Vatican bank gets pope's blessing to keep going

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis gave his backing Monday to the scandal-tainted Vatican Bank to carry on provided it presses ahead with efforts to bring its banking practices up to international standards.

To continue operating, the bank, which has been caught up in money-laundering probes conducted by Italian judicial authorities, has to make itself more transparent and enact international best banking practices.

The pope's decision could surprise some observers who had speculated that Francis might pull the plug on the bank, also known as the Institute for Religious Works (IOR) — last year, Francis noted that "St. Peter didn't have a bank account" and that some were advising him to close the bank down.

In a statement Monday, the Vatican said "the valuable services that can be offered by the Institute assist the Holy Father in his mission as universal pastor."

Referring to reforms sparked by the probes, the Vatican said the bank's executives and managers will finalize plans to ensure the institute can fulfill its mission "as part of the Holy See's new financial structures." In announcing Francis' approval for the bank's future, it stressed that the IOR must follow 2013 papal directives on "transparency, supervision and financial information."

The bank's spokesman, Max Hohenberg, said the pope's decision "represents a powerful endorsement of our very mission and the hard work accomplished over the past 12 months." Francis was elected pope in March 2013 and fixing the bank as part of a broader reform program has been one of his priorities over the past year.

Hohenberg said the bank is aiming to "complete its client screening by the summer of this year, improve its integration with other Vatican City State structures and introduce other operational improvements."

Pressed to meet international banking standards, the IOR, which isn't open to the general public, has been combing through its client list to reduce the possibility that it could serve as an off-shore haven for illicit revenues.

In 2010, Rome prosecutors began a money-laundering investigation, leading to the seizure of 23 million euros ($31 million) from a Vatican account at an Italian bank. Another probe by Italian authorities led to the arrest of a Vatican monsignor in an alleged money-smuggling operation and a money-laundering case involving his Vatican bank accounts.

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Follow Frances D'Emilio on Twitter at www.twitter.com/fdemilio

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Survey confirms gains in health insurance sign-ups

WASHINGTON — A growing share of Americans got health insurance as sign-up season for President Barack Obama's health care law came to a close last month, a major survey released Monday has found.

The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index provides independent validation for White House claims that the law is expanding access, particularly for working people with no coverage on the job. But the improvement, while substantial, doesn't appear as large as some of the numbers claimed by the law's supporters.

Gallup found that the share of adults without health insurance shrank from 17.1 percent at the end of last year to 15.6 percent for the first three months of 2014.

The decline of 1.5 percentage points would translate roughly to more than 3.5 million people gaining coverage. The trend accelerated as the March 31 enrollment deadline loomed.

"The Affordable Care Act, commonly referred to as 'Obamacare,' appears to be accomplishing its goal of increasing the percentage of Americans with health insurance," said Gallup's analysis of the findings.

The survey is important because it combines the quick turnaround of media polls with extensive outreach usually seen in government research. Gallup interviewed more than 43,500 adults, or more than 40 times the number in a typical national media poll.

Coming a week after the close of the health care law's first enrollment season, Gallup's numbers suggest a more modest impact on coverage than statistics cited by the Obama administration.

The administration says more than 7 million have signed up for subsidized private plans through new insurance markets. Additionally, 3 million previously uninsured people gained coverage through the law's Medicaid expansion.

Millions more remain potentially eligible for marketplace coverage under various extensions issued by the administration. White House senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer said this weekend on CBS that 200,000 people who had started applications but weren't able to finish by the deadline got signed up later in the week.

However, the administration's numbers are not comparable with Gallup's.

The White House figure of 7 million-plus insurance exchange sign-ups includes insured people who switched their previous coverage, as well as people who have not paid their first month's premium, and who would therefore still be uninsured.

Also, Gallup is counting just adults, while the administration figures include children as well.

It may take much of the rest of the year to get a true bottom line of the health care law's impact on coverage.

Still, Gallup's numbers do show an improving trend. The share of Americans without coverage is at its lowest since late 2008, before Obama took office, the survey found.

"This survey and other independent analyses highlight a historic expansion in coverage," said Aaron Albright, a spokesman for the Health and Human Services department.

The survey also speaks to concerns about the consequences from last fall's wave of insurance cancellations. Gallup's data suggest most of the people whose existing policies did not measure up under the law were able to get new coverage, or took advantage of exceptions belatedly issued by the White House.

Gallup found the biggest insurance gains were among lower-income people and among African-Americans.

Among people with household incomes of less than $36,000 a year, the share of uninsured shrank by 3.2 percentage points from levels at the end of 2013.

African-Americans saw their uninsured rate drop by 3.3 percentage points.

Although the proportion of Hispanics without coverage fell by 1.7 percentage points, Latinos remained more likely than any racial or ethnic group to lack access, with 37 percent uninsured.

Gallup found gains in coverage among all age groups, but not much evidence of a late surge of younger people that the administration had hoped for to help keep premiums in check.

Results were based on telephone interviews conducted Jan. 2 -March 31 with a random sample of 43,562 adults 18 and older living in all 50 states and Washington, D.C. For results based on the total sample of national adults, the margin of sampling error is plus or minus 1 percentage point at the 95 percent confidence level.

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Car rental companies ramp up exotic offerings

LAS VEGAS — There's a chance now for the middle class to feel like movie stars. Or for a movie star to feel like a movie star away from home.

In the past few years, some of the biggest car rental companies have added the finest cars money can buy to their fleets. Alongside the practical Toyotas and Fords are Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Bentleys, Aston Martins and Teslas, to name a few.

They don't come cheaply, of course. But, in some ways, that's beside the point.

"We try to sell a lifestyle, not just an exotic vehicle," said Vince Sample, location manager for Beverly Hills Rent A Car in Las Vegas. And it's one that wows: "People stop and stare. They ask, 'Can I take a picture?' They want to see if it's someone famous."

Sample's firm, which has worked with royals, famous singers and casino whales, will deliver a $900-per-day candy apple red Ferrari California or a $2,200-per-day Rolls-Royce Wraith directly to the customer. There's no license plate frame to mark it as a rental. He will even take off the dealership's keychain so customers feel it's totally theirs.

As the recession fades to a memory, independent rental companies in flashy cities such as Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Miami Beach aren't the only ones offering the high-end rides. The big firms are doing it, too, and in places less known for glamour.

Last summer, Hertz launched its Dream Cars line in 35 locations, including Pittsburgh and Milwaukee. Enterprise's Exotic Collection, which launched in Southern California, operates in 13 locations and is planning to open West Hollywood and Atlanta branches later this spring. Budget offers a range of BMWs and American sports cars in its Street Fleet and Avis has similar selection in its Signature Series, although the finest vehicles are found in the Avis Prestige collection in Europe.

Sharon Faulkner, executive director of the American Car Rental Association, said the growth in the upscale rental market differs from years past because it's no longer limited to beach and tourist towns.

Enterprise's move into the exotics market in 2006 came as customers started asking for more rarified vehicles — ones beyond the realm of the company's existing luxury collection of Lincolns and Cadillacs. Last year, the number of rental days within the exotic collection jumped 50 percent, according to Steve Short, Enterprise's vice president of leisure business development.

"There's probably some demand that was out there that wasn't being met," he said.

When Hertz was scoping out the market for its Dream Cars, it analyzed registration data to determine which cars consumers were driving in different parts of the country, according to spokeswoman Paula Rivera.

The company stocked stores to reflect regional tastes: California customers are more likely to pick showy convertibles, whereas patrons in the heartland prefer more subtle indulgences. Hertz launched the program during a shaky recovery, calculating that demand among the wealthy would remain steady no matter the economic tide.

"The day-to-day consumer will mirror what's going on in the economy," Rivera said. "When you look at the really high-end luxury travel markets, it's always tended to be fairly resilient, and that's been one of the deciding factors."

Customers for the high-end automobiles include Douglas Weil, a Southern California businessman who rents from Enterprise's Exotic Collection about once a month and tends to choose Mercedes, Audis and BMWs.

He owns a two-door luxury sports car, but wants something roomier and more practical when he's shuttling around out-of-town clients.

"It's not so much to maintain an image, but to have the flexibility," he said.

Manufacturers have been supportive of the exotic rentals, Short said, because they're a chance to introduce new models to well-heeled potential buyers. Some customers view a high-end rental as an extended test drive — a small investment to make before sinking hundreds of thousands of dollars into a car.

"When you get into a test drive, it's short, you're excited, it smells good, you're not thinking of everything you need to be thinking about it," Faulkner said. "If you can spend a weekend with it, you get a much better idea of if it's the car for me."

For rental companies, the exotics sector requires an extra level of care. Businesses do more extensive detailing on the vehicles, drop them off at the customer's doorstep at odd hours and require large deposits or an insurance plan fit to replace a car the price of a house.

But what many dealers say hasn't been a concern is customers taking their luxurious loaners on reckless joyrides.

"When their own insurance is on the hook, they treat these cars like they treat their own cars," said Short. "We don't see people drag racing."

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Find Michelle Rindels on Twitter: http://twitter.com/RindelsAP

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Greek journalist union condemns columnist's arrest

ATHENS, Greece — A Greek journalists' union and the government have condemned the arrest of a journalist over an opinion column about a member of parliament.

Right-wing Independent Greeks lawmaker Rachel Makri made a libel complaint against journalist Despina Kontaraki over her comments in the Sunday edition of Eleftheros Typos newspaper.

The column criticized Makri's stance regarding a scandal in which a close aide to the prime minister was videotaped alleging the prosecution of the extreme right-wing Golden Dawn party was politically motivated. The aide has since resigned.

Police arrested Kontaraki at the newspaper's office Sunday then released her later in the day. Makri also made complaints against two other journalists and two newspaper publishers. They have not been detained so far.

The journalists' union POESY on Monday described Kontaraki's arrest as "unacceptable," adding that arrests for press complaints had been abolished in 2001.

Government spokesman Simos Kedikoglou also criticized Makri for initiating legal proceedings against the press.

"It is unacceptable for a political figure to respond to journalists' criticism with lawsuits and arrests," he said in a statement.

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Chili's backs off autism event after backlash

NEW YORK — Chili's is backing away from plans to donate funds to a group that says autism can be triggered by vaccinations, a position that has been widely discredited by the medical community.

To honor National Autism Awareness month, the restaurant chain had planned on donating a portion of its sales to the National Autism Association. On its website, the group says it believes that vaccinations can "trigger or exacerbate autism in some, if not many, children."

On Sunday, Chili's said on its blog that it was canceling the event based on feedback from its guests.

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Taco Bell again pokes fun at McDonald's in new ad

NEW YORK — Taco Bell is taking another jab at McDonald's in a new ad for its breakfast menu.

The fast-food chain will begin airing a TV spot that is set to the tune of "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" and shows a man who has been eating Egg McMuffins since 1984. After trying Taco Bell's breakfast, the man trims his mullet, switches to tighter pants, gets a smart phone and takes down his "Loverboy" poster.

It's a follow up to another ad that featured real-life men named Ronald McDonald professing their love of Taco Bell's breakfast. If Taco Bell seems fixated with McDonald's, it's with good reason; McDonald's has long been the heavyweight in the fast-food breakfast category with 31 percent of the market, according to food industry researcher Technomic.

Whether the strategy of going after the No. 1 player so directly translates to sustained sales is yet to be seen. McDonald's breakfast has been hugely popular since it rolled out the Egg McMuffin in the early 1970s, and getting people to think of Taco Bell as a place to get breakfast won't be easy. Wendy's, for instance, has retreated from plans to expand its breakfast menu after testing the offering in select locations.

"We knew we had to have a disruptive marketing campaign," said Chris Brandt, Taco Bell's chief marketing officer, in a phone interview.

Taco Bell's breakfast menu is also fairly limited compared with McDonald's, which now includes oatmeal and the option to substitute egg whites in breakfast sandwiches. But Brandt said the company has additional offerings in development.

"Some of the things on our menu might run out of gas," he also noted.

When asked to specify which items he was referencing, Brandt declined to elaborate. But there are only four main attractions on the menu — the A.M. Crunchwrap, a breakfast burrito, a grilled taco and the waffle taco. The last item has gotten plenty of attention, but the reviews have been mixed. The website Gothamist, for instance, said declared them "really meh."

"I wouldn't give up on the waffle taco," Taco Bell's Brandt stressed.

In the meantime, McDonald's is firing a few volleys in response to the teasing from Taco Bell. The day after the first Taco Bell ad, it tweeted an image of its spokesclown kneeling down to pet a Chihuahua with the words, "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery."

The image, a reference to Taco Bell's retired mascot, got nearly 3,000 retweets.

The two chains aren't alone in trying to capitalize on the growing breakfast category. Starbucks also revamped its breakfast sandwiches in hopes of driving up sales. And the CEO of Sonic recently said on CNBC that convenience stores are posing greater competition with stepped-up breakfast offerings.

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Follow Candice Choi at www.twitter.com/candicechoi

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Lands' End starts trading as public company

NEW YORK — Lands' End shares are falling in its first day as a separate public company after being spun off from Sears.

The company's stock dropped $2.17, or 6.8 percent, to $29.50 in Monday morning trading.

Lands' End was publicly traded before Sears Holdings Corp. purchased it in 2002 for nearly $2 billion. Sears hasn't had much success with it though, and announced in December that it was going to spin off the clothing business as a separate company by distributing stock to its shareholders. It closed on the spinoff on Friday.

Sears received gross proceeds of $500 million from the separation. That consisted of a cash dividend paid by Lands' End to a subsidiary of Sears Holdings before the spinoff.

The spinoff by Sears has been viewed as a way to unlock value for investors as the retailer's core business struggles after years of sales declines. The company, which also runs Kmart stores, has been closing some unprofitable stores and sold some store leases in Canada.

Sears has spun off other businesses over the past three years, including its Hometown and Sears Outlet stores and its Orchard Supply Hardware Stores, to raise cash. It has also said it is considering separating its auto center business.

Billionaire hedge fund manager and Sears chairman Eddie Lampert, who took over as CEO in February 2013, has been under intense pressure to turn around the business. Sears has had trouble adapting as bigger, nimbler rivals such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Home Depot Inc. have stolen away customers over the years.

In 2012 Sears announced plans to restore profitability by cutting costs, reducing inventory, selling off some assets and spinning off others. Those moves helped the Hoffman Estates, Ill., company reduce net debt by $400 million and generated $1.8 billion in cash from the asset sales. Sears also has been building a loyalty program called Shop Your Way, which accounts for a majority of its sales and has tens of millions of active customers.

But critics say Sears hasn't managed to solve its core problem: Its stores aren't inviting to shoppers.

Lands' End began in 1963 as a sailboat hardware and equipment catalog. Sears bought it in 2002. The company is trading on the Nasdaq under the "LE" ticker symbol.

Sears Holdings will continue to list on the Nasdaq under the "SHLD" ticker symbol. Its stock rose 58 cents, or 1.4 percent, to $41.26 in morning trading.

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Latvia, Lithuania ban Russian state TV broadcasts

VILNIUS, Lithuania — Latvia is joining Lithuania in banning Russian state television broadcasts because it found that several programs about the Ukraine crisis were tendentious and not in the Baltic nation's security interests.

A three-month suspension of broadcasts of all Rossiya RTR's programs begins April 8, following a decision by the Latvian National Electronic Mass Media Council, the watchdog's spokeswoman Sanita Blomniece told The Associated Press on Monday.

The council said the decision was prompted by findings of the Latvian Security Police, which said events in Ukraine in several Rossiya reports last month were presented in a way that justified "military aggression against a sovereign state." It also said they were "dominated by the view that despite international law, the president of the Russian Federation has every right to use the military in Ukraine to defend Russian speakers. "

A Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman in Moscow denounced the Latvian decision. Pnsyantin Dolgovsaid on Twitter called Latvia's ban "the latest attempt to censor inconvenient information and a violation of fundamental rights on access to mass media."

The Latvian ban follows a similar suspension in neighboring Lithuania of RTR Planeta's broadcasts for three months after the media watchdog in Vilnius found that a March 2 weekly news program about Ukraine was biased. On Monday, the Vilnius Regional Court upheld the council's decision.

"The program incited violent actions against peaceful people in Ukraine, justified military intervention into Ukraine and questioned the legitimacy of the Ukrainian authorities," court spokeswoman Sigita Jacineviciene Baltaduone said. "It was obviously biased and was likely aimed to incite discord."

Both RTR channels are owned by Russian state broadcaster VGTRK.

All three Baltic states — Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia — have sizeable ethnic Russian minorities and are increasingly concerned about the Kremlin's actions toward Ukraine and its declaration that it will protect Russians abroad.

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Stocks slump, extending decline from last week

NEW YORK — The stock market extended its losses in early afternoon trading Monday, putting the Standard & Poor's 500 index on track for its third straight day of losses. Declines were led by companies that sell goods and services that are not essential for shoppers.

KEEPING SCORE: The S&P 500 fell 18 points, or 0.9 percent, to 1,847 as of 12:31 p.m. Eastern time. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 135 points, or 0.2 percent, to 16,277. The Nasdaq composite dropped 53 points, or 0.5 percent, to 4,074.

USED CAR SALES: CarMax slipped $1.84, or 4 percent, to $43.72 after the company said late Friday that its fourth-quarter earnings fell 7 percent. Net income declined as the effects of an accounting correction offset higher demand for its vehicles. The company's revenue also fell short of financial analysts' expectations.

BARBIE WOES: Mattel dropped $1.05, or 2.66 percent, to $38.35 after analysts at BMO Capital cut their outlook for the company. They cited lower demand for some of the toymaker's key products, like Barbie dolls and Hot Wheels cars. The company has also exhausted its cost-savings opportunities.

PHARMA BUY: Questcor Pharmaceuticals jumped $10.19, or 15 percent, or $78.28 after Mallinckrodt said it was acquiring the company in a cash-and-stock deal valued at about $5.2 billion.

FIRST-QUARTER EARNINGS: Investors will start focusing on the outlook for corporate earnings this week, as companies begin to report their first-quarter results. Aluminum maker Alcoa, JPMorgan and Wells Fargo are reporting. Companies are expected to report first-quarter earnings growth of 0.45 percent over last year's first quarter. That rate of growth, however, is down from 8 percent in the fourth quarter, according to S&P Capital IQ.

THE QUOTE: "The expectations are incredibly low, largely due to the impact of winter weather" said Kate Warne, an investment strategist at Edward Jones. Investors will be watching whether or not companies say that they're businesses have strengthened as the weather has improved.

P&G PAYOUT: Procter & Gamble edged up following news that the maker of Tide detergent would raise its quarterly dividend by 4 cents to 64 cents. P&G rose 98 cents, or 1.2 percent, to $80.74.

BORROWING: Later Monday, the Federal Reserve will release a report on how much consumers borrowed in February. The forecast is that borrowing rose slightly to $14 billion, according to FactSet. Some economists consider an increase in borrowing an encouraging sign that people are more confident and willing to take on debt.

FED AHEAD: The U.S. Federal Reserve will release minutes on Wednesday from its meeting in mid-March. Investors will be parsing the minutes from that two-day gathering to try to anticipate the Fed's next moves on interest rates, and its huge bond-buying program. That buying is being scaled back.

BONDS AND COMMODITIES: Bond prices rose slightly. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 2.69 percent from 2.72 percent late Friday. The price of crude oil fell $1.04, or 1 percent, to $100.10 a barrel. Gold fell $6, or 0.5 percent, to $1,297.20 an ounce.

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Utilities appeal millions in fines for 2011 storms

BOSTON — The state's highest court has heard arguments from three major utilities seeking to overturn record penalties stemming from their response to two major storms in 2011.

The state Department of Public Utilities fined National Grid $18.7 million for Tropical Storm Irene and a rare October snowstorm. NStar was fined $4.1 million for the two storms and Western Massachusetts Electric $2 million for the snowstorm only.

Both storms caused hundreds of thousands of Massachusetts customers to lose electricity. Many had to wait over a week for power to be restored.

The utilities challenged the findings of regulators who said the companies' response to the storms and communication with officials during the emergency was inadequate.

The Supreme Judicial Court heard arguments on Monday and took the case under advisement.

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