The Bricklayers of Western Pennsylvania Pension Plan this week filed the lawsuit in federal court in Idaho against Hecla, which is based in Coeur d’Alene.

Hecla announced on Jan. 11 that the mine will be closed for a year to make the changes ordered by federal regulators after two miners died in separate accidents last year.

The lawsuit contends the closure caused Hecla’s stock price to fall 21 percent to $4.61 per share on Jan. 11 and that the company prior to that had made false and misleading statements that artificially inflated the price of its stock.

“Defendants lacked a reasonable basis for their positive statements about the company’s operations and its expected silver production,” the lawsuit said, accusing the company of fraud.

Officials for Hecla said the company’s comments on its financial prospects were appropriate and the company will defend itself.

“This lawsuit has no merit,” said spokeswoman Melanie Hennessey, adding such lawsuits were common when a stock price dropped.

The company’s stock has since rebounded to more than $5.30 per share.

In January, Hecla announced that the Mine Safety and Health Administration had ordered it to remove sand and concrete material that had built up in the main elevator shaft of the Lucky Friday, one of the nation’s deepest underground mines. The company said the work would take up to a year, and the mine would be closed during that time.

The closure prompted Hecla to reduce its estimated silver production for 2012 from more than 9 million ounces to about 7 million ounces, all from its remaining Green’s Creek mine in Alaska.

Production is expected to resume in early 2013.

The mine has been shuttered since mid-December, when a rock burst injured seven miners.

Federal regulators have been conducting a close inspection of the mine because of the series of 2011 accidents. They decided they wanted the sand and concrete material removed because it can break off and fall down the shaft, injuring people or damaging the elevators.

The silver mine is located about 50 miles east of Coeur d’Alene in a region called the Silver Valley.

Miner Brandon Lloyd Gray, 26, was buried in rubble while trying to dislodge jammed rock last Nov. 17, and died two days later.

On April 15, miner Larry “Pete” Marek was crushed when his work area collapsed.

Federal inspectors found company safety failures led to his death.

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The results cap off another strong year for U.S. manufacturing. Combined with strong figures released Thursday on job growth in January, they signal the economic recovery is gathering strength.

Factory orders rose 1.1 percent following a 2.2 percent gain in November, the Commerce Department reported Friday. For the year, total orders were up 12.1 percent following a gain of 12.9 percent in 2010. Orders had plunged 22.1 percent in the 2009, the year the deep recession ended.

For December, orders for so-called core capital goods, which are viewed as a good measure of business investment plans, rose 3.1 percent to an all-time high. That gain was driven in part by a rush by businesses to take advantage of expiring tax breaks.

The advances in 2011 pushed orders for the year up to $5.36 trillion, still slightly below the peak of $5.44 trillion set in 2008.

For December, orders for durable goods, items expected to last at least three years, rose 3 percent, a figure that was unchanged from a preliminary report last week. Orders for nondurable goods slipped 0.4 percent, reflecting declines in petroleum products.

The orders category that signals business investment plans, non-defense capital goods excluding aircraft, climbed to an all-time high of $68.9 billion in December.

While some of that surge likely reflected a rush to make orders before investment tax breaks expired at the end of last year, many economists believe the boom in spending on new equipment will continue even with the tax breaks gone because there is a large amount of pent-up demand on the part of businesses to modernize their operations.

Companies are hiring more, factories are making more goods and more people are buying cars. Those positive signs for the economy have to be balanced against the threat that Europe’s prolonged debt crisis is acting as a drag on global growth. That would hurt sales of U.S. exports.

In December, orders for commercial aircraft were up 18.9 percent, orders for autos increased 1.7 percent and demand for heavy machinery rose 6.7 percent, reflecting strong demand for oil field equipment and construction machinery.

Manufacturing has been a bright spot in the recovery, although there was a slowdown in the middle of last year as factories dealt with supply shortages caused by the Japanese natural disasters that occurred in March.

The Institute of Supply Management reported this week that its gauge of manufacturing activity expanded in January at the fastest pace in seven months. The index rose to 54.1, up from 53.1 in December. Readings above 50 indicate expansion and the index has been in expansion territory for 30 straight months.

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Europe’s largest bank by market capitalization said Tuesday it earned euro47 million for the quarter that ended in December, down from euro2.1 billion in the same period a year earlier.

Without the provision, the bank said it would have had profit of euro1.7 billion in the fourth quarter.

Spain’s banks are under heavy pressure from the government to disclose additional losses on overvalued real estate including land and apartment buildings in their holdings.

Spain is mired in an economic morass and has the highest unemployment rate in the whole 17-nation eurozone, largely because of a big construction sector crash.

A more detailed look at the quarterly earnings figures showed that the bank’s revenue rose modestly to euro11 billion from euro10.6 billion a year earlier.

For the whole of 2011, Santander’s profit totaled euro5.4 billion, down from euro8.2 billion in 2010. The bank said profits from Latin America made up the bulk of its profits during the year. It said 51 percent of the total came from its operations there.

The growing importance of Latin America was evident in the bank’s loan book during the year. Total loans during the year were up 4 percent as Banco Santander SA boosted business in Latin America that helped buffer decreasing European operations.

Santander shares rose 1.1 percent to euro6.05 each in Tuesday morning trading after the results were released.

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Iran has flatly refused to discuss such allegations for more than three years, saying they were based on phony intelligence from the U.S. and others seeking to harm the Islamic Republic.

But diplomats on Friday told The Associated Press that the weapons experts were part of the U.N team and that Iran had accepted their inclusion after some initial resistance. That suggested that the Islamic Republic was being more conciliatory on the issue of secret weapons work than usual as the International Atomic Energy Agency mission prepares to fly from Vienna to Tehran Saturday.

All six diplomats interviewed said Tehran had not committed to discussing the issue. But three of them added that Iranian officials indicated openness to talking about all topics during the IAEA mission that ends early next week _ a departure from standard reluctance by Tehran to exclude give-and-take on the arms allegations.

None of the diplomats expressed confidence of a breakthrough. But the Iranian stance at least allows the mission to have some home of making a dent into Iran’s wall of silence about its alleged clandestine nuclear weapons work.

Any progress on the issue would be significant.

Tehran has blocked IAEA attempts for more than three years to follow up on U.S. and other intelligence alleging covert Iranian work on nuclear arms, dismissing the charges as baseless and insisting all its nuclear activities were peaceful and under IAEA purview.

Faced with Iranian stonewalling, the IAEA summarized its body of information in November, in a 13-page document drawing on 1,000 pages of intelligence. It stated then for the first time that some of the alleged experiments can have no other purpose than developing nuclear weapons.

Iran continues to deny the charges and no change in its position is expected during the Tehran talks with IAEA officials. But even a decision to enter a discussion over the allegations would be a major departure from outright refusal to talk about them.

The diplomats said that the IAEA team was looking for permission to talk to key Iranian scientists suspected of weapons work, inspect documents relating to such suspected work and get commitments for future visits to sites linked to such allegations.

As most often the case, the IAEA team is headed by Herman Nackaerts, the chief agency official in charge of the Iran file _ but the makeup of the rest of the team reflects the importance attached by the agency to the trip.

Two diplomats said Friday that nuclear weapons experts Jack Baute of France and Neville Whiting of Britain would accompany Nackaerts.

While both fulfill IAEA functions not directly related to nuclear arms research, they were connected to their nation’s weapons programs before they came to the agency.

One of the diplomats _ who is familiar with the thinking that went into setting up the mission _ said their inclusion was meant to send a clear signal to the Iranians. He, like the five other diplomats, asked for anonymity in exchange for discussing privileged information,

Also on the team is Rafael Grossi, IAEA chief Yukiya Amano’s right hand _ another indication of the importance the agency has attached to the trip.

The three-day visit comes as anxiety grows daily about Iran’s nuclear capacities _ and what it plans to do with them.

Since the discovery in 2002 that Iran was secretly working on uranium enrichment, the nation has expanded that operation to the point where it has thousands of centrifuges churning out enriched material _ the potential source of both nuclear fuel and fissile warhead material.

Iran says it is enriching only to generate energy. But it has also started producing uranium at a higher level than its main stockpile _ a move that would jump start the creation of highly enriched, weapons grade uranium, should it chose to go that route. And it is moving its higher-enriched operation into an underground bunker that it says is safe from attack.

Israel in particular is concerned by Iran’s expanding enrichment capacities _ and increasing evidence of secret nuclear weapons work.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Friday the world must quickly stop Iran from reaching the point where even a “surgical” military strike could not block it from obtaining nuclear weapons.

Amid fears that Israel is nearing a decision to attack Iran’s nuclear program, Barak said tougher international sanctions are needed against Tehran’s oil and banks so that “we all will know early enough whether the Iranians are ready to give up their nuclear weapons program.”

The United Nations has imposed four rounds of sanctions against Iran, but veto-wielding Russia and China say they see no need for additional punitive measures. That has left the U.S. and the European Union to try to pressure other countries to follow their lead and impose even tougher sanctions.

“We are determined to prevent Iran from turning nuclear,” Barak told reporters during the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum.

“It seems to us to be urgent, because the Iranians are deliberately drifting into what we call an immunity zone where practically no surgical operation could block them,” he said, alluding to increased Iranian efforts to move their enrichment work deep underground.

Separately at Davos, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon urged a resumption of dialogue between Western powers and Iran on the nuclear issue. He said Friday that Tehran must comply with Security Council resolutions and prove conclusively that its nuclear program is not directed at making arms.

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George Jahn can be reached at http://twitter.com/georgejahn

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The global environment is uncertain and there are major decisions to be taken in developed nations in the next four or five weeks that could change the outlook completely, Babacan said in a televised interview from Davos today. The IMF is

Starbucks said Monday that it would begin offering beer and wine at select locations in Atlanta and Southern California by the end of this year, to go along with several locations in the Chicago area that have previously been announced.

Starbucks (, Fortune 500) began the initiative in the Pacific Northwest in late 2010.

"As our customers transition from work to home, many are looking for a warm and inviting place to unwind and connect with the people they care about," Clarice Turner, Starbucks’ senior vice president for U.S. operations, said in a statement payday loan lenders.

"We’re pleased with the response of our customers to the introduction of wine, beer and premium food at several of our stores in the Pacific Northwest, and we’re excited to see how the idea translates to other markets."

The "enhanced menu" at these locations will also include savory snacks, small plates, and hot flatbreads, Starbucks said. The wines and beers on offer "will be hand-selected to reflect local customer tastes and preferences," the company added. 

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The Bishop Hill II project, which is under construction, will use 50 General Electric Co. 1.62-megawatt turbines, according to a statement Friday from Berkshire’s MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co. in Omaha, Neb.

Berkshire, led by Warren Buffett, has been expanding renewable production at the energy unit, which also produces power with coal and natural gas. Mid-American has invested about $6 billion in wind generation and built or acquired more than 3,300 megawatts of the renewable energy source in states including Iowa, Wyoming, Washington and Oregon since 2004. Last month, the unit agreed to buy the $2 billion Topaz solar project in California from First Solar Inc payday loans guaranteed no fax.

Wind “meets current and future energy needs in an environmentally efficient and cost-effective manner,” said MidAmerican Chairman and Chief Executive Greg Abel.

The Bishop Hill II wind project is near the town of Galva, Ill., about 40 miles northwest of Peoria. The project is expected to be in commercial operation in the fourth quarter. A unit of Ameren Corp. in Illinois has agreed to buy electricity from the project under a 20-year power-purchase agreement. Terms of the Invenergy deal weren’t disclosed.

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The drug, Gilenya, was licensed last year in the European Union to treat patients with a severe type of multiple sclerosis.

The deaths raise concerns Gilenya could trigger heart problems after patients take their first dose, according to a statement issued Friday by the European Medicines Agency. The agency, which is now investigating the drug, said it isn’t clear if it caused the deaths.

One of the deaths was in the U.S., where a patient died within 24 hours of taking the first dose.

The European agency said it didn’t know where the other 10 deaths occurred, but that they were reported to its drug database, which monitors side effects from medicines in the European Union.

A spokeswoman at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it also is conducting a data analysis but has not made any definitive conclusions and does not know when its review will be complete.

More than 30,000 patients have taken Gilenya worldwide payday loan. The European Medicines Agency advised doctors to increase their monitoring of patients after the first dose of the medicine. The agency said the risk of a slow heart rate after the first dose of Gilenya was known when it was approved.

Novartis AG said it was advising doctors of new recommendations on using Gilenya. They had previously recommended all patients be monitored for six hours after their first dose, but are now tightening that to include continuous heart monitoring using electrocardiograms and measuring blood pressure and heart rate every hour. In certain patients, that monitoring should be extended, the drug maker said in a statement.

This new guidance applies only to patients taking their first dose, Novartis said in a statement.

The EU drug regulator hopes to finish its review of the drug by March.

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