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China will take measure to stabilize its exports and imports as slowing global growth creates a

Many non-stop flights from Europe to the U.S. aren’t: Unusually high winds are forcing airlines flying west across the Atlantic to make unscheduled stops to take on more fuel.

The conditions are causing inconveniences to fliers who are often missing connections once they land, costing the airlines money to rebook or otherwise compensate their customers.

United Continental Holdings (, Fortune 500), which is operating under both the United Airlines and Continental Airlines brands as it moves to complete its merger, said it diverted 43 out of 1,100 flights in December using the Boeing (, Fortune 500) 757 jet flying from Europe to the United States. A year earlier it only had to divert 12 flights.

Company spokeswoman Megan McCarthy said the winds were typically 30 knots in December the previous decade, but they averaged 47 knots last month, with half the month averaging 60 knots.

The unusually high winds and the flight diversions have continued in the first 11 days of January, she said, although she did not have any statistics.

Other airlines have also been affected. AMR () unit American Airlines said it has happened occasionally on the trans-Atlantic routes on which it uses the 757, although it could not provide statistics.

McCarthy does not have any estimates on costs to the airlines from the high winds, but said most of the costs have been associated with payments to customers free 3-in-1 credit report.

"We have been offering compensation as a gesture of good will when circumstances merit," she said.

The eastbound flights are saving fuel due to the unusually strong tail winds. The high winds have also been associated with an unusually mild start to winter in the United States, which has saved the airlines money as well.

The planes typically land at Gander and Goose Bay in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. But other fueling stops have been made in Iceland, Ireland, Nova Scotia, Albany, N.Y., and even Stewart International Airport, only 60 miles north of New York City.

Some larger planes have a longer range and are not having to make as many extra stops to refuel. But the 757, which holds about 169 passengers, is common on trans-Atlantic flights.

McCarthy said it has been used for years by both Continental and United, and was not something that was introduced on the routes as a result of the recent merger of the two carriers. 

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The Federal Reserve on Tuesday drew fire from conservatives for its recent policy proposals on the downtrodden housing sector that the critics argued represented an overreach by the central bank.

Two Republican senators lashed out at the Fed’s “white paper” on housing, which suggested other officials should consider giving failed mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae (FNMA.OB: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Freddie Mac (FMCC.OB: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) a bigger role in turning the market around.

The protests mark a rekindling of anti-central bank sentiment that reached fever pitch when the Fed launched its second round of bond buying in late 2010. At that time, conservatives accused the central bank of sowing the seeds for future inflation, though recent trends show price pressures ebbing.

The Fed’s detractors are now reacting to what they see as central bankers chiming in on fiscal policy matters that are not the appropriate realm for monetary authorities.

“I believe that it is important to the interests of the Federal Reserve, including the independence of monetary policy, that the Fed refrain from providing any hint of activism regarding what are clearly fiscal policy choices,” said Orrin Hatch, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee.

“I am sure that the Fed would not appreciate a white paper from Congress outlining how to think about and execute monetary policy,” he said.

Sen. Bob Corker, a member of the Banking Committee, directed his criticism at William Dudley, the influential president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, for his suggestion that principal write-downs be considered for distressed borrowers.

Such criticisms have some resonance among a minority of inflation hawks at the Fed one hour payday loan. Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank President Charles Plosser and Richmond Fed chief Jeffrey Lacker have both expressed distaste over an earlier effort by the Fed to drive down mortgage costs by buying mortgage-related debt.

At the other end of the spectrum, Dudley and Eric Rosengren of the Boston Fed have said the central bank should consider further purchases of mortgage-backed securities.

An editorial in the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday was even more scathing, accusing the central bank of “rank electioneering” for issuing the housing proposal.

Fed officials have argued that, given their broad mandate to achieve solid economic growth, it would be irresponsible for them to ignore housing, which continues to be a major drag on the economic recovery.

Recent indicators have been mixed, pointing to some strength in construction but also a continued decline in home prices that bodes ill for a sustained housing rebound.

When Ben Bernanke first took over as chairman at the central bank in 2006, he vowed to steer clear of the type of fiscal debates that got his predecessor, Alan Greenspan, into trouble.

Greenspan had widely been criticized for giving intellectual cover to tax cuts during President George Bush’s administration.

In a letter to leading lawmakers that accompanied the “white paper” last Wednesday, Bernanke said the Fed had received questions and requests for input and that the policy proposals were being made in the “interest of a continuing dialogue.”

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Home prices fell for a fourth straight month in November as distressed sales continued to weigh on prices, data analysis firm CoreLogic said on Monday.

CoreLogic’s (CLGX.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) home price index fell 1.4 percent in November from the previous month. Compared with November of last year, prices were down 4.3 percent, steeper than the 3.7 percent year-over-year decline seen in October.

Excluding distressed sales, prices were off just 0.6 percent in November on a yearly basis. Homeowners in danger of foreclosure, or in “distress,” often sell their homes at a significantly reduced price Payday Loan for Bad Credit.

“Distressed sales continue to put downward pressure on prices and is a factor that must be addressed in 2012 for a housing recovery to become a reality,” Mark Fleming, chief economist at CoreLogic, said in a statement.

Of the top 100 statistical areas measured by population, 77 showed year-over-year declines, down from 80 in October.

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Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan said executive-branch politicians will take a 25 percent pay cut amid labor union plans for a nationwide strike to protest scrapping of fuel subsidies that more than doubled gasoline prices.

The government will reduce overseas traveling and all ministries and departments must cut costs in 2012, Jonathan said, adding that he won

Doctors in America are harboring an embarrassing secret: Many of them are going broke.

This quiet reality, which is spreading nationwide, is claiming a wide range of casualties, including family physicians, cardiologists and oncologists.

Industry watchers say the trend is worrisome. Half of all doctors in the nation operate a private practice. So if a cash crunch forces the death of an independent practice, it robs a community of a vital health care resource.

"A lot of independent practices are starting to see serious financial issues," said Marc Lion, CEO of Lion & Company CPAs, LLC, which advises independent doctor practices about their finances.

Doctors list shrinking insurance reimbursements, changing regulations, rising business and drug costs among the factors preventing them from keeping their practices afloat. But some experts counter that doctors’ lack of business acumen is also to blame.

Loans to make payroll: Dr. William Pentz, 47, a cardiologist with a Philadelphia private practice, and his partners had to tap into their personal assets to make payroll for employees last year. "And we still barely made payroll last paycheck," he said. "Many of us are also skimping on our own pay."

Pentz said recent steep 35% to 40% cuts in Medicare reimbursements for key cardiovascular services, such as stress tests and echocardiograms, have taken a substantial toll on revenue. "Our total revenue was down about 9% last year compared to 2010," he said.

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"These cuts have destabilized private cardiology practices," he said. "A third of our patients are on Medicare. So these Medicare cuts are by far the biggest factor. Private insurers follow Medicare rates. So those reimbursements are going down as well."

Pentz is thinking about an out. "If this continues, I might seriously consider leaving medicine," he said. "I can’t keep working this way."

Also on his mind, the impending 27.4% Medicare pay cut for doctors. "If that goes through, it will put us under," he said.

Federal law requires that Medicare reimbursement rates be adjusted annually based on a formula tied to the health of the economy. That law says rates should be cut every year to keep Medicare financially sound.

Although Congress has blocked those cuts from happening 13 times over the past decade, most recently on Dec. 23 with a two-month temporary "patch," this dilemma continues to haunt doctors every year.

Beau Donegan, senior executive with a hospital cancer center in Newport Beach, Calif., is well aware of physicians’ financial woes.

"Many are too proud to admit that they are on the verge of bankruptcy," she said. "These physicians see no way out of the downward spiral of reimbursement, escalating costs of treating patients and insurance companies deciding when and how much they will pay them."

Donegan knows an oncologist "with a stellar reputation in the community" who hasn’t taken a salary from his private practice in over a year. He owes drug companies $1.6 million, which he wasn’t reimbursed for.

Dr. Neil Barth is that oncologist. He has been in the top 10% of oncologists in his region, according to U.S. News Top Doctors’ ranking. Still, he is contemplating personal bankruptcy.

That move could shutter his 31-year-old clinical practice and force 6,000 cancer patients to look for a new doctor.

Changes in drug reimbursements have hurt him badly. Until the mid-2000’s, drugs sales were big profit generators for oncologists low interest rate personal loans.

In oncology, doctors were allowed to profit from drug sales. So doctors would buy expensive cancer drugs at bulk prices from drugmakers and then sell them at much higher prices to their patients.

"I grew up in that system. I was spending $1.5 million a month on buying treatment drugs," he said. In 2005, Medicare revised the reimbursement guidelines for cancer drugs, which effectively made reimbursements for many expensive cancer drugs fall to less than the actual cost of the drugs.

"Our reimbursements plummeted," Barth said.

Still, Barth continued to push ahead with innovative research, treating patients with cutting-edge expensive therapies, accepting patients who were underinsured only to realize later that insurers would not pay him back for much of his care.

"I was $3.2 million in debt by mid 2010," said Barth. "It was a sickening feeling. I could no longer care for patients with catastrophic illnesses without scrutinizing every penny first."

He’s since halved his debt and taken on a second job as a consultant to hospitals. But he’s still struggling and considering closing his practice in the next six months.

"The economics of providing health care in this country need to change. It’s too expensive for doctors," he said. "I love medicine. I will find a way to refinance my debt and not lose my home or my practice."

If he does declare bankruptcy, he loses all of it and has to find a way to start over at 60. Until then, he’s turning away new patients whose care he can no longer subsidize.

"I recently got a call from a divorced woman with two kids who is unemployed, house in foreclosure with advanced breast cancer," he said. "The moment has come to this that you now say, ’sorry, we don’t have the capacity to care for you.’ "

Small business 101: A private practice is like a small business. "The only thing different is that a third party, and not the customer, is paying for the service," said Lion.

"Many times I shake my head," he said. "Doctors are trained in medicine but not how to run a business." His biggest challenge is getting doctors to realize where and how their profits are leaking.

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"On average, there’s a 10% to 15% profit leak in a private practice," he said. Much of that is tied to money owed to the practice by patients or insurers. "This is also why they are seeing a cash crunch."

Dr. Mike Gorman, a family physician in Loganvale, Nev., recently took out an SBA loan to keep his practice running and pay his five employees.

"It is embarrassing," he said. "Doctors don’t want to talk about being in debt." But he’s planning a new strategy to deal with his rising business expenses and falling reimbursements.

"I will see more patients, but I won’t check all of their complaints at one time," he explained. "If I do, insurance will bundle my reimbursement into one payment." Patients will have to make repeat visits — an arrangement that he acknowledges is "inconvenient."

"This system pits doctor against patient," he said. "But it’s the only way to beat the system and get paid."

— Are you a doctor who has made financial decisions you came to regret? E-mail Parija Kavilanzand you could be part of an upcoming article. Click here for CNNMoney.com comment policy. 

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The Walt Disney Co. said Wednesday that it reached a long-term agreement with the nation’s largest TV signal provider, Comcast Corp., that extends their partnership into the next decade.

The deal covers major pay channels ESPN, Disney Channel and ABC Family and the retransmission of free ABC broadcast network programs through seven ABC TV stations. It allows Comcast subscribers to gain greater access to shows on demand over the Internet on multiple devices.

Terms were not disclosed.

The deal comes as TV distributors and content owners continue to spar over fees to carry programming.

In the New York area, a dispute between Time Warner Cable and The Madison Square Garden Co. has left some cable subscribers without access to Knicks basketball or Rangers hockey games since early in the new year.

Disney and Comcast agreed on the package covering 70 channels or services even though only a few agreements covering ABC Family, Disney Channel and Disney XD had expired at the end of 2011. The companies agreed that a long-term comprehensive deal was in both their interests.

Comcast and Disney called the scope and range of the deal “unprecedented cheap business cards.”

“It reinforces the value of the multichannel subscription and takes full advantage of new technologies, which serve all of our viewers,” said ESPN executive chairman George Bodenheimer in a statement.

The deal incorporates Comcast’s Xfinity TV online suite of programs and gives its 22.4 million video subscribers online access to services such as ESPN3, which offers live feeds of games that are sometimes not on the television network. Comcast subscribers will also be able to watch ABC shows such as “Castle” and “Grey’s Anatomy” on demand, but they won’t have the option of fast-forwarding through commercials.

Comcast also agreed to carry the pay TV channel Disney Junior, a rebranded network focused on children up to age 7 that will replace the SOAPnet channel in February.

Disney shares rose 49 cents to $38.80 in afternoon trading. Comcast shares rose 10 cents to $24.59.

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Yemen’s opposition on Sunday accused outgoing President Ali Abdullah Saleh of trying to torpedo a power transfer deal by sparking a new crisis, as troops loyal to him clashed with opposition forces, killing three.

The violence was evidence that the president’s signature on a power transfer deal has not ended months of turmoil that have benefited al-Qaida-linked militants.

Sunday’s clashes followed Saleh’s decision not to leave the country, a move likely to embolden his relatives, who control key security posts.

His opponents demand the removal of all of Saleh’s relatives from top security positions. Huge crowds of protesters have called for Saleh himself to be put on trial for the killing of hundreds of protesters, though the power transfer deal gives him immunity from prosecution.

Vice President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi told his new national unity government on Sunday, in their first official session, that the power transfer agreement, engineered by Yemen’s powerful Gulf Arab neighbors, must be implemented soon.

“We need to move vigorously and effectively to implement the Gulf initiative and its mechanisms,” he said.

The new government’s first task is to push through the law shielding Saleh from prosecution for alleged corruption and for violence against protesters. Saleh made that a condition for signing the deal to relinquish power after 33 years of rule over the Arab world’s poorest nation.

Yet more than a month after Saleh signed, and after the possibility of his flying to the U.S. was raised, Saleh is still in Yemen, still wielding significant power and showing few, if any, signs of giving in.

Ten months of mass protests and armed clashes between forces loyal to Saleh and his opponents, including army units that followed powerful tribal leaders siding with the opposition, have left a power vacuum. The Yemen branch of al-Qaida, considered one of the world’s most dangerous, has taken advantage of that to dig in to positions in the country’s south, taking over towns and villages.

Yemen’s military fights frequent battles with the Islamist militants but has failed to dislodge them no checking account payday advance.

In the latest skirmish between Saleh backers and opponents, anti-government tribesmen in el-Fardha Nehem region, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) northeast of the capital Sanaa, said two people were killed and two others wounded when Saleh’s Republican Guards, led by his son, shelled their homes.

Opposition spokesman Mohamed Sabri accused Saleh of undercutting security as a way of arguing that he must stay in power.

“This man does not respect his commitments with others,” Sabri said. “Saleh is creating a new crisis.”

In the capital, a civilian bystander was killed when Republican Guard troops clashed with supporters of tribal chief Sadeq al-Ahmar, who was once a regime ally, but defected to the opposition in March, activists said.

Supporters of al-Ahmar and Saleh’s troops exchanged fire in Sanaa’s northern district of Hassaba, according to a security official and witnesses, resulting in the death of the bystander. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.

The fighting Sunday ended after the vice president held talks with both sides. He was also able to quell violence in el-Fardha Nehem region.

Large crowds of Yemenis rallied in major cities Sunday, demanding the outgoing president be put on trial for the deaths of protesters.

The U.N. estimates that hundreds of protesters have been killed and thousands wounded since last February, when anti-government protests erupted across major cities.

Tens of thousands marched in the streets of Sanaa, chanting that Saleh “must stand before a judge.” Another large crowd of marchers echoed the chant in Taiz, Yemen’s second largest city.

Activist Fathi al-Hamadi said the “only place for Saleh to go to is the court dock.”

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