impact in whatever field they go into.

"You don't have to fit into the existing structure exactly as it is," Bau said.

"I think it's going to change their lives," Bronner said.

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Pontiac problem is a thing called piston slap

I have a 2003 Pontiac Vibe with 135,000 miles on it. This past winter it would knock for a minute or so on a cold start. A GM tech told me that it has a cold piston slap and it will go for a long time. I could faintly hear it this summer. Could it be anything else? Is there something I need to do so it will last two to three more years and 60,000 miles?

Hoping to get close to 200,000 miles out of this or any engine is a worthy goal but of course there are no guarantees, knock or no knock. The GM tech is likely correct. Piston "slap" occurs when the excess clearance between the piston skirt and the cylinder wall allows the skirt to "slap" the wall as combustion pressure drives it downward in the cylinder. As the piston warms up and expands a bit, the clearance is reduced and the noise stops. And as the tech said, this isn't particularly harmful and does not mean impending failure. The engine in my '70 Corvette with 120,000 miles on it has reminded me it has a slight piston slap every time I have started it for the past 20 years!

A mechanic's stethoscope can pinpoint the particular piston/cylinder in question. If disabling the spark for that cylinder during a cold start test, which eliminates combustion pressure that slaps the piston skirt against the cylinder wall, eliminates the knock, it's piston slap.

If it is piston slap, don't worry about the noise and just drive the car. The only "repair" would be a complete engine overhaul that would not be economically justifiable.

There's one more possibility: combustion chamber deposit interference, or CCDI. This occurs when carbon deposits build up on the top of a piston and/or the roof of the combustion chamber to the point where there is physical contact between the two on cold starts until all the components warm up and expand enough to eliminate the contact. Again, like piston slap this isn't particularly harmful, but unlike piston slap it may be easily "fixable."

A professional or DIY induction cleaning with SeaFoam or GM Top Engine Cleaner can remove the carbon build-up and eliminate the noise.

L L L

I would like to better understand oil change intervals on little used vehicles. I have a '77 F-150 that I use around the ranch about 20 hours and maybe five miles per year. I completely rebuilt the engine and the oil I put in more than five years ago is still honey-colored. Am I hurting the engine? Seems silly to change it every year, but is there a shelf life?

In this case the word "silly" is synonymous with "wasteful." I just checked the date I last changed oil and filter on the aforementioned 'Vette and it was 2009 — four years ago. In that time I've driven the car fewer than 2,000 miles so I guess you've reminded me it's time to change it again.

But I have no worries that I'm hurting this engine, or any other "low annual time/mileage" engines I own and operate. The oil in these engines is subject to very little fuel/combustion blow-by contamination. The only time-based deterioration is oxidation from exposure to air inside the engine.

I think you're safe, but it's probably time for an oil and filter change. Save the old oil for recycling or use in topping up oil levels on your other low-annual-time engines.

Paul Brand, author of "How to Repair Your Car," is an automotive troubleshooter, driving instructor, and former race car driver. Readers may write to him at Star Tribune, 425 Portland Ave. S., Minneapolis, MN 55488 or via email at paulbrand@startribune.com. Leave a daytime phone number.

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