U.S. computer maker Hewlett-Packard says it plans to cut 27,000 jobs, 8 percent of its workforce, this year as part of a multiyear restructuring plan. The company made the announcement Wednesday after the markets closed. Analysts had estimated the job cuts would be as high as 35,000. The...

Grain futures were mixed at the close Wednesday on the Chicago Board of Trade, with corn futures pressured by strong gains in the U.S. dollar index. Corn was up 1/2 to up 6 1/2, soybeans were down 18 1/2 to down 24 1/2, wheat was down 2 to down 17 3/4, oats were down 3 3/6 to down 9. Soybeans...

Gold futures for June delivery fell $28.20, or 1.8 percent, Wednesday to $1,548.40 per troy ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Silver futures for July delivery fell 66 cents, or 2.3 percent, to $27.52 per troy ounce. Concerns about Greece’s ability to...

U.S. stocks closed mostly flat Wednesday as investors reversed the day”s steep losses in late day trading. The markets spent most of the day in decline as the euro dropped to the lowest level in nearly two years amid growing concern Greece could exit the eurozone, the 17 nations that...

U.S.-based software giant Oracle says it has agreed to acquire Vitrue, a cloud-based social marketing platform, for $300 million. The announcement Wednesday comes one day after SAP announced a $4.3 billion deal to acquire the cloud-based business commerce network Ariba, Inc. “The cloud...

Seagate Technology says it has agreed to purchase a 64.5 percent interest in LaCie, a French maker of computer storage products, for $186 million. The California-based hard drive maker says the deal will combine two highly complementary product and technology portfolios, adding LaCie’s...

Australia has passed legislation establishing the $10 billion Clean Energy Finance Corp. to provide grants and government investment to green projects. The legislation, introduced by Climate Change Minister Greg Combet, was passed Wednesday, Australia”s Fraser Coast Chronicle...

Jordan, traditionally energy-barren, sits on shale oil deposits that are reported to be the equivalent of 50 billion barrels of oil. High production costs have made extracting this resource way too expensive for the Hashemite kingdom — until now. But extracting the oil will take time,...

Land-locked Paraguay is hoping the latest investor seeking oil in its promising western region will have better results than previous prospectors. British energy producer Amerisur Resources Plc said it has received a prospecting permit from Paraguay’s Ministry of Public Works and...

Australia has scrapped the planned $8.8 billion expansion of the Abbot Point coal terminal in Queensland. Queensland Deputy Premier Jeff Seeney on Monday said the project had been labeled “unrealistic” and “undeliverable.” “The significant scale, complexity and...

The first thing you hear is a charge — a high-pitched, electronic whine and within minutes the whirring settles into a roar as the speeding train whizzes along the track at 200 miles per hour, streaking across the landscape. The emotion of the bullet train hasn”t escaped the...

China has called “unfair” the U.S. anti-dumping ruling against Chinese solar power equipment. The Obama administration on Thursday ordered tariffs of 31 percent and higher on solar panels imported from China following a determination that China is flooding the U.S. market with...

Phillip Phillips was crowned the winner on “American Idol” in Los Angeles Wednesday. More than 132 million votes were cast for the singing competition show’s Season 11 finale. Phillips, 21, walked away with a recording contract. He beat out fellow finalist Jessica Sanchez,...

Michael McKean has officially dropped out of the Broadway revival of “Gore Vidal”s The Best Man” after he was hit by a car in New York, producers said. Starting Wednesday, McKean was replaced in the political comedy by James Lecesne in the role of Dick Jensen,...

The ashes of late Canadian actor James Doohan have been successfully sent into Earth orbit via SpaceX’s unmanned Falcon 9 rocket, E! News reported. The “Star Trek” icon died in 2005 after a battle with pneumonia and Alzheimer’s disease. He was 85. A 2008 attempt to...

Actor Jason Gedrick has joined the Season 7 cast of the U.S. crime drama “Dexter,” Showtime announced. Gedrick will play the manager of a Miami-area gentlemen”s club linked to a high-profile murder case. Production on the show begins this month in Los Angeles, the cable...

“Wheel of Fortune” host Pat Sajak and broadcast journalist Joe Moore are to star in a staging of “The Odd Couple,” the Connecticut Repertory Theatre said. The production of Neil Simon”s classic comedy is to run June 21 through July 7 at the Harriet S....

A 26-year-old woman injured while working as an extra on the set of “Transformers 3″ has settled her lawsuit for $18.5 million, the Chicago Tribune said. No details regarding the exact terms of the lawsuit against Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks were immediately released, but...

Competition among hospitals and cardiology groups is the most common barrier to implementing systems for treatment of heart patients, U.S. researchers say. Lead author Dr. James G. Jollis, professor of medicine at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C., and colleagues said 381 systems...

Almost 89 percent of U.S. adults — and 82 percent of Catholic adults — say birth control is morally acceptable, a Gallup Poll indicates. Gallup’s Values and Beliefs survey of 1,024 U.S. adults, conducted May 3-6 found 90 percent of non-Catholics agree birth control is morally...

One-in-12 babies and toddlers in British hospitals contract a potentially life threatening infection, government officials found. Researchers at the Health Protection Agency surveyed 52,443 hospital patients at 103 hospitals and found 1-in-16 had an infection associated with their healthcare,...

So-called sudden coital death is more common when a man has sex with a mistress outside than when he had sex with his wife, researchers in Italy said. Dr. Alessandra Fisher of the University of Florence and colleagues reviewed existing research on the context in which men experience sudden...

Many U.S. workers are aware of germs in the workplace lavatory but they may not be aware of the high level of germs where they make coffee, researchers say. The study by Kimberly-Clark Professional, in consultation with Dr. Charles Gerba, a professor of microbiology at the University of...

Oreck Corp. is providing refunds after allegedly making false or unproven health claims under a Federal Trade Commission settlement, officials say. Consumers who bought the Oreck Halo vacuum will receive $25 for each item purchased, and those who bought the Oreck ProShield Plus air cleaner...

A sneezing monkey and a fungus named for a popular TV cartoon character are on a list of the top 10 new species described in 2011, U.S. researchers say. A beautiful but venomous jellyfish, a night-blooming orchid and an ancient walking cactus creature are also on the list released Wednesday by...

Three rare Florida panthers have been killed this week, bringing the total to 12 for the year as habitat for the cat shrinks, an environmental group says. The number of Florida panthers remaining in the wild is estimated to range between 100 and 120, a release from the group Public Employees...

Dozens of computer science teachers will work in British schools thanks to a partnership between Google and the charity Teach First, Google’s chairman says. Without investment in the subject, Britain risked “losing a generation” of scientists, Google’s Eric Schmidt...

“Jeopardy” quiz show host Alex Trebek is featured in a new public service announcement titled “How does NASA affect our daily lives?” the agency said Wednesday. In the video, the host of the long-running show points out that much of the technologies we rely on in our...

NASA’s Mars rover Opportunity has used a low sun angle in the Martian evening to help capture a memorable image of a large crater, the space agency says. Mars Exploration Rover used its panoramic camera between about 4:30 and 5:00 p.m. local Mars time to record images taken through...

A fossil discovery has scientists reconsidering whether a spine with multiple segments is a feature of land-dwelling animals only, U.S. researchers say. The discovery of the identical anatomical feature in a 345-million-year-old eel-like fish suggests the complex anatomy arose separately from...

Wandy Rodriguez worked in and out of trouble while giving up a lone run in seven innings Wednesday, lifting Houston to a 5-1 win over the Chicago Cubs. The Astros finished off a three-game sweep and won for the sixth time in eight outings. The Cubs’ losing streak stretched to nine...

Marco Pappa scored off a penalty kick rebound in the 63rd minute Wednesday to boost the Chicago Fire past Dallas 2-1. Chicago gave up the first goal of the game, but rallied to run the Dallas winless streak to eight contests. The Fire won at home against Dallas for the first time since Chicago...

Chris Sale combined with two relievers on a four-hitter Wednesday, lifting the Chicago White Sox to a 6-0 victory over Minnesota. Sale (5-2) allowed two hits, struck out six and walked two over seven innings to win his second straight start. Jesse Crain and Matt Thornton worked an inning each...

(All times Eastern) -0- Baseball American League Detroit at Cleveland, 12:05 p.m. Minnesota at Chicago White Sox, 8:10 p.m. LA Angels at Seattle, 10:10 p.m. -0- National League Atlanta at Cincinnati, 7:10 p.m. San Diego at N.Y. Mets, 7:10 p.m. San Francisco at Miami, 7:10 p.m. Philadelphia at...

Todd Frazier launched a one-out, solo homer in the ninth inning Wednesday to give the Cincinnati Reds a 2-1 decision over Atlanta. Frazier’s home run, his fourth of the year, came on an 0-1 pitch off Cristhian Martinez (2-1) and just cleared the wall in right. Cincinnati won its fifth in...

Ryan Carter’s go-ahead goal with 4:24 to play Wednesday sent New Jersey to a 5-3 win over the New York Rangers and within reach of the Stanley Cup Finals. The Devils took a 3-2 lead in the Eastern Conference championship series and will earn a chance to play for the NHL title if they...