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Business Highlights

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Ethiopia crash black boxes arrive in France for analysis

HEJERE, Ethiopia (AP) — Flight recorders from a doomed Ethiopian Airlines flight have arrived in France for analysis. Meanwhile, relatives of the 157 people killed say they’re not getting the answers they need about the crash. More than 40 countries have grounded the Boeing 737 Max planes or refused to allow them into their airspace.

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Huawei pleads not guilty in US court in Iran sanctions case

NEW YORK (AP) — Lawyers for the Chinese electronics giant Huawei have entered a not-guilty plea in a U.S. case charging the company with violating Iran trade sanctions. The No. 2 smartphone maker was arraigned Thursday on an indictment filed in federal court in Brooklyn. Prosecutors say Huawei used a Hong Kong front company to trade with Iran in violation of U.S. sanctions. The company has denied the charges.

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2 top Facebook executives depart the company

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Two top Facebook executives are leaving the company, including product chief Chris Cox, who was long one of CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s top deputies. Chris Daniels, who leads encrypted messaging app WhatsApp, will also depart Facebook, Zuckerberg wrote in a post announcing the news Thursday.

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Court rules gun maker can be sued over Newtown shooting

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — The Connecticut Supreme Court has ruled that gun maker Remington can be sued over how it marketed the Bushmaster rifle used to kill 20 children and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012. Justices issued a 4-3 ruling that reinstated a wrongful death lawsuit. The plaintiffs include a survivor and relatives of nine people killed in the massacre. Remington has declined to comment on the ruling.

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Brextension: UK lawmakers vote to seek delay of EU departure

LONDON (AP) — Britain’s Parliament has voted to seek a delay of the country’s departure from the European Union, a move that will likely avert a chaotic withdrawal on the scheduled exit date of March 29. With Brexit due in 15 days and no divorce deal yet approved, the House of Commons voted 412-to-202 to ask the bloc to postpone Britain’s exit until at least June 30. Power to approve or reject the extension lies with the EU.

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Mnuchin says he’ll protect Trump privacy if taxes requested

WASHINGTON (AP) — Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is suggesting he will protect President Donald Trump’s privacy if he receives a request from House Democrats for Trump’s tax returns. At a House Ways and Means Committee hearing Thursday, Mnuchin was asked whether he would meet Democrats’ expected request for Trump’s tax returns. Mnuchin said he will “protect the president as we would any taxpayer” regarding their right to privacy. He did not specifically say he’d turn those returns over.

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US new-home sales fell 6.9 per cent in January

WASHINGTON (AP) — Sales of new U.S. homes slumped 6.9 per cent in January, a possible sign that buyers paused during the government shutdown. The Commerce Department says that new homes sold at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 607,000 in January, down from 652,000 in December. The partial government shutdown during January as well as a battered stock market appears to have hurt sales, even as lower mortgage rates eased affordability pressures and boosted buyer interest.

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Facebook says outages due to ‘server configuration change’

NEW YORK (AP) — Facebook went down for almost a full day across parts of North American and Europe, but it’s still not saying exactly what happened. All the social network said Thursday was that the outages, which affected users and advertisers worldwide, resulted from a “server configuration change.” It offered no further details. Facebook and its apps started experiencing problems midday Wednesday on the U.S. East Coast. Facebook was still having sporadic issues Thursday morning.

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US candidate clears big hurdle in effort to head World Bank

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Treasury official nominated by President Donald Trump to be the next president of the World Bank has cleared a major hurdle, with nominations for the position closing with no other candidates emerging. The World Bank says David Malpass was the only candidate put forward by the bank’s 189 member countries. Malpass is currently the undersecretary for international affairs at Treasury.

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US stock indexes end mostly lower, end 3-day winning streak

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks indexes barely budged Thursday as the market’s three-day winning streak stalled. The benchmark S&P 500 index finished essentially flat as losses in communications, industrial and health care stocks outweighed gains in financial and technology companies. Several retailers and homebuilders also declined. The market was coming off a solid three-day rally as it reclaimed some of the momentum it had in January and February.

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The S&P 500 index slipped 2.44 points, or 0.1 per cent, to 2,808.48. The Dow Jones Industrial Average inched up 7.05 points, or 0.03 per cent, to 25,709.94. The Nasdaq composite dropped 12.50 points, or 0.2 per cent, to 7,630.91. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies gave up 6.25 points, or 0.4 per cent, to 1,549.63.

The Associated Press