By Breaking Legal News, Breaking Legal News.

Global stock markets surged Tuesday after a better than expected U.S. economic survey gave a big boost to investor sentiment, which had earlier been buoyed by the Bank of Japan's surprise decision to ease monetary policy further.

Rising expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve will soon join the Bank of Japan in enacting fresh stimulus measures, despite the better than expected survey from the Institute for Supply Management, hit the dollar, which slid to an eight-month low against the euro.

In Europe, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares closed up 79.79 points, or 1.4 percent, at 5,635.76 while Germany's DAX rose 81.62 points, or 1.3 percent, to 6,215.83. The CAC-40 in France ended 82.12 points, or 2.3 percent, higher at 3,731.93.

In the U.S., the Dow Jones industrial average was up 163.67 points, or 1.5 percent, at 10,914.94 around midday New York time, while the broader Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 20.25 points, or 1.8 percent, to 1,157.28.

Stocks in Europe and the U.S. had been up all day after Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 stock average reversed early losses to close 1.5 percent higher at 9,518.76. The rally came after the country's central bank cut its key interest rate to a range of zero to 0.1 percent and said it may set up a 5 trillion yen ($60 billion) fund to buy government bonds and other assets in its latest attempt to prop up the faltering Japanese economy.

Originally posted at Breaking Legal News. Please visit http://www.breakinglegalnews.com/.

By Breaking Legal News, Breaking Legal News.

Japanese electronics giant Panasonic Corp. and a subsidiary of Michigan-based appliance maker Whirlpool Corp. have agreed to plead guilty and pay more than $140 million in criminal fines for their roles in an international price-fixing scheme, the U.S. Justice Department said Thursday.

The companies conspired to fix the prices of refrigerant compressors, the government said in a written statement.

Refrigerant compressors are placed into refrigerators and freezers, take in low-pressure refrigerant, compress it and pump out a high-pressure vapor that condenses and subsequently cools the devices.

In papers filed in Detroit federal court, Panasonic and Embraco North America Inc. are accused of working to fix prices on the compressors from 2004 to 2007 in the U.S. and abroad.

The Justice Department said Embraco would pay $91.8 million and Panasonic $49.1 million in criminal fines as part of plea agreements that are subject to court approval.

Christine Varney, assistant attorney general in charge of the antitrust division said the charges were the first brought by the department in its worldwide probe of the refrigerant compressors market.

Originally posted at Breaking Legal News. Please visit http://www.breakinglegalnews.com/.

By Breaking Legal News, Breaking Legal News.

As airline losses from the volcanic ash cloud spiraled over $1 billion on Monday, the industry demanded EU compensation and criticized European governments for not using scientific measures to evaluate the ash and open up their airspace.

Shares of some European airlines fell as flight disruptions from the volcanic cloud moved into a fifth day, and the International Air Transport Association complained of "no leadership" from government leaders — one of whom admitted to EU dissension about how to respond.

"It's embarrassing, and a European mess," IATA CEO Giovanni Bisignani told The Associated Press. "It took five days to organize a conference call with the ministers of transport and we are losing $200 million per day (and) 750,000 passengers are stranded all over. Does it make sense?"

European civil aviation authorities held a conference call Monday about what steps could be taken toward opening airspace, and transport ministers from all 27 EU member states were to hold another later in the day.

Dominique Bussereau, France's transport minister, told reporters Monday that he had urged EU president Spain ever since Saturday to call the ministerial meeting immediately — but Madrid declined.

Originally posted at Breaking Legal News. Please visit http://www.breakinglegalnews.com/.

By Breaking Legal News, Breaking Legal News.

The once-popular painkiller Vioxx doubled the risk of heart attack and was unfit for consumption, an Australian court ruled Friday, awarding a man leading a class action suit against the drug's maker 287,000 Australian dollars ($259,000) in compensation.

Melbourne Federal Court Judge Christopher Jessup's decision opens the door for claims from 600 other litigants in a lawsuit against U.S. pharmaceutical firm Merck & Co. over its since-recalled drug Vioxx. The painkiller was taken off the global market in 2004 after research showed it raised the risk of heart attacks and strokes.

Graeme Peterson, 59, of Melbourne, sued Merck and its Australian subsidiary, Merck Sharpe & Dohme, arguing the painkiller caused him to have a heart attack in 2003, leaving him unable to work.

The judge found that Merck Sharpe & Dohme failed in its duty of care by not warning Peterson's doctor about the drug's potential cardiovascular risk, and by its sales representatives emphasizing the drug's safety.

Originally posted at Breaking Legal News. Please visit http://www.breakinglegalnews.com/.