Today's Top Stories 10-17-11

BLOOMBERG

Military force shouldn’t be ruled out as a response to an alleged Iranian assassination plot on U.S. soil, the top House Republican on intelligence issues said.

The U.S. Senate’s vote to punish China for depressing its currency to promote cheap exports is the latest legislative ritual in which the message may be as important as the proposed sanction.

President Obama will call on Congress this week to send $35 billion to communities to rehire teachers, firefighters and police, in the first stage of his strategy to get some parts of his jobs plan enacted, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said yesterday.

Manufacturing in the New York region contracted at a faster pace than forecast, reflecting a lack of confidence in the U.S. recovery that failed to be confirmed by measures of orders and sales.

British police sealed off routes to the London Stock Exchange and Italian officers conducted nationwide raids following protests against economic inequality on four continents.

European leaders have one week to settle differences and flesh out a strategy to terminate their sovereign debt crisis as global finance chiefs warn failure to do so would endanger the world economy.

The Federal Reserve said its holdings of U.S. government debt on behalf of central bankers and institutional investors outside America has plunged $76.5 billion in the last seven weeks, the most since August 2007. At the same time, bond mutual funds are adding Treasuries, banks have increased their holdings 45 percent in the past five years and the Fed has added $656 billion to its balance sheet this year.

Amazon.com Inc.’s profit margins, already at a five-year low last quarter, are set to narrow next year.

Output at factories, mines and utilities increased 0.2 percent, in line with the median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey, after being little changed in August,

Children as young as 4 years old may now be treated with medications such as Novartis AG’s Ritalin for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, under new guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics.

AP Top Stories

Strikes halted ferries to the Greek islands and left rotting trash piling up in Athens for the 16th straight day Monday, as unions fought back against more austerity cuts.

The stern, bulky visage of Martin Luther King Jr. now gracing the National Mall has brought forth tears of joy and redemption from onlookers. But for some Americans, the massive monument will forever be marred by where it was made: China.

Renee-Nicole Douceur, who suffered an apparent stroke at the South Pole in the dead of winter, landed at a New Zealand airport today after an emergency evacuation.

Syrian security forces clashed with gunmen believed to be army defectors, and at least five government troops were killed, an activist said.

Abortion opponents have a new weapon of choice: the "heartbeat bill." A coalition of anti-abortion groups said that it was pushing to enact laws in all 50 states that would make women listen to a fetus's heart beat before they could abort. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) has introduced a similar federal bill, The Heartbeat Informed Consent Act, in Congress.

Philips Electronics has all but abandoned hope of selling its TV business by the end of the year, leaving a question mark over how quickly it can divest its loss-making problem child. Philips said it would aim to cut 4,500 jobs as part of the restructuring scheme to boost profit and meet its financial targets. That is about 3.7 percent of its non-TV workforce of just over 120,000, which had already been reduced by a 2009 program to cut 6,000 jobs.

Lowe's Cos Inc said it is closing 20 of its U.S. stores, eliminating nearly 2,000 jobs.