Greek government wins confidence vote

Greek government wins confidence vote

athens, greece

Greece’s new three-party coalition government won a vote of confidence in parliament early today, ending a period of uncertainty that led to two elections in less than two months, though the country has a long way to go to emerge from a deep recession and pay down its huge debt.

There were no surprises in the vote. All 179 deputies of the three parties supporting the government — conservative New Democracy, the socialist PASOK and the moderate leftist Democratic Left — voted in favor. Voting against were the 121 deputies of the Radical Left Coalition (Syriza), the nationalist right Independent Greeks, the extreme right Golden Dawn and the Communist Party.

In his concluding speech just before the vote, Prime Minister Antonis Samaras said that, despite their diverse political backgrounds, the three coalition partners have a unity of purpose — to keep the country in the Eurozone and out of its deepest and longest recession, now in its fifth year.

IndyMac leaders agree to settle suit

Some leaders of the failed IndyMac Bancorp have agreed to settle a shareholder class-action lawsuit for $6.5 million.

The lawsuit names former IndyMac CEO Michael W. Perry and Chief Financial Officer Scott Keys as defendants.

IndyMac collapsed in July 2008, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. took over the Pasadena, Calif.-based mortgage lender. IndyMac was one of the largest mortgage originators in the United States, and its collapse marked one of the biggest bank failures in U.S. history.

Concerns about shark overfishing

rome

A pro-environment group says the world’s shark populations are in worse trouble than previously thought.

The Pew Environment Group is cautioning in a report that the actual global catch of sharks might be up to four times higher than official U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization statistics.

The report says Hong Kong’s shark fin market accounts for about half of the global trade. The report’s official release is timed for today, when representatives of many governments will be attending a fisheries committee meeting at the Rome-based U.N. food agency. AP obtained a copy of the report Sunday.

Best Buy to cut jobs

new york

Electronics retailer Best Buy Co. is laying off 600 staffers in its Geek Squad technical support division and 1,800 other store workers as it seeks to restructure operations and improve results.

The cuts amount to about 1.4 percent of the company’s total staff of 167,000.

Best Buy spokesman Bruce Hight says the layoffs are part of the company’s “ongoing turnaround plan.” In March, the company said it would implement a restructuring designed to trim $800 million in costs.

Vindicator wire reports

Selected local stocks

STOCK, DIVIDENDCLOSECHANGE

Aqua America, .66, 25.865 —.05

Avalon Holdings,3.702.00

Clear Channel, .73 64.25 —.74

Cortland Bancorp, 10.00.00

Farmers Nat., .126.42 .01

First Energy, 2.20, 49.18—.24

FirstMerit Corp., .64,16.575 —.09

First Niles Financial, .32,8.10.00

First Place Fin., .65.00

FNB Corp., .48,11.09—.09

General Motors,20.31—.23

General Electric, .68,20.00—.33

Motors Liquidation, .0422.00

Huntington Bank, .16, 6.38—.04

JP Morgan Chase, 1.20,33.90—.48

Key Corp, .20,7.70.01

LaFarge, 10.40 —.23

Macy’s, .80, 34.03—.24

Parker Hannifin, 1.64, 75.74—1.76

PNC, 1.60,60.70—.39

RTI Intl. Metals,22.90—.54

Simon Prop. Grp.,4.00,157.40.56

Stoneridge 6.84 —.15

United Community Fin. 2.99—.05

Selected prices at 4 p.m. Friday. Provided by Stifel Nicolaus. Not to be construed as an offer or recommendation to buy or sell any security.