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MADRID Thousands of health workers, on strike since last month, marched on Sunday in Madrid to protest against budget cuts and plans from the Spanish capital’s regional government to privatize the management of public hospitals and medical centers. It was the third time doctors, nurses and health workers have rallied since the local authorities put forward a plan in October to place six hospitals and dozens of medical practices under private management. The plan also calls for patients to be charged a fee of 1 euro for prescriptions. Workers launched an indefinite strike last month against the plan, which has [...]

Research In Motion (RIMM) is gearing up for a series of make-or-break releases that could be considered the most important device launches in the company’s history. Everything is riding on the success of the RIM’s BlackBerry 10 platform, which will be unveiled in its finished state on January 30th next year. RIM CEO Thorsten Heins is on record confirming that BlackBerry 10 will launch in the first quarter and company COO Kristian Tear previously stated new BlackBerry devices will be available “not too long after” the platform is unveiled late next month, but exact timing is still a mystery. According [...]

NEW YORK American Airlines’ bankrupt parent has asked a judge to extend by six weeks, through March 11, the period in which it has the exclusive right to propose a plan to exit bankruptcy. The request, made jointly with its creditors’ committee, was filed on Friday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan. The current exclusive window is set to end on January 28. AMR Corp filed for bankruptcy a year ago in hopes of reducing labor costs and returning to profitability. Its smaller competitor, US Airways Group Inc , is making a push to acquire it out of bankruptcy. AMR [...]

Toyota Motor Corp <7203.T> said that September U.S. auto sales were the highest since March 2008, before the recent recession that cut deeply into new vehicle purchases. Toyota, which showed a gain of 41.5 percent in September auto sales from the previous year, said the industry’s September sales rate will be 14.9 million on a seasonally adjusted annualized basis. Toyota is No. 3 in the U.S. auto market in sales, behind leader General Motors Co and Ford Motor Co . In the 10 years prior to 2008, U.S. auto sales averaged nearly 17 million in new vehicle sales a year. [...]