Ebola fighters named Time Person of the Year

NEW YORK — Doctors, nurses and others fighting Ebola have been named Time's 2014 Person of the Year, the magazine announced Wednesday.

The runners-up included Ferguson, Missouri, protesters; Russian President Vladimir Putin; Kurdish Regional Government President Massoud Barzani; and Jack Ma, the China-based founder of e-commerce giant Alibaba.

In an article on the Time website, Editor Nancy Gibbs praised "the people in the field, the special forces of Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), the Christian medical-relief workers of Samaritan's Purse and many others from all over the world" who "fought side by side with local doctors and nurses, ambulance drivers and burial teams."

Gibbs noted that the disease also struck doctors and nurses.

"The rest of the world can sleep at night because a group of men and women are willing to stand and fight," she wrote. "For tireless acts of courage and mercy, for buying the world time to boost its defenses, for risking, for persisting, for sacrificing and saving, the Ebola fighters are Time's 2014 Person of the Year."

Antoine Petibon, head of international programs for the French Red Cross, which has been active in anti-Ebola efforts in the French-speaking country of Guinea, called it "great recognition for all these people who have been toiling in the shadows."

"If it helps us wipe out this epidemic faster, all the better," Petibon added.

Reached in Nairobi, Birte Hald, head of emergency operations for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, welcomed the magazine's choice, but used the opportunity to stress who she thinks deserves the honor and credit.

"I think it should be awarded to the front-line fighters, those who are doing all the dangerous stuff," Hald said. "People like myself, we are working hard, but we are not at risk. People doing the safe and dignified burials, the contact tracing and the transport of the sick, working in the treatment centers — these are the people who deserve our praise and respect."

Pope Francis was last year's person of the year.

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FAA issues commercial drone permits to 4 companies

WASHINGTON — Under pressure from Congress to speed access to U.S. skies for commercial drones, the government granted four companies permission Wednesday to use drones for aerial surveillance, construction site monitoring and oil rig flare stack inspections.

The new permits bring the total number of companies granted permits for commercial operations to 13. They were announced by the Federal Aviation Administration an hour before a House hearing at which lawmakers warned that if the agency doesn't move faster, Congress will step in.

Commercial drone flights are taking off in other countries while the U.S. lags behind in developing safety regulations that would permit unmanned aircraft operations by a wide array of industries, Gerald Dillingham of the Government Accountability Office testified at the hearing.

Several European countries have granted commercial permits to more than a 1,000 drone operators for safety inspections of infrastructure, such as railroad tracks, or to support commercial agriculture, Dillingham said. Australia has issued over 180 permits to businesses engaged in aerial surveying, photography and other work, but limits the permits to drones weighing less than 5 pounds. And small, unmanned helicopters have been used to monitor and spray crops in Japan for more than a decade.

Canada has had regulations governing the use of unmanned aircraft since 1996 and, as of September, had issued over 1,000 permits this year alone, Dillingham said.

The permits announced Wednesday were granted to Trimble Navigation Limited, VDOS Global LLC, Clayco Inc. and Woolpert Inc., which received two permits. The drones weigh less than 55 pounds and the firms have said they will they will keep the unmanned aircraft within line of sight of the operator.

Previously the only permits the Federal Aviation Administrational Aviation had issued were to two oil companies in Alaska and five aerial photography companies associated with television and film production.

The FAA said it has received 167 requests for exemptions from commercial entities.

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Follow Joan Lowy on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/AP_Joan_Lowy

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NY man fined for calling boss a foreign spy

ALBANY, N.Y. — An electrical engineer from upstate New York has been fined $5,000 and sentenced to 180 hours of community service for accusing his boss of spying for another country.

Ryan Letcher, of Endicott, was convicted in August of making a false statement to federal authorities.

Prosecutors say the 39-year-old wrote an anonymous letter to the Defense Security Service in March 2012 accusing his boss at BAE Systems, a defense contractor, of being "foreign intelligence," which they say means spying.

The company's facility in Endicott works on electronics systems.

The FBI investigated his supervisor, concluding he isn't a spy.

According to authorities, Letcher said he sent the letter because of conflict with the supervisor over taking credit for his work.

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Reception to GOP tax amnesty plan mixed

Taxpayer activists are divided about a corporate tax amnesty program House leaders and Gov.-elect Charlie Baker are considering to generate cash for state spending needs.

House Minority Leader Brad Jones (R-North Reading) has filed legislation to create a two-month corporate tax amnesty program, which he estimates would yield $15 million to $20 million. Baker said it's not an ideal situation, but one he might support. House Ways and Means Chairman Brian Dempsey (D-Haverhill) said Democratic leadership is actively considering the possibility.

A two-month tax amnesty program for individual filers that ran through the end of October pulled in roughly $57 million.

Michael J. Widmer, outgoing president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, said in many cases, businesses, like some individuals, don't pay their taxes because they dispute their assessment.

"The amnesty is a chance to reach an agreement and collect revenues which might otherwise never be received or only after a long period," Widmer said in an e-mail yesterday. "We haven't looked at this, but my one caution would be not to use one-time revenues to support ongoing operating expenses."

But Barbara Anderson, executive director of Citizens for Limited Taxation, was flummoxed by the idea of an amnesty for corporate scofflaws.

"You and I have to pay our taxes, so why don't they? Wouldn't I go to jail if I didn't?" Anderson said. "The bigger ones — I don't see how they could have any excuse; they have accountants ... It seems to me there's a moral hazard here. Once everyone understands that if they don't pay their taxes sooner or later there's going to be an amnesty, there's an incentive to hold out and have that money in the bank, earning interest."

Herald wire services contributed to this report.

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Nearly two-thirds of pay-TV subs now also have Netflix: study

Are Netflix and other streaming-video services contributing to the demise of cable and satellite TV? Some consumers may be deserting TV for streaming services, but for most pay-TV customers, Netflix and its ilk continue to be complementary to traditional television.

About 65% of pay-TV subscribers say they now have Netflix -- up from 41% in 2013, according to a new study by consulting firm PwC. The increases were most pronounced among older demos: Netflix subscribership among pay-TV customers 50-59 rose from 19% last year to 58% in 2014. That's compared with 37% to 66% among those 35-49; 51% to 71% among those 25-34; and 56% to 65% for 18-24.

Those rates of growth indicate a strong affinity for Netflix among pay-TV customers. Overall in the U.S., the net number of Netflix subscribers increased 19.7% over the last 12 months, from 31.1 million in the third quarter of 2013 to 37.2 million in Q3 2014.

In addition, the PwC survey found that overall, Amazon Prime subscriptions jumped from 18% of pay-TV households in 2013 to 32% this year, while Hulu Plus subscriptions rose from almost 8% to more than 11%.

But with more video options than ever, a growing number of consumers may be cutting -- or shaving -- the cord. Overall pay-TV subscriptions have declined among consumers under 35, the study found, while it was flat for those 35-49 and up slightly among the 50-59 cohort. Among those 18-24, cable and satellite subscriptions dropped from 77% in 2013 to 71% this year. Furthermore, only 42% of pay-TV subs answered yes when asked if they saw themselves subscribing to cable 10 years from now, vs. 91% in a year from now and 61% five years from now.

For consumers the consternation with subscription-TV service continues to center around paying for channels they don't watch -- with 41% of survey respondents saying they'd prefer a la carte pricing options, according to the PwC study. But TV remains popular, with 73% of viewers saying that watching TV increasingly is often as good as going to the movies.

The study also found binge-watching of TV series to be a major phenomenon, with about 50% of viewers saying they have watched an entire season of a show in one week.

The data is based on an online survey of 1,024 consumers conducted in September 2014. PwC said the survey sample is representative of the U.S. population across gender, age and income. The 2014 results were compared with a similar 1,008-person study conducted in the fall of 2013.

© 2014 Variety Media, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media; Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

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Finance errors to cost Alibaba Pictures more than $47 million

Alibaba Pictures Group, the film making unit of China's e-commerce giant, will have to restate its net asset value and take losses of at least US$47 million (HK$364 million) after an assessment of the company's financial mismanagement.

The company announced the findings of an auditor that it called in after finding irregularities that related to a period before its acquisition by Alibaba. The Hong Kong-listed company was at the time known as Chinavision.

The auditor found that Chinavision had failed to use correct invoices and had therefore mis-calculated its Enterprise Tax in mainland China. It had often applied incorrect value added tax rates in China, and it has applied the wrong valuation of certain corporate bonds. That in turn meant that the stated value of certain warrants were incorrect.

The group's net asset value would have to be reduced by HK$70 million (US$9.03 million) in the year to end of 2012, by HK$58 million (US$7.48 million) in the year to end of 2013 and between HK$257 million and HK$323 million (US$33.2 million to US$41.7 million) in the as yet unreported six month period to June 2014.

Net profits will have to be restated; by a reduction of HK$61 million (US$7.87 million) in the year to end of 2012; by an increase of HK$21 million (US$2.71 million) in 2013; and by a reduction of between HK$324 million and HK$390 million (US$41.8 million to US$50.3 million) in the six months to June 2014.

Alibaba Pictures said that it will report the results as soon as possible and apply for trading in its shares to start after that. It made no mention of criminal or civil action against the previous management of the company or its financial advisers.

© 2014 Variety Media, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media; Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

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Energy stocks sink again as price of crude falls

NEW YORK — U.S. stocks are opening modestly lower as indexes in Europe and China recover from a slump the previous day.

Energy stocks declined the most early Wednesday as the price of crude oil dropped again. Chevron and Exxon Mobil fell the most of the 30 stocks in the Dow Jones industrial average.

The Dow was down 90 points, 0.5 percent, to 17,712 as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell eight points, or 0.4 percent, to 2,051. The Nasdaq composite fell nine points, or 0.2 percent, to 4,756.

The price of crude oil sank $1.56 to $62.26 a barrel in New York.

Government bond prices edged lower. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 2.22 percent.

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US stocks move lower as crude oil renews its slide

NEW YORK — U.S. stocks moved lower Wednesday, led by declines in energy stocks as the price of oil resumed its slide. Investors are also speculating the Federal Reserve will soon signal that it intends to raise interest rates next year should the economy continue to strengthen.

Oil dropped on reports that OPEC had slashed its estimate of how much crude it will need to produce next year due to rising supplies from other producers such as the U.S.

KEEPING SCORE: The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 12 points, or 0.6 percent, to 2,047 as of 11:23 a.m. Eastern. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 123 points, or 0.7 percent, to 17,678. The Nasdaq composite fell 18 points, or 0.4 percent, to 4,746.

ENERGY: Benchmark U.S. crude was down $2.76, or 4.4 percent, to $61 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The price of oil has plunged more than 40 percent from a peak of $107 a barrel in June as traders speculate that the supply of oil being pumped by the world's biggest producers will exceed demand.

FLYING HIGH: Airline stocks were among the gainers as the price of oil plunged. Southwest Airlines rose $1.13, or 2.5 percent, to $41.76, taking its gain this year to 125 percent. Delta Air Lines also advanced, rising 55 cents, or 1.1 percent, to $46.81.

LANGUAGE CHANGE: While a slump in stocks this week is being led by a decline in the energy sector, investors are also speculating that the Federal Reserve will signal that it is nearing its first rate increase in more than eight years as the economy strengthens. Policy makers are scheduled to convene a two-day meeting on Dec. 16.

THE QUOTE: "The stronger employment data and economic data that we have gotten has only increased people's confidence that the Fed is going to be raising rates by the (middle) of next year," said Rob Eschweiler, global investment specialist in Houston.

EUROPE'S DAY: European stocks rebounded after a sell-off a day earlier on concerns that Greece might have to hold early general elections and that a left-wing opposition party would win. The Syriza party wants to cut what Greece owes in bailout money, which could potentially derail the country's recovery.

France's CAC-40 gained 0.2 percent to 4,271 and Germany's DAX was up 0.6 percent at 9,857. Britain's FTSE 100 fell 0.2 percent to 6,517.

BONDS AND CURRENCIES: Government bond prices were little changed. The yield on the benchmark U.S. Treasury note, which rises when prices fall, edged down to 2.20 percent from 2.21 percent on Tuesday.

The dollar fell to 118.54 yen from 119.40 late Tuesday. The euro rose to $1.2420 from $1.2385.

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Kurtenbach reported from Tokyo.

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Appeals court deals blow to US in insider cases

NEW YORK — A federal appeals court dealt a blow to the government's success in insider trading prosecutions Wednesday by reversing two convictions with a decision that also jeopardizes a third — and attempts to further define how far prosecutors can push the law in their quest to clean up Wall Street.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the convictions of Anthony Chiasson, of New York, and Todd Newman, of Needham, Massachusetts, finding they were too far removed from inside information to be held responsible for it.

In doing so, the three-judge panel made a sweeping observation about a blitz of Manhattan insider trading prosecutions that has resulted in more than 80 convictions since 2008.

The appeals court criticized the government, describing the "novelty of its recent insider trading prosecutions, which are increasingly targeted at remote tippees many levels removed from corporate insiders." The court said prior cases generally involved tippees directly participating in the passing of secrets.

"We note that the government has not cited, nor have we found, a single case in which tippees as remote as Newman and Chiasson have been held criminally liable for insider trading," it said in an opinion written by Circuit Judge Barrington D. Parker.

Chiasson co-founded Greenwich, Connecticut-based Level Global Investors. He was sentenced to 6½ years in prison and ordered to pay a $5 million fine and forfeit $1.38 million. Newman worked for Stamford, Connecticut-based Diamondback Capital Management. He received 4½ years and was ordered to pay a $1 million fine and to forfeit $737,724. The former portfolio managers were both convicted in December 2012.

The appeals court said the government failed to present sufficient evidence the men willfully engaged in insider trading or conspired to break the law. It instructed a lower court judge to dismiss the indictment against them.

The reversals could jeopardize the insider trading conviction of former SAC Capital portfolio manager Michael Steinberg, which is being challenged on the same principle.

The government said it would issue a statement later Wednesday.

Gregory Morvillo, an attorney for Chiasson, called the ruling "a resounding victory for the rule of law and for Anthony Chiasson personally."

"He is deeply gratified that the decision issued today unequivocally re-establishes his innocence under the law — consistent with what Anthony has steadfastly maintained for the duration of this ordeal," he said.

Stephen Fishbein and John Nathanson, lawyers for Newman, said in a statement that they were "relieved but not surprised by today's decision, which clearly establishes Todd Newman's innocence on all charges."

"This is not a mere technicality, but rather a considered judgment that Mr. Newman did not commit a crime," they added. "Unfortunately, this vindication comes after four years of unnecessary prosecution including a trial in which the Second Circuit held that the wrong legal standard was applied. We are gratified that, going forward, others will benefit from clearer rules in this area."

Barry Berke, Steinberg's attorney, said in a statement that the ruling "clearly means that Michael Steinberg is innocent of any crime and his conviction will be vacated as well. It sends a loud and clear message that the government will be rebuked when it tries to turn innocent conduct into a crime, as it did in the case of Mr. Steinberg."

Eugene Goldman, a former Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement lawyer, said the ruling "could stop multiple insider trading cases in their tracks."

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Ted Kennedy Jr.’s former co. being probed by SEC

Ted Kennedy Jr. says his former company is cooperating fully in an SEC investigation into allegations of insider trading.

The Marwood Group, a health care-focused consulting firm co-founded by Kennedy, received notice from the Securities and Exchange Commission this week that it will be charged with civil insider trading, Fox Business Network reported yesterday. The investigation has focused on alleged government information passed on to Marwood clients in 2010 about a new prostate-cancer treatment.

Kennedy, 53, the son of the late U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, was elected in November to Connecticut's Legislature. He served as president of Marwood for 12 years before leaving in January. He announced his candidacy for the state Senate in April.

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