NATION
NATION
Disney considers sellingchain of retail stores
LOS ANGELES -- The Walt Disney Co. is considering selling its chain of retail stores in North America and Europe, the company said Thursday.
To prepare for the potential sale, the executive running the stores has resigned, Disney said. Other executives will lose their jobs over the next few weeks as Disney's Consumer Products division looks to control costs, the company said.
Disney has been closing the most unprofitable stores over the last few years and has experimented with several redesigns to try to turn the ailing retail chain around. The chain has gone from 522 stores in North America to 387, and further closings are expected, the company said. The Disney-operated stores employ 12,000 worldwide.
Rep. English: U.S. shouldconsider leaving WTO
WASHINGTON -- Lawmakers sympathetic to the domestic steel industry said Thursday the United States should consider leaving the World Trade Organization if it upholds its ruling against the Bush administration's three-year tariffs on steel imports.
"That's something we ought to honestly have in front of us as an option," Rep. Phil English, R-Pa., said after a hearing of the Congressional Steel Caucus, which he chairs.
"I say that as someone who has been pro-trade and who has supported trade promotion authority for the administration," English said. "Yet the WTO process seems so badly flawed now that I think a radical solution is not completely out of line."
The Bush administration is appealing the WTO ruling, which found in March that the United States had violated global trade rules when it imposed the tariffs last year on a wide range of steel products.
Aetna agrees to settleclass action by doctors
NEW YORK -- Aetna Inc. agreed on Thursday to pay $170 million to settle a class-action suit by doctors who said its business practices cut payments to physicians and interfered with patient care, making it the first of nine named health insurers to reach such an agreement.
Doctors said the settlement, which also creates new payment procedures and a foundation to improve health care, will pressure the other defendants to reach similar accords.
"Either they follow Aetna's lead or we look forward to trying the case," said plaintiffs' attorney Harley Tropin.
In a statement, lawyers for the eight remaining insurers said they intend to "defend the case vigorously" and expect the class certification to be overturned on appeal, which would cause the case to "lose most, if not all, of its significance."
Associated Press