Robert McNamara Dies: No Escape from Vietnam

At the beginning of his professional career, he made a name for himself as the wunderkind who reformed the ailing Ford Motor Co. At the end, he tried to rehabilitate his reputation, as a do-gooder striving to save the globe’s poorer nations as head of the World Bank. But Robert McNamara, who died early Monday morning in his sleep at home at the age of 93 , will always be best known for his role as the architect of Washington’s failed Vietnam policy in the 1960s.

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UK fraud authorities to probe MG Rover collapse

The circumstances surrounding the 2005 collapse of carmaker MG Rover are to be investigated, the British government confirmed Monday. The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) said in a statement it had been asked to consider whether there should be a criminal investigation following completion of an inquiry into the failure of the MG Rover Group (MGRG) on April 8, 2005, which owed nearly £1.3 billion ($2.09 billion) to creditors.

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U.S. judge approves sale of GM assets

A U.S. federal judge in the GM bankruptcy case late Sunday approved the sale of the troubled automaker’s assets to a "new GM," court documents showed. Judge Robert Gerber, in giving his approval, said it “is the only available means to preserve the continuation of GM’s business.” Lawyers wrapped up their closing arguments in the bankruptcy case Thursday, giving Gerber the long holiday weekend to make his decision

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Chinese business world wants to play ball

Chinese investors want to cash in on the country’s NBA fever with a bid to buy a 15 percent stake in the Cleveland Cavaliers. Chinese-born businessman Kenny Huang is heading the deal, estimated to be worth more than $70 million. Huang has masterminded previous sports deals, including introducing Mandarin advertisements in the Houston Toyota Center, home of Rockets and Chinese basketball star Yao Ming

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China’s ‘Green Dam’ unleashes flood of business complaints

China’s last-minute decision to postpone a controversial content-filtering application on computers sold there is the latest example of the trouble that Western technology companies face doing business in the world’s fastest growing economy.

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Report: China extends deadline on filtering software

China on Tuesday announced it would indefinitely postpone a mandate requiring all personal computers sold in the country to be accompanied by a controversial content-filtering application, state media reported. The announcement came one day before a government-set deadline that would have required the software, called Green Dam-Youth Escort, to come with all PCs, according to the official Xinhua news agency. The Chinese government has said the software is chiefly a way for parents to protect children from pornography.

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‘Last man standing’ at wake for a toxic town

Wearing powder blue pants and a plaid fedora, 84-year-old Orval "Hoppy" Ray arrived fashionably late to a celebration in Picher, Oklahoma, a vacated mining town at the center of one of the nation’s largest and most polluted toxic-waste sites. Former residents, bought out by the government because their town was deemed so dangerous, gathered in Picher’s elementary school to say farewell to a place where kids suffered lead poisoning, where homes built atop underground mines plunged into the Earth and where the local creek coughs up orange water, laced with heavy metals. A toothpick dangling out of the corner of his chapped mouth, Ray greeted several old friends as if he were in any other small town in America.

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Police: Jackson’s doctor cooperating with investigation

Michael Jackson’s cardiologist, who met with detectives Saturday, has provided information that will help with the investigation into the singer’s death, the Los Angeles Police Department said. The department said late Saturday that it conducted an “extensive interview” with the doctor, who may have been the last person to see Jackson alive. “Dr

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