Bloomberg The U.S. is asking Novartis AG to provide records of about 80,000 “sham” events in which the government says doctors were wined and dined so they would prescribe the company’s cardiovascular drugs to their patients. The Swiss drugmaker and the Manhattan U.S. Attorney are engaged in a whistle-blower lawsuit that alleges Novartis provided illegal kickbacks to health-care providers through ...

Sacramento / AP California legislators and labour unions have reached a tentative agreement that will take the state’s minimum wage from $10 to $15 an hour, a move that would make for the largest statewide minimum in the nation by far. “This is not a done deal,” Sen. Mark Leno, a Democrat from San Francisco, said. “Everyone’s been operating in ...

Sao Paulo / AP Unemployment in Latin America’s largest country is at its highest level since 2012, the Brazilian government said on Thursday. The country’s IBGE statistics bureau said that the jobless rate in the three months through January was 9.5 percent, compared to the 6.8 percent posted in the same period one year ago. The number of people out ...