Shareholders in British candy maker Cadbury PLC are looking for a fat increase in the hostile takeover bid by Kraft Foods Inc., as Kraft faces a Tuesday deadline for changes to its bid.

The Food and Drug Administration is working to lift the smokescreen clouding the ingredients used in cigarettes and other tobacco products.

Kraft Foods Inc. is expected to sweeten its offer for Cadbury PLC, in an effort to remain in the running as it faces a potential competing bid from Hershey Co. for the British candy maker, according to media reports.

The Saudi billionaire whose investment firm is one of the biggest stakeholders in Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. said he is looking to expand his alliances with the media giant, in the latest indication that his appetite for growth remains robust even as his company retrenches.

Like a roller-coaster ride on its last twisting turns, President Barack Obama’s campaign to remake health care is barreling into final days of breathless suspense and headlong momentum.

Tobacco industry lawyers met secretly with Solicitor General Elena Kagan in an effort to avoid the government’s last-ditch attempt to extract billions from companies that illegally concealed the dangers of cigarette smoking, The Associated Press has learned.

Britain will not copy President Barack Obama’s tax on banks that were bailed out by the taxpayer, Treasury chief Alistair Darling said in an interview published Saturday.

Taiwan will allow China’s institutional investors to invest up to $500 million in the island’s stock market, the government said Saturday, in its latest step to relax control on trade and investment with its rival.

Industrial production rose 0.6 percent in December as unusually cold weather helped energy utilities offset a small drop in manufacturing.

FedEx says it will raise prices at its freight and national trucking unit by 5.9 percent on Feb. 1. These rate increases apply to the company’s less-than-truckload shipments, where a number of smaller loads from a variety of shippers are consolidated on a single truck for final delivery.