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It wouldn’t quite be All-Star Weekend without Charles Barkley interviewing President Barack Obama. The NBA Hall of Famer sat down with Obama as part of TNT’s coverage of the big game, which airs Sunday night. Barkley is an analyst for the network’s “Inside the NBA” show and a big reason why the program is the top-rated show in its genre. Barkley’s become known for his ‘real-talk’ analysis of players, teams and games that have made him a favorite among hoops fans and media members alike. Obama is a big fan of the NBA and a former player himself. Barkley is...

U.S. stocks fell sharply on Thursday after economic reports had more Americans than projected filing for jobless claims last week and retail sales unexpectedly falling in January. The Labor Department reported applications for unemployment benefits climbed by 8,000 to 339,000, higher than the 300,000 projected by economists. Separately, the Commerce Department reported retail sales fell 0.4 percent last month from December, versus expectations they would be flat.

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks rose in midday trading Tuesday as the new head of the Federal Reserve, Janet Yellen, signaled that the central bank would continue to dial back its stimulus program if the U.S. economy keeps improving. Investors also cheered news that Congress appeared poised to raise the United States' borrowing limit without the political drama that happened late last year. That would avert the threat of a default on the U.S. government's debt.

WASHINGTON — In the 41/2 years since the recession ended, millions of Americans who have gone without jobs or raises have found themselves wondering something about the economic recovery: Is this as good as it gets? It increasingly looks that way. Two straight weak job reports have raised doubts about economists’ predictions of breakout growth in 2014. The global economy is showing signs of slowing — again. Manufacturing has slumped. Fewer people are signing contracts to buy homes. Global stock markets have sunk as anxiety has gripped developing nations. Some long-term trends are equally dispiriting. The Congressional Budget Office foresees...

WASHINGTON—The labor market in January registered weak gains for the second straight month, a slowdown that could heighten fears about the economic recovery and may lead some to call on the Federal Reserve to reconsider its easy-money strategy. U.S. payrolls increased by a seasonally adjusted 113,000 in January, the Labor Department said Friday. Job growth improved compared with December's gain, which was revised up by just 1,000 to 75,000, but was well below last year's average pace. The November increase was recast up by 33,000 to 274,000. The unemployment rate, obtained through a separate survey, fell to 6.6% last month...

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. Secret Service visited the office of a Pennsylvania-based refrigeration contractor, Fazio Mechanical Services, in connection with an investigation of the Target Corp consumer data breach, a spokesman for the agency said on Wednesday. Fazio is the largest refrigeration contractor in the Western Pennsylvania region, and Target is one of its clients, according to the Sharpsburg-based company's website. A law enforcement source told Reuters that evidence suggests the hackers stole login credentials from Fazio and may have used the credentials to break into Target's network. The source added, however, that investigators were not sure that...

CNN is shutting down CNN Latino just a year after its launch. The eight-hour syndicated news and entertainment block will shutter later this month, Media Moves reports. “CNN Latino was a bold effort to continue CNN’s commitment to the U.S. Hispanic marketplace. Unfortunately, despite the great efforts of many talented people, CNN Latino was not able to fulfill our business expectations and we are discontinuing the programming this month,” a CNN spokesperson said in a statement.

The US economy added 175,000 private-sector jobs in January, fewer than in December, with severe winter weather taking its toll on job growth, payrolls firm ADP says. The January number marked the second consecutive month of slowing job growth after November's surge to 289,000, the peak for 2013. ADP revised the December level lower to 227,000. Last month's job growth came in slightly below analysts' consensus estimate of 178,000. The January reading "is in line with the average monthly growth throughout 2013", said Carlos Rodriguez, president and chief executive of ADP. As usual, most of the jobs - 160,000 -...

Disappointing factory data sent stocks falling hard on Monday, with the Dow dropping over 200 points and extending losses after its worst monthly percentage drop since May 2012. The markets had wavered ahead of the report from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) which said its index of national factory activity fell to 51.3 last month, to its lowest level since May 2013, from a recently revised 56.5 in December.

Oscar-winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman was found dead of an apparent drug overdose inside a Greenwich Village home on Sunday, cops said. Hoffman’s body was found by a friend at 11:30 a.m. Sunday morning in an apartment at 35 Bethune St., sources said.

SAN FRANCISCO — In the latest in a spate of online attacks affecting American businesses, White Lodging, which manages hotel franchises for chains like Marriott, Hilton and Starwood Hotels, is investigating a potential security breach involving customers’ payment information. White Lodging Services Corporation, which works with 168 hotels in 21 states, confirmed that it was examining the data breach. The intrusion into its systems was first posted by Brian Krebs, a security blogger, on Friday, when he reported that the breach might have resulted in the fraudulent use of hundreds of credit and debit cards used for payment at Marriott...

U.S. stocks tanked on Friday, with investor sentiment slammed by increasing worries about trouble in emerging markets. "This is more of a geoeconomic kind of thing. The Friday dates plays into this, the end of the month plays into this, and it does appear emerging markets, one by one, will need to take additional central bank action over the next few days," said Jim Russell, senior equity strategist for U.S. Bank Wealth Management.

<p>Yahoo reported on Thursday that some of its users' e-mail accounts may have been targeted in a security breach of a third-party database.</p> <p>"Recently, we identified a coordinated effort to gain unauthorized access to Yahoo Mail accounts," the company said in a blog post on its Tumblr site. "Upon discovery, we took immediate action to protect our users, prompting them to reset passwords on impacted accounts."</p>

Jan 30 (Reuters) - The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits rose more than expected last week, but the underlying trend suggested the labor market continued to heal. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 19,000 to a seasonally adjusted 348,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Claims for the prior week were revised to show 3,000 more applications received than previously reported. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast first-time applications for jobless benefits rising to 330,000 in the week ended Jan. 25. The four-week moving average for new claims, considered a better measure of underlying labor...

Target said Wednesday that the cyber criminals who breached its system used credentials they stole from one of the retailer's vendors. "The ongoing forensic investigation has indicated that the intruder stole a vendor's credentials, which were used to access our system," Target spokeswoman Molly Snyder said in a statement. She declined to elaborate on what type of credentials were taken from the vendor. Meanwhile, the Justice Department is investigating the hacking, Attorney General Eric Holder said Wednesday. Testifying at a U.S. Senate hearing, Holder said the department will seek not only to find the perpetrators of the breach but also...

WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve announced Wednesday another $10 billion cut in its monthly bond purchases in a statement that attributed the decision to “growing underlying strength in the broader economy.” The statement, published after a two-day meeting of the Fed’s policy-making committee, reflected the optimism of Fed officials that the economy is finally poised for faster growth after years of false starts and setbacks. It was the committee’s first unanimous decision since 2011. The Fed said it would expand its holdings of Treasury and mortgage-backed securities by $65 billion in February, down from $75 billion in January and $85...

The Federal Reserve is widely expected to further scale back its unprecedented bond buying plan at the end of a two-day meeting this afternoon. With the unemployment rate down to 6.7 percent in December, most economists think the Fed will trim its purchases by about $10 billion to $65 billion per month. Last month, the Fed tapered by $10 billion to $75 billion, citing improvements in the economy and progress towards its 6.5 percent unemployment benchmark.

An international team of scientists has discovered that two of the most devastating pandemics in human history -- responsible for killing as much as half the population in Europe at the time -- were caused by strains of the same bacterium. The researchers announced Monday that the Plague of Justinian and the Black Death were caused by distinct strains of the same pathogen, and warned that similar pandemics can strike again. The Plague of Justinian struck in the 6th century and is estimated to have killed between 30 and 50 million people -- virtually half the world’s population as it...

When a smartphone user opens Angry Birds, the popular game application, and starts slinging birds at chortling green pigs, spy agencies have plotted how to lurk in the background to snatch data revealing the player’s location, age, sex and other personal information, according to secret British intelligence documents. In their globe-spanning surveillance for terrorism suspects and other targets, the National Security Agency and its British counterpart have been trying to exploit a basic byproduct of modern telecommunications: With each new generation of mobile phone technology, ever greater amounts of personal data pour onto networks where spies can pick it up....

Michaels, the biggest U.S. arts and crafts retailer, said it is investigating a possible breach on its network and advised customers to check financial statements for fraudulent activity. The warning, which comes in the wake of the unprecedented breach at Target Corp over the holiday shopping season, suggests that hackers may be attacking retailers in a spree the extent of which is yet to be fully understood. If confirmed, this would be the second significant payment card breach at the retailer, whose two key investors are Blackstone Group LP and Bain Capital LP. In a high-profile 2011 attack, hackers replaced...