UNITED STATES

Tenet Healthcare Inc , the No. 3 U.S. hospital chain, posted a quarterly net loss on Tuesday as it restructured debt to reduce interest expense but raised its earnings forecast for 2012.

Consumer confidence scaled a one-year high in February as optimism about the labor market offset concerns over rising gasoline prices, an independent survey showed on Tuesday.

An international legal panel based in the Netherlands has decided that it has jurisdiction over a pollution case in Ecuador brought by aboriginals against California-based Chevron. The panel could void damages awarded in the case.

Micron (Nasdaq: MU), the sole U.S. maker of memory chips, and Intel (Nasdaq: INTC), the No. I chipmaker, upgraded their six-year-old partnership for advanced products.

Tenet Healthcare Inc , the No. 3 U.S. hospital chain, posted a quarterly net loss on Tuesday as it restructured debt to reduce interest expense, but raised its earnings forecast for 2012.

Virgin Galactic, an offshoot of Richard Branson's Virgin Group, expects to test fly its first spacecraft beyond the Earth's atmosphere this year, with commercial suborbital passenger service to follow in 2013 or 2014, company officials said on Monday.

An unmanned Atlas 5 rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Friday carrying the first satellite in a new military network designed to give cellphone-like 3G communications to troops on the move.

The Federal Housing Administration faces considerable risks to its finances and the Obama administration will continue to scale back the agency's presence in the mortgage market, the top U.S. housing official said on Tuesday.

New orders for long-lasting manufactured goods fell in January by the most in three years as demand slumped across the board, suggesting the economy started the year on weaker footing than expected.

The alleged plan would not involve sending land troops into Syria given the formidable power of the Syrian armed forces,

Virtual boxing, tennis and dancing along with video game systems may not be helping children meet daily exercise requirements, according to a U.S. study.

Standard & Poor's on Monday cut Greece's long-term ratings to 'selective default', the second ratings agency to proceed with a widely expected downgrade after the country announced a bond swap plan to lighten its debt burden.

Stocks rose on Tuesday on strong U.S. consumer confidence data, but gains were capped after a report showed a drop in durable goods orders.

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. (NASDAQ:GMCR), the maker of Keurig single-serve brewers and capsules, claimed the No. 45 spot on the IBTimes 1000 list by catering to consumers' needs while operating on a high-margin business model.

Facebook said it could team up with mobile operators on payments, in an offer that would give them back part of the revenue and influence they have lost in recent years to Apple (AAPL.O) and Google (GOOG.O).

New orders for U.S. manufactured goods fell in January by the most in three years as demand fell across the board from machinery to aircraft, suggesting the economy started the year on weaker footing than expected.

Syria had welcomed the Hamas leadership following their expulsion from Jordan in 1999

A closely watched index of U.S. consumer confidence put out by the nonprofit Conference Board climbed to its highest level in a year during February, data released Tuesday show. The Conference Board Consumer Index showed a significant surge during the month, climbing to 70.8 from an upwardly revised 61.5 in January.

The Richmond Fed said Tuesday that manufacturing in the central Atlantic area increased in February for the third consecutive month.

Consumer confidence scaled a one-year high in February as optimism about the labor market offset concerns over rising gasoline prices, an independent survey showed on Tuesday.

The U.S. banking industry continues to recover from the economic downturn and the 2007-2009 financial crisis, with profits rising over the past year, but the improvement can only continue if lending picks up, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp said.