Alkermes, Elan unit in $960 million merger

U.S. drugmaker Alkermes Inc. will merge with the drug-delivery division of Elan Corp. and move its headquarters from Massachusetts to Ireland, the two companies announced Monday in a deal worth $960 million.

They both said the deal, which has been in the works for at least half a year, would not mean any job losses on either side of the Atlantic.

For Elan, the sell-off of its drug technologies division caps nearly a decade of restructuring moves by the Dublin-based company to cope with crippling debts.

Obama's pledged trip to Pakistan less certain

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama's promised trip to Pakistan this year, once seen as a reward for a key ally in the fight against terrorism, is now a looming headache for the White House as it tries to determine whether the government in Islamabad was complicit in allowing Osama bin Laden to live for years within the country's borders.

Obama told Pakistani officials in the fall that he planned to travel there in 2011, in part to soothe concerns that the president was favoring Pakistan's neighbor and archrival, India, by visiting there first. White House spokesmen questioned this week by The Associated Press refused to say whether Obama still planned to go.

Maine woman sentenced in $4M health care scam

PARIS, Maine (AP) -- A Maine woman who ran a company that served children with mental disabilities was sentenced to prison for overcharging a state health care program by more than $4 million.

Dawn Solomon, who pleaded guilty in December, was also ordered Thursday to pay restitution as part of her plea agreement with prosecutors, in addition to her 42 months in state prison.

"We are pleased to have put this unscrupulous operator out of business," Attorney General William Schneider said.

Solomon, 43, of Harrison, ran a company called Living Independence Network Corp. in the town of Norway that provided behavior management and physical and social development services to children with mental disabilities.

Settlers use tourism to draw Israelis to West Bank

PSAGOT, West Bank (AP) -- Perched atop a West Bank hill, the Binyamin region visitors center invites travelers to look past the military jeeps patrolling the surrounding area and enjoy nature, archaeological sites and bucolic vineyards.

Jewish settlers are promoting tourism to draw Israelis who might otherwise never set foot in the West Bank, an occupied area Palestinians want as part of a future state. Proponents hope that drawing visitors will help increase support for retaining the territory, while critics say the tourism campaign, like Jewish settlements, is a foothold that stands in the way of making peace.

Hundreds march to Mexico City to protest violence

CUERNAVACA, Mexico (AP) -- More than 600 people led by a Mexican poet whose son was killed by suspected drug traffickers set off on a march Thursday from the resort city of Cuernavaca to Mexico City to protest the country's unrelenting gang violence.

The group carrying signs reading "Stop the War," Mexican flags and photos of poet Javier Sicilia's slain son began marching Thursday. They are expected to arrive in Mexico City's Zocalo square Sunday.

The group hopes more people will join the silent march along the 50-mile (80-kilometer) route.

Sicilia's son Juan Francisco was killed March 28 along with six other people. Three alleged cartel members have been arrested in the slayings.

Biden reports 'progress' in initial budget talks

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Vice President Joe Biden reports "progress" from an initial negotiating session on must-pass legislation cutting the budget and making sure the government can pay its bills.

Biden said "we're getting the process under way" as he exited a meeting with senior lawmakers. The more than two-hour session is the first session in what promises to be protracted talks aimed at producing legislation by an August 2 deadline to permit the government to borrow more money to pay its bills and meet its obligations to bondholders.

3 more teens in Mass. bullying case head to court

NORTHAMPTON, Mass. (AP) -- Three more Massachusetts teenagers accused of driving a classmate to suicide with their bullying are expected to agree to deals in the case.

The deals for Ashley Longe, Flannery Mullins and Sharon Velazquez are expected to be finalized Thursday in Franklin-Hampshire Juvenile Court. Two other teens agreed to deals on Wednesday and sentenced to a year of probation.

Six teenagers in all were charged in connection with the January 2010 suicide of 15-year-old Phoebe Prince, a freshman at South Hadley High School.

Warner Bros. to buy Flixster in digital movie push

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Warner Bros. is buying the Flixster movie-discovery service to help people flip through the movies they've bought and access them on the go.

Flixster is already installed on 35 million iPhones, BlackBerrys and other mobile devices. It offers an array of listings, photos, trailers and reviews from its subsidiary, Rotten Tomatoes.

With the deal announced Wednesday, Warner Bros. hopes to latch onto Flixster's popularity to help it launch a system for storing movie purchases on distant servers known as the cloud. Such a system will let people watch movies they've bought on any device, regardless of the format.

Judge awards $1.9M to family of boy killed by bear

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- A Utah federal judge on Tuesday awarded nearly $2 million to the family of an 11-year-old boy killed by a bear at a campsite in 2007.

The family of Samuel Ives sued the U.S. Forest Service for failing to close the American Fork Canyon campsite in the mountains about 30 miles south of Salt Lake City after the bear attacked another camper.

In his ruling, U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball said the forest service had a "duty" to warn the Ives family of the earlier attack either verbally, by posting signs on a gate leading in the area or by roping off the specific campsite.