House passes farm bill, crop subsidies preserved

WASHINGTON — Nearing the legislative finish line after more than two years of bickering, the House passed and sent to the Senate Wednesday an almost $100 billion-a-year farm bill containing a mostly symbolic cut in food stamps and preserving most crop subsidies.

The measure, which was approved 251-166, had solid backing from the Republican leadership team, even though it makes smaller cuts to food stamps than they would have liked. The bill would cut about $800 million a year from the $80 billion-a-year program, or around 1 percent. The House had sought a 5 percent cut.

The legislation also would continue to heavily subsidize major crops for the nation's farmers while eliminating some subsidies and shifting them toward more politically defensible insurance programs.

House Agriculture Chairman Frank Lucas, R-Okla., who has been working on the bill since 2011, called the compromise a "miracle" after years of setbacks. An early version of the legislation was defeated on the House floor last June after conservatives said the food stamp cuts were too modest and liberal Democrats said they were too steep.

The House later passed a bill with a higher, $4 billion cut, arguing at the time that the program had spiraled out of control after costs doubled in the last five years. But cuts that high were ultimately not possible after the Senate balked and the White House threatened a veto. The Senate had sought a cut of $400 million annually.

The savings in the cost of the food stamp program would be generated by cracking down on some states that seek to boost individual food stamp benefits by giving people small amounts of federal heating assistance that they don't need. That heating assistance, sometimes as low as $1 per person, triggers higher benefits, and some critics see that practice as circumventing the law. The bill that was passed Wednesday would require states to give individual recipients at least $20 in heating assistance before a higher food stamp benefit could be authorized.

Some Democrats said the food stamp cut still is too high.

Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, one of the states that has boosted benefits through heating assistance, said the cut will be harmful on top of automatic food stamp cuts that already went into place in November.

"I don't know where they are going to make that up," McGovern said.

And some conservatives continued to argue that the food stamp cuts are too low and the overall bill spent too much money. In the end, 63 Republicans voted against the legislation.

"This is exactly the kind of logrolling that we fought to prevent this summer," Indiana Rep. Marlin Stutzman said of the House's rejection of the bill in June. "It spends money we simply don't have."

To pass the bill, Lucas and his Senate counterpart, Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, found ways to entice many potential naysayers. They spent more than two years crafting the bill to appeal to members from all regions of the country, including a boost in money for crop insurance popular in the Midwest; higher rice and peanut subsidies for Southern farmers; and renewal of federal land payments for Western states. The food stamp cut was low enough that 89 Democrats voted for the bill.

They also backed away from repealing a catfish program — a move that would have angered Mississippi lawmakers — and dropped language that would have thwarted a California law requiring all eggs sold in the state to come from hens living in larger cages. Striking out that provision was a priority for California lawmakers who did not want to see the state law changed.

For those seeking reform of farm programs, the legislation would eliminate a $4.5 billion-a-year farm subsidy called direct payments, which are paid to farmers whether they farm or not. But the bill nonetheless would continue to heavily subsidize major crops — corn, soybeans, wheat, rice and cotton — while shifting many of those subsidies toward more politically defensible insurance programs. That means farmers would have to incur losses before they could get a payout.

The bill would save around $1.65 billion annually overall, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The amount was less than the $2.3 billion annual savings the agriculture committees originally projected for the bill.

An aide to Lucas said the difference was due to how the CBO calculated budget savings from recent automatic across-the-board spending cuts, known as sequestration.

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Follow Mary Clare Jalonick on Twitter: http://twitter.com/mcjalonick

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Pistorius murder trial to have own TV channel

CAPE TOWN, South Africa — Oscar Pistorius' murder trial will have a dedicated 24-hour television channel in South Africa, the country's top cable provider said Wednesday, promising "round-the-clock" coverage of one of the blockbuster stories of the year.

MultiChoice said in a statement the temporary "pop-up" channel will launch on March 2, the day before the double-amputee Olympian goes on trial in a high court in the capital, Pretoria, for killing his girlfriend in his home on Valentine's Day last year.

It is the first time it has launched a channel of this kind to cover "a major news event," MultiChoice said. The provider has only had temporary channels on its DSTV network for versions of reality entertainment shows like "Idols" and "Big Brother." DSTV is also available in other African countries.

The female judge who will preside over Pistorius' trial hasn't yet ruled if television cameras will be allowed to record images of court proceedings or if the trial at North Gauteng High Court can be carried live.

Even so, MultiChoice will still tap into South Africa's and the world's fascination with Pistorius' remarkable story, which has taken a dramatic turn after he was celebrated as a sporting hero in 2012 as the first double amputee to compete on the track at the Olympics.

MultiChoice said the channel would give "inside information on the most talked-about and controversial subject in recent South African history." Its head of content, Aletta Alberts, said there would also be "a rich variety of content and social media integration" around the trial.

Pistorius killed 29-year-old girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp by shooting the model — herself a reality TV star — through a toilet cubicle door in the pre-dawn hours of Feb. 14, unleashing a frenzy of media interest around the 27-year-old athlete as he was charged with murder. Pistorius said he mistook Steenkamp for a dangerous intruder and fired four shots in self-defense, but prosecutors allege the couple argued and Pistorius killed her intentionally and in a rage.

The world-famous runner faces life imprisonment with a minimum of 25 years before parole if convicted on the main charge of premeditated murder. South Africa does not have the death penalty. Pistorius also faces additional charges of possession of illegal ammunition and will likely be indicted on the first day of his trial on two more charges for allegedly recklessly shooting guns in public.

Television coverage was restricted in Pistorius' previous court appearances, when cameras were allowed to record in court only before proceedings began and after they ended, and had to be switched off when the court was in session. With television cameras off, Pistorius often broke down in tears during his bail hearing. Courtrooms during that weeklong hearing and subsequent appearances were packed out by reporters, photographers and television camera operators.

Permission to film or take photographs in court in South Africa can be given only by the presiding judge. Judge Thokozile Masipa will preside over Pistorius' trial and ultimately pronounce him innocent or guilty of murder. The country doesn't have trial by jury.

The TV channel, branded "The Oscar Pistorius Trial: A Carte Blanche Channel," will be put together by the producers of a weekly investigative journalism show in South Africa called "Carte Blanche," which also airs on MultiChoice's DSTV.

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Gerald Imray is on Twitter at www.twitter.com/GeraldImrayAP

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Stocks drop as earnings disappoint; Fed upcoming

NEW YORK — Stocks fell Wednesday as investors reacted to disappointing earnings from Yahoo and other companies and awaited news from the Federal Reserve, which wraps up its two-day policy meeting later in the day. Emerging markets were also unsettling investors again as efforts by Turkey and South Africa to shore up their currencies failed.

KEEPING SCORE: The Dow Jones industrial average fell 117 points, or 0.8 percent, to 15,809 as of 12:25 p.m. Eastern Time. The Standard & Poor's 500 index lost nine points, or 0.5 percent, to 1,783. The Nasdaq composite fell 15 points, or 0.4 percent, to 4,083.

VOLATILITY: The S&P 500 index has fallen 3.5 percent this month, putting it on track for its biggest monthly decline since May 2012. That's a big contrast from last year, when the index rose almost 30 percent, its best year since 1997.

FED DAY: The Federal Reserve wraps up a two-day policy meeting later Wednesday and is expected to announce that it will continue to reduce, or "taper," its bond purchases to $65 billion a month from $75 billion a month. The policy is intended to hold down long-term interest rates and stimulate the economy by encouraging borrowing and hiring.

The recent volatility in global stock markets is unlikely to deter policy makers from cutting their stimulus, said Lawrence Creatura, a portfolio manager at Federated Investors.

"It's not the Fed's responsibility to take care of the stock market," said Creatura. "Employment and inflation are their only focus."

LIRA TODAY, GONE TOMORROW: The Turkish lira gave up much of its gain against the dollar after surging late Tuesday when the nation's central bank raised its benchmark lending rate to hold down inflation. The currency's slump has been at the center of an emerging-market sell-off that prompted jitters in global stock markets over the past week.

The lira traded at 2.25 per dollar on Wednesday, about where it was before the Turkish central bank raised interest rates late Tuesday Eastern time. South Africa also failed to shore up its own currency, the rand, with an interest rate increase.

NOT GOOGLE: Yahoo fell $2.48, or 7 percent, to $35.75 after the company reported a drop in fourth-quarter revenue late Tuesday, highlighting its trouble in bringing in online advertising dollars. Yahoo reported a 6 percent decline in revenue, the same rate of decline for all of 2013.

PLANE DISAPPOINTEMENT: Boeing fell $6.35, or 4.6 percent, to $130.79 after the plane maker said that 2014 revenue and profit would be lower than analysts have been expecting as the pace of orders slows.

PHONING IT IN: AT&T, the nation's biggest telecommunications company, fell 92 cents, or 2.7 percent, to $32.78 after its outlook for the year disappointed investors. The phone company said its forecast "assumes no lift from the economy," and predicted earnings to be in the mid-single digit range.

AMONG THE WINNERS: Dow Chemical rose $1.58, or 3.7 percent, to $44.68 after the company increased its quarterly dividend and expanded its share-purchase program, raising its authorization to buy back its own stock to $4.5 billion from $1.5 billion.

TREASURYS AND COMMODITIES: Bond prices rose. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 2.71 percent from 2.75 percent. The price of oil fell 40 cents, or 0.4 percent, to $97.01 a barrel. Gold rose $13.10, or 1.1 percent, to $1,263.90 an ounce.

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Insurer WellPoint's 4Q profit drops 68 percent

INDIANAPOLIS — WellPoint's fourth-quarter earnings tumbled 68 percent, as customers of the nation's second largest health insurer raced to use their coverage last fall before it lapsed due to the health care overhaul.

The Indianapolis company said Wednesday that its medical expenses spiked 18 percent to $14.58 billion due in part to higher use of individual policies in advance of overhaul-mandated changes that unfolded this year.

Insurers typically see a rise in use at the end of each year as patients pay up their deductibles, or the out of pocket cost before most coverage starts, and then use their coverage before that deductible renews in the new year. But WellPoint said it also saw a jump in use from patients who wanted to take advantage of their policies while they still had them.

At least 4.7 million customers nationwide received notices from their insurers last fall that their plans were being canceled because they didn't meet coverage requirements established under the overhaul, the federal law that aims to cover millions of uninsured people. The actual number is likely much higher because officials in nearly 20 states said they were unable to provide information on cancellation notices or were not tracking it.

The overhaul also provided help to many with canceled coverage by offering income-based tax credits that customers can use to buy a new plan on state-based insurance exchanges that started last fall.

But complaints over the cancellation notices eventually led President Obama to announce that people could keep their individual policies if state regulators approved.

WellPoint Inc. runs Blue Cross Blue Shield plans in 14 states, and its biggest market, California, did not allow these plans to be continued. The insurer did not say how many of its customers received cancellation notices. It provides individual insurance coverage for about 1.8 million people, or 5 percent of its total medical enrollment of 35.7 million.

In its financial report for the last three months of 2013, WellPoint said it earned $148.2 million, or 49 cents per share, down from $464.2 million, or $1.51 per share, a year earlier.

Earnings excluding one-time items totaled 87 cents per share for the latest quarter. Analysts expected 86 cents per share, according to FactSet.

Operating revenue jumped 16 percent to $17.65 billion, helped by the insurer's acquisition of Medicaid coverage provider Amerigroup. That excludes investment gains or losses. Analysts expected $17.8 billion.

WellPoint said results also were affected by a charge it booked for unloading its 1-800-Contacts business and by a higher income tax expense.

For 2014, the insurer expects earnings of more than $8 per share. Analysts expect, on average, earnings of $8.35 per share.

Investors expect 2014 to be a challenging year for insurers, as the industry adjusts to fees, taxes and funding cuts triggered by the overhaul that are expected to squeeze profitability for some coverage. But the law also will boost enrollment. WellPoint's Medicaid business will grow as some states expand eligibility for the state-and-federally funded program for the elderly and disabled people.

WellPoint also said it has received about 500,000 applications for individual coverage, mostly from the overhaul's exchanges and from people who were not WellPoint customers previously.

"We are seeing signs that our brand name and (care provider) network quality are carrying more of an advantage in the market than we expected," CEO Joseph Swedish told analysts during a Wednesday conference call.

WellPoint's stock rose almost 2 percent, or $1.53, to $85.83 in midday trading Wednesday while broader trading indexes fell slightly. The insurer's stock price soared about 52 percent last year and set several new, all-time high marks before closing 2013 at $92.39.

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Cheerios Super Bowl ad stars interracial family

NEW YORK — Cheerios is bringing back an interracial family to star in its Super Bowl ad.

They were featured in an ad last year that made headlines after it sparked ugly comments online. But the negative remarks were followed by an outpouring of support for the fictional family made up of a black dad, white mom and their young daughter.

General Mills, which owns Cheerios, said at the time that it cast the actors to reflect the changing U.S. population. The Minneapolis-based company continued running the ad for several months as planned.

In the weeks after the ad made headlines, CEO Ken Powell noted in an earnings call that Cheerios' sales performance was benefiting from new advertising, although he didn't specifically cite an ad or the controversy for the improvement. General Mills, which also makes Lucky Charms, Kix, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, has been struggling to boost sluggish cereal sales in recent years as Americans increasingly reach for other options in the morning.

In the new Cheerios spot set to debut during the Super Bowl, the father uses individual Cheerios to represent each member of the family, explaining to his young daughter that, "Pretty soon, you're going to have a baby brother."

The girl looks dismayed at first, but then smiles and adds another Cheerio to the little pile.

"And, a puppy," she negotiates. Her father says it's a deal. The ad closes with a shot of the mom, watching from the side, looking alarmed at that development.

A 30-second spot during the Super Bowl costs around $4 million this year. A spokesman for General Mills said the ad is set to air during the first unscheduled time out during the game Sunday.

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Follow Candice Choi at www.twitter.com/candicechoi

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Cruise ship sick toll nears 700 on return to NJ

BAYONNE, N.J. — A cruise ship on which hundreds of passengers and crew members fell ill was returning to port Wednesday in New Jersey, with health officials recommending those still showing symptoms to check in at hotels or seek medical care before heading home.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said its latest count puts the number of those sickened aboard the Explorer of the Seas at 630 passengers and 54 crew members. The ship, on a 10-day cruise that had to be cut short, was carrying 3,050 passengers.

Health investigators suspect norovirus, but lab results are not expected until later this week. If norovirus is to blame, it would be one of the largest norovirus outbreaks in last 20 years, the CDC said. A 2006 norovirus outbreak on a Carnival Cruise Lines ship also sickened close to 700.

Norovirus — once known as Norwalk virus — is highly contagious. It can be picked up from an infected person, contaminated food or water or by touching contaminated surfaces. Sometimes mistaken for the stomach flu, the virus causes bouts of vomiting and diarrhea for a few days.

Royal Caribbean said the Explorer of the Seas was set to dock at 2 p.m. in Bayonne, a city near New York Harbor.

The cruise line said most guests who fell ill were up and about as the ship headed to port.

The CDC said it recommended to Royal Caribbean that people who still have symptoms be housed in nearby hotels or seen at medical facilities before traveling home.

CDC investigators boarded the ship during its U.S. Virgin Islands Port call on Sunday. They said no single food or water source or other origin has been identified.

Royal Caribbean is providing all guests a 50 percent refund of their cruise fares and an additional 50 percent future cruise credit. It's also reimbursing airline change fees and accommodations for guests who had to change plans for traveling home.

And stricken guests who were confined to their staterooms are being provided a credit of one future cruise day for each day of confinement.

After returning to port, the ship will undergo a third sanitation and no one will be allowed aboard for a period of more than 24 hours as an extra precaution, the cruise line said.

Explorer of the Seas is on track to depart at its originally scheduled time Friday afternoon on its next cruise, a 9-night trip with port calls in Puerto Rico, St. Thomas, the Dominican Republic and Haiti, a Royal Caribbean spokeswoman said.

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AP Medical Writer Mike Stobbe in Atlanta contributed to this report.

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Mass. home sales down slightly again in December

BOSTON — Sales of single-family homes in Massachusetts fell slightly in December compared with the same month the year before, the second consecutive year-over-year sales decrease, two groups that track the market announced Wednesday.

Median prices, however, continued to rise.

The Massachusetts Association of Realtors and The Warren Group said the number of sales were down less than 1 percent when compared with December 2012, a more modest drop than in November.

The sales drop of less than one-quarter of 1 percent did not faze the Waltham-based Relators group.

"After a slight blip in November, buyers were able to help sales get back on track in December," President Peter Ruffini said. "While 2013 will be remembered for a lack of homes for sale, price increases have improved overall home equity, which should help push sellers into the market in 2014."

The Warren Group CEO Timothy Warren Jr. said low inventory combined with rising interest rates at the end of the year slowed the market.

"Sales and prices set a torrid pace in the third quarter of 2013 and through October. Now the market is taking a breather," he said.

The median price of a single-family home jumped more than 6 percent to $320,000, according to the Realtors. The Warren Group, a Boston-based publisher of real estate data, calculated an almost 4 percent increase in the median price to more than $311,000.

The groups use slightly different methods in their calculations.

The number of condominiums sold and median condo prices were up in December, according to both groups.

Year-over-year sales of condominiums have gone up 23 out of the last 24 months, according to the Realtors, which reported a 6 percent sales jump.

The Warren Group reported a more dramatic 15 percent jump year-over-year.

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World markets slide anew on emerging markets

AMSTERDAM — World markets fell Wednesday as jitters over the prospects for emerging economies resurfaced and investors expected the U.S. Federal Reserve to announce another cut to its stimulus program.

Turkey's central bank hiked its lending rates overnight by more than expected to stabilize the Turkish lira and keep inflation under control. That gave an initial boost to its currency and to world markets.

But the effect gradually faded, and a surprise move by South Africa's central bank to raise rates in the early afternoon only strengthened its currency for a half-hour.

The shook confidence in markets more broadly, pushing stocks lower.

"The biggest reason for this volatility is that we've seen the impact of a major intervention by Turkey fade so quickly," said IG market analyst Alastair McCaig. "Now South Africa has done the same thing and it only boosted the rand for about a half hour."

In the background, investors are anticipating a decision later in the day by the U.S. Federal Reserve to further "taper," or reduce, its mortgage and long-term bond purchases later Wednesday.

Although the Fed insists tapering is not equivalent to monetary tightening, if markets interpret it as even a prelude to tightening, it has the potential to again weaken emerging currencies as investors prefer to hold dollars.

"It's not so much that people think there will be instant ramifications if the taper proceeds as expected, it's just part of a more general worry about what it may mean for global stability," McCaig said.

In Europe, Germany's DAX fell 0.8 percent to close at 9,336.73. Britain's FTSE fell 0.4 percent to 6,544.28, while France's CAC 40 lose 0.7 percent to 4,156.98.

On Wall Street, the Dow fell 0.6 percent to 15,837.88 while S&P 500 shed 0.4 percent to 1,785.20.

Stocks began a sell-off last week, initially on fears about the Chinese economy. The slide continued as currencies in emerging economies including Argentina and Turkey slumped.

After Turkey's action Wednesday night, Asian stocks gained strongly, before sentiment soured during European trading hours.

Japan's Nikkei 225 jumped 2.1 percent to 15,294.54 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 1.1 percent to 22,191.20. China's Shanghai Composite gained 0.3 percent. South Korean and Indonesian also climbed.

In other markets, benchmark oil for March delivery was down 32 cents to $97.09 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

In currencies, which were highly volatile, the euro fell 0.1 percent to $1.3661. The dollar erased early gains and fell sharply against the yen, down 0.7 percent to 102.19 yen.

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AP reporter Teresa Cerojano contributed to this story from Manila, Philippines

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Angry Birds site hacked after surveillance claims

HELSINKI — Angry Birds creator Rovio Entertainment Ltd. says the popular game's website was defaced by hackers Wednesday, two days after reports that the personal data of its customers might have been accessed by U.S. and British spy agencies.

"The defacement was caught in minutes and corrected immediately," said Saara Bergstrom, a spokeswoman of the Finnish company. "The end-user data was in no risk at any point."

Reports earlier this week said that documents leaked by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden suggested the NSA and Britain's GCHQ had been able to extract information through numerous smartphone apps, including Google Maps and the Angry Birds game franchise.

Rovio denied the claims, saying it does not "share data, collaborate or collude" with any spy agencies and that it would strive to ensure that user privacy is protected.

Rovio CEO Mikael Hed said the personal details of customers could have been accessed from information gathered by third-party advertising agencies.

"In order to protect our end users, we will, like all other companies using third-party advertising networks, have to re-evaluate working with these networks if they are being used for spying purposes," he said.

Angry Birds, an addictive birds-versus-pigs game that has been downloaded more than 1.7 billion times worldwide, is one of the latest examples of how everyday pieces of software can be turned into instruments of espionage. According to The New York Times and ProPublica, a U.S.-based nonprofit journalism group, a 2012 British intelligence report demonstrated how to extract Angry Bird users' information from phones running the Android operating system.

Another document listed other mobile apps, including those made by social networking giant Facebook, photo-sharing site Flickr, and the film-oriented Flixster.

Mikko Hypponen, from F-Secure computer security company, said the hacking into Rovio's website was a "good lesson" for mobile companies and app providers to make sure they protect customer privacy.

"There really is no reason why third-party advertising networks do not encrypt personal information on the Web. It's not rocket science," Hypponen said. "There will be a lot of pressure on these agencies."

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Dutch find more horse meat in beef products

AMSTERDAM — The Dutch Foods and Wares Authority says it has "preventatively" blocked all shipments from a Dutch slaughterhouse after investigators found horse meat in four shipments labeled as beef products.

The agency did not identify the slaughterhouse, other than saying it was in the eastern province of Gelderland. It also said it could not tell from the slaughterhouse's records where the products containing horse meat may have been shipped.

The agency has blocked the movement of all 690 tons of meat in the slaughterhouse's freezers and refrigerators until Feb. 3, to give the slaughterhouse's management time to trace all meat shipments between Jan 1, 2012, and Jan. 23, 2014.

If the company cannot produce satisfactory documentation about where the products went, the slaughterhouse's meat will be recalled, the agency said.

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