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The U.N. secretary general says Iran must be more open about its nuclear program because its claims that it has not worked on developing atomic arms are not convincing.

Ban Ki-moon also warns against possible military action against Iran, saying “there is no alternative” to diplomatic pressure in the standoff over its nuclear program.

Ban spoke to reporters Friday after attending ceremonies marking the 15th anniversary of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization, a Vienna-based U.N. agency set up to detect secret nuclear weapons testing.

A team from the International Atomic Energy Agency is set to meet Iranian officials in Tehran early next week. They will attempt to probe suspicions that Iran has engaged in weapons-related experiments _ allegations denied by the Islamic Republic.

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Candy, flowers and bling may dominate Valentine’s Day gifts, but this year, one more item is likely to be among the love offerings: heart-shaped pizzas.

Searches on Google for "heart-shaped pizzas" have soared 230% since January, according to Google’s (, Fortune 500) research tool Insights for Search.

And the highest number of searches for heart-shaped pizzas over the past few weeks is coming from Illinois, Texas and California, according to Google.

The novelty pizza has easily been around for decades but lately, pizza sellers — large and small — have been rushing to capitalize on this quirky trend, especially around Valentine’s Day.

Pizza chain Papa John’s () sold 60,000 heart-shaped pizzas in 2010, and a little bit more than 60,000 last year. It expects to sell 75,000 this year.

"We first offered them nationally three years ago, and they’ve become widely popular," said Papa John’s spokeswoman Tish Muldoon, adding that the company debuted them again last week.

Oh baby! Small biz scores huge Angry Birds deal

"They’re popular with families who celebrate Valentine’s Day together," she said.

The traditional deep-dish pizzas at Lou Malnati’s, a family-run pizzeria chain in Chicago, already sell well on any given day.

But weeks before Valentine’s Day, their heart-shaped pizza becomes the favorite with Chicagoans and consumers nationwide.

"Valentine’s Day is now our second-busiest event behind the holiday season," said Meggie Eck, marketing manager for the 41-year-old family-owned Lou Malnati’s.

She credits Rick Malnati, the founder’s son, with coming up with the idea 22 years ago.

Rick, a basketball coach at Loyola University, thought it would be clever to create a heart-shaped pizza and initially tried to make it with a cookie cutter, said Eck. Eventually, he found a heart-shaped pan, and those pans are still used today instant credit reports.

People "eating in the restaurants quickly grew to look forward to the heart-shaped pizzas each year," said Eck.

Now, 22 years later, Lou Malnati’s heart-shaped pizza has a loyal following in Chicago and nationwide. Google said searches for the pizza chain’s novelty pizza are up 95% over the past two years.

All of Lou Malnati’s 33 locations in Chicago serve the $9.45 special 9-inch plain cheese heart-shaped deep-dish pizza on Feb. 14.

The company’s also been shipping the frozen variety since 1991.

Today, a single frozen Lou Malnati’s heart-shaped pizza costs $42.99, including shipping. A "2 pack," one frozen heart-shaped pizza and one frozen original pizza, is $57.99 with shipping.

"Last Valentine’s Day, we saw a 10% growth in [heart-shaped] pizza sales from 2010," said Eck. The company expects to see similar growth this year.

This year, Lou Malnati’s had its heart-shaped pizzas ready for shipping on Feb. 1, although it expects to ship the majority of its "love" pizzas between Feb. 6 and Feb. 13.

Wal-Mart launches “American Idol”-like contest

Looking at the orders coming in, Eck thinks the heart-shaped pizzas will outnumber their other pies, such as cheese and pepperoni, which will also be shipped this month.

So far this year, "51% of all our pizzas we’ve shipped have been heart-shaped pizzas," she said. The most orders for them are coming from customers in California, Texas, Florida and California.

And most deliveries are being made to addresses in California, Florida, Illinois, Texas and Arizona, she said.

"We will be able to ship [on] Monday for Valentine’s Day delivery on Tuesday, which we hope [will] boost sales," she said. 

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Poor you. You slave over your taxes, hating every minute of it, but knowing you’ll get a nice reward at the end when you see how big your refund will be.

Then what happens? No refund. The Internal Revenue Service wants YOU to pay THEM. The nerve.

Worse: You don’t have the money.

There are lots of ways this could happen. Suppose you were laid off and collected unemployment insurance. That’s taxable, and Missouri doesn’t automatically deduct the taxes.

You might have raided your 401(k) plan to pay the rent. The withdrawals are taxable, and there’s a 10 percent penalty if you’re under 59 ½ years old.

“That’s really bad. Not only do you lose your job, but you owe taxes,” says Serita Eldridge, president of the Missouri Society of Enrolled Agents - people approved by the IRS to represent citizens in tax cases.

Or suppose you had some big wins at the slots. Uncle Sam wants his cut.

People who start small businesses sometimes misunderstand the law and get nailed come April. Workers cobbling together a living out of several part-time jobs sometimes discover that too little money was withheld for taxes.

No matter why, you may have to stiff the IRS come April.

So, let’s look at ways to fend off the tax man until you can pay up. We’ll also review ways to beg for mercy if you owe so much that you can’t possibly pay ever. (Good luck with that.)

First, file your tax return even if you can’t pay. The penalty for not filing is much bigger than that for not paying. If you don’t file, the IRS will fine you 5 percent per month, compounded monthly, plus interest at 6 percent per year, also compounded monthly on your unpaid taxes.

If you file but don’t pay, the IRS will want a one-time penalty of 5 percent, plus six percent annual interest compounded monthly.

So, send in whatever money you can spare to keep the cost down.

You can set up an installment plan by filling out an IRS form. Suggest a payment you can afford - defaulting on the IRS is a bad idea.

If you can pay it all off within 120 days, the plan is free. Need longer and you’ll pay a $52 set-up fee if you let the government tap your bank account for the payments, or $105 if you don’t. There’s a lower fee for low-income people.

The IRS does have a heart, albeit a small and stony one. If you’ve been knocked flat by life, you can file for an “Extension of Time for Payment of Tax Due to Undue Hardship.” You’ll have to list your assets and expenses, and explain the personal disaster that befell you. Death often counts. Serious illness might.

If you appear pitiful enough, the IRS may waive penalties, although interest will still run.

If you are extremely and hopelessly pitiful, you can make an “Offer in Compromise.” You offer to pay part of what you owe, if the IRS forgives the rest.

Forgiveness is limited among tax collectors. The IRS rejects three out of four compromise applications.

The program works best for people in dire straits - those too sick to work or needing expensive medical care. The IRS calculates how much it can squeeze out of you over the next few years if you sell what you own and subsist on a spartan budget dictated by the government. If you offer that amount, the IRS may take it.

The IRS doesn’t give a hoot about your other debts. It costs $150 to apply, and the taxpayer must make a partial tax payment with the application.

“If you have to owe money, the IRS is not the person you want to owe money too,” says Mark Luscombe, tax analyst at CCH Inc., the tax analysis and software company.

If your IRS debt is three years old, you might be able to dump it by going bankrupt, says Luscombe.

There’s no reason for panic if you can’t pay on time. “The IRS doesn’t come after you with full force,” says Eldridge. “They’ll tell you exactly what they’re going to do before they do it.”

Above all, the IRS doesn’t like to be ignored. Answer their letters promptly. If you’re attempting to pay, they are much less likely to get nasty and file liens and garnishments.

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The owner of the Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and KFC chains says its fourth-quarter profit rose 30 percent, thanks to its fast-growing overseas operations and to a strong showing from Pizza Hut in the U.S.

Yum Brands Inc. said Monday that Taco Bell had another sluggish quarter in the U.S. The Mexican-style chain is struggling to regain momentum after publicity from a now-dropped lawsuit that questioned the beef content of its taco and burrito filling.

Yum, based in Louisville, Kentucky, earned $356 million, or 75 cents per share, for the quarter easy payday loans. That’s compared to $274 million, or 56 cents per share, a year earlier. Revenue rose 15 percent to $4.1 billion.

Analysts expected profit of 74 cents per share on revenue of $4.04 billion.

The shares rose after hours.

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Inflation in the 17 countries that use the euro was unchanged in the year to January at 2.7 percent, official figures showed Wednesday, reinforcing market expectations that the European Central Bank will decide to keep interest rates unchanged at its next policy meeting.

The first estimate for the month from Eurostat, the EU’s statistics office, was in line with forecasts and the euro was little changed around the $1.3125 mark.

Inflation has been running above the European Central Bank’s target of “just below 2 percent” since December 2010.

Even so, the eurozone’s central bank cut its main benchmark rate in November and December to a record low of 1 percent as it tries to shore up the foundering eurozone economy.

Further interest rate reductions from the bank, which is led by Mario Draghi, are widely anticipated, especially if inflation falls back further as last year’s energy and food price rises drop out of the annual comparison.

The bank announces its latest interest rate decision on Feb. 9 and the markets are pricing in a second straight month of no change.

One reason inflation is expected to moderate further toward target is the state of the eurozone economy. Many economists think the 17-nation bloc will slide back into recession this year despite some relatively optimistic signals in a raft of manufacturing surveys Wednesday. And with unemployment over 10 percent, the pressure coming from wage demands is likely to remain modest.

“The region is still in a precarious position and is unlikely to avoid falling back into another recession this year,” said Ben May, European economist at Capital Economics.

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Japan’s industrial production rebounded 4 percent in December from November and household spending increased for a second month, suggesting the still-weak economy is gaining some steam after last year’s tsunami disaster and flooding in Thailand that disrupted manufacturers’ supply chains.

Output of automobiles, cell phones and semiconductors drove the gains last month after production fell 2.7 percent in November. Manufacturers project further production increases in January and February, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said Tuesday.

But Japan’s unemployment rate edged up to 4.6 percent and Junko Nishioka, economist at RBS Japan Securities, cautioned that the economic outlook was “mixed.”

While she was heartened by the 0.5 percent uptick in family spending, Nishioka said prospects for Japan’s vital manufacturing sector remained tentative amid weak export demand short term personal loans.

“The pace of recovery will be slow,” she said. “So far, we’re seeing some recovery in the auto sector and electronic components, but still it’s still not enough to compensate for the gap recorded after the March disaster and the Thai flooding.”

The factory data showed that shipments grew 4.5 percent and inventories fell 2.9 percent, both healthy indicators. Broadly speaking, production was led by strength in the electronics, automobile and general machinery sectors, the report showed.

Looking ahead, manufacturers predicted that industrial output would rise 2.5 percent in January and another 1.2 percent in February, according to a METI survey.

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JEFFERSON CITY - The gambling industry will fight Gov. Jay Nixon’s proposal to raise casino entrance fees by $1 per patron to help finance the state’s veterans homes.

Casino lobbyist Mike Winter told the House Veterans Committee on Tuesday that the proposal amounts to “a bottom-line hit of $53 million for our companies” each year and could prompt cuts in marketing, capital projects and staffing at the state’s 12 casinos.

Legislators said they’re open to compromise but made clear that they’re adamant about finding a dedicated source of money to operate the state’s seven nursing homes for veterans and possibly, build a new home to accommodate a mounting waiting list.

“Our veterans are out of money in 2013,” said Rep. Charlie Davis, R-Webbb City. “If something doesn’t happen, where are they going to go?”

The Missouri Veterans Commission’s $80 million budget is funded roughly 40 percent from federal money, 35 percent from charges paid by residents of veterans homes and 25 percent by the state.

In recent years, as tax collections have lagged, the state has reduced the general revenue it puts into the veterans commission’s budget, from nearly $31 million in 2009 to $18.6 million this year.

The state now wants to tap the veterans commission’s surplus to help pay operating expenses at the homes, which include one in Bellefontaine Neighbors in St. Louis County.

But that trust fund was designed to cover repair bills when a boiler breaks at a veterans home, as well as the state’s share of construction costs for any new homes. The fund also pays operating costs at the state’s six veterans cemeteries and grants for local programs that help veterans sign up for federal benefits.

While the trust fund now stands at $17 million, it will run dry by June 2013 if it is used at the projected rate of spending, Larry Kay, the commission’s executive director told the House committee on Tuesday.

Kay said the veterans commission needs a funding source that provides at least $35 million a year “just to stay even.”

Nixon’s budget proposal, which he released last week, would pump about $50 million a year into the veterans commission’s budget through a $1 fee increase for every gambler who goes through the casino turnstiles.

The current entrance fee is $2, with half going to the state and half to the home-dock city or county. Last year the veterans trust fund got $6.5 million under a law that divvies up the state’s share of those proceeds.

Winter, who lobbies for the Missouri Gaming Association, noted that casinos also pay a tax equaling 21 percent of their adjusted gross revenue, with most of that money going toward elementary and secondary education.

Combining the tax and the entrance fee, Missouri’s effective tax rate is about 27 percent for casinos now, which he portrayed as high compared to states such as Nevada, which he said charges only 6.75 percent.

However, the Missouri Gaming Commission’s annual report showed Missouri is competitive with most nearby states.

At 27.18 percent, Missouri’s effective tax rate is lower than Illinois (33.92 percent) and Indiana (31.31 percent) but higher than Kansas (25.08 percent), Iowa (22.33 percent) and Mississippi (11.94 percent), according to the latest report.

Legislators pointed out that casinos could pass any entrance fee increase on to their patrons. But Winter said they have no plans to do so. They absorb the current $2 fee.

The gambling industry got some backing from the Missouri Chamber of Commerce & Industry, which said veterans homes were a statewide responsibility that should not be borne by “a single sector.”

But Dewey Riehn, who represents the Veterans of Foreign Wars, said a higher admission fee wouldn’t break casinos, which pulled in $1.8 billion last year.

“If they think they can convince me that a $1 entry fee will cause them to close boats, that’s ridiculous,” Riehn said.

Missouri has the 14th largest population of veterans, according to federal statistics.

In addition to St. Louis County, the state operates veterans homes in Cameron, Cape Girardeau, Mexico, Mt. Vernon, St. James and Warrensburg.

The state’s 1,350 beds are 99 percent full; there are 1,691 people on the waiting list.

In addition to a higher casino entrance fee, legislators are considering asking state voters to pass a constitutional amendment establishing a special Missouri Lottery ticket, with proceeds earmarked for veterans programs.

The sponsor, Rep. Sheila Solon, R-Blue Springs, said a dedicated lottery ticket would not provide a “total fix” but had helped pump money into veterans programs in Illinois, Iowa, Kansas and Texas.

“We need to take care of our veterans,” said Solon, who also sponsors the casino fee increase. “These brave heroes have defended us.”

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An Iraqi police official says gunmen have attacked the house of a police officer near the northern oil-rich city of Kirkuk, killing one of his guards.

Kirkuk’s police commander Brig. Gen. Sarhad Qadir says the officer was unharmed in Saturday’s attack in the predominantly Sunni town of Hawija, a former insurgent stronghold located 150 miles (240 kilometers) north of Baghdad.

Suspected Sunni insurgents have frequently targeted Iraqi security forces to undermine the confidence in the Shiite-dominated government and its efforts to protect people from violence without American backup payday loans in one hour.

Attacks have surged amid an escalating political crisis in Iraq. At least 160 people have been killed since the beginning of the year, raising fears of civil war a month after U.S. soldiers left.

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The decision by Standard & Poor’s to cut the credit ratings of a number of euro countries and to strip France of its cherished top-tier standing met with a fairly calm market response Monday as attention turned towards Greece’s difficulties in thrashing out a deal with private creditors to reduce the value of their holdings of Greek debt

Europe’s debt crisis will likely remain the focus of attention across markets all week as a number of bond auctions are due at the same time as Greece tries to clinch a debt deal with its cast of creditors.

Monday is the first opportunity for traders to respond to S&P’s move, which came late Friday.

Analysts said the downgrades had been widely expected, especially in the bond markets, so there was very little shock at S&P’s announcement to strip France of its treasured triple-A rating and to cut its view on a raft of other euro countries, including Italy. One bright spot was that Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, retained its triple-A rating and had its outlook upgraded to stable from negative.

“After weeks of prevarication and lots of rumors, Standard and Poor’s finally put markets out of their misery on Friday,” said Michael Hewson, markets analyst at CMC Markets. “The surprise is it took so long.”

As a result, the response in the markets was fairly sanguine. In early trading Monday, the Stoxx 50 index of leading European shares was flat at 2,397 while the euro was up 0.2 percent on the day at $1.2670

A bigger headache for markets at the moment is whether Greece can clinch a deal with its creditors payday loan. Last October, Greece’s partners in the eurozone sanctioned a deal whereby Greece’s creditors agree a deal to reduce the value of their Greek debt holdings so that the country’s debt burden is reduced.

The deal with private investors, known as the Private Sector Involvement, or PSI, aims to reduce Greece’s debt by euro100 billion ($126.5 billion) by swapping private creditors’ bonds for new ones with a lower value. It is a key part of a euro130 billion international bailout, the second one for Greece.

It is expected that talks on the PSI will resume this coming week. On Tuesday, representatives of Greece’s creditors _ the European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund _ will visit Greece for yet another round of inspections of its efforts at fiscal and structural reform and negotiations for the next tranche, the seventh, from the first bailout.

Negotiations over the second bailout will start after the PSI deal is clinched. Without a deal, Greece has been told it won’t get the next tranche of money due from its first bailout.

Without that money, Greece would find it more or less impossible to pay a big bond redemption in March and would face the prospect of defaulting on its debts, potentially triggering more mayhem in financial markets.

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Every auto show, these days, is "all about plug-in cars and hybrids," they say. Everyone’s gawking at the cherry on top while few notice how different the ice cream underneath is.

At the 2012 North American International Auto Show in Detroit, you can see the auto industry changing — deeply, quickly and probably forever. The reasons are stricter fuel economy regulations and changing attitudes toward environmental responsibility.

Yes, those are things car companies talk about when showing off cars such as the new Ford Fusion Energi plug-in hybrid or the Acura NSX hybrid performance car concept.

But fuel economy and the environment are, just as much or maybe even more, the reasons that cars such as the Dodge Dart are equipped with fuel-efficient 4-cylinder engines, or why General Motors (, Fortune 500) unveiled the very small Buick Encore compact SUV.

They’re also why there was one notable omission from this year’s Detroit show. Not a single truck or large SUV was unveiled at any of the show stands this year. There have been auto shows in recent memory at which it seemed there were nothing but massive trucks rolling out under every drape.

Cool cars from the Detroit Auto Show

There were SUVs, of course — there always will be — such as the Buick Encore.

There was also the new Nissan Pathfinder, but even that roomy, 3-row SUV proves the point that fuel economy has become the big bogie. The Pathfinder you see on the roads today is a truck-based vehicle built to withstand real off-road use. The new one rides on car-like engineering, which will allow it to be lighter and less thirsty.

Engines themselves are getting smaller, too. Even the venerable Bentley is downsizing. The British ultra-luxury automaker unveiled the Continental GT V8 at the show.

Under the hood of this car is a relatively modest twin-turbocharged 4.0-liter V8 which, Bentley estimates, will quaff 40% less premium than the 6.0-liter V12 in the less stingy version of the car. Even with the V8, performance will still be "exhilarating," Bentley promises.

In more pedestrian cars, the "bigger engine" option is pretty much out. Today, the Ford Fusion is available with a V6 engine. The new one will not be. Only various 4-cylinder engines will be offered. The Dodge Dart, as well, will be available only with 4-cylinder engines.

Even performance is being subtly redefined. It used to be that performance was measured in one, single, easily stated number: horsepower. In auto shows past, carmakers would compete to see who could unveil the car with most eye-popping horsepower number.

And that’s not entirely over. Shelby American Inc. was on hand with its display of modified Ford (, Fortune 500) Mustangs with horsepower outputs stretching all the way to a gut-crunching 800.

The "new performance" could be found at the Subaru and Toyota () stands, where the identical Subaru BRZ and Scion FRS were on display. These cars put out a relatively slight 200 horsepower out of 2.0-liter flat-four engines. That’s an impressive figure, given the size of the engine and the fact that it doesn’t have a power-boosting turbocharger or supercharger.

But these cars aren’t about zero-to-60 times, Scion and Subaru representatives say. They’re about driving fun. Engineers put the engine as low as possible in the car to create the lowest possible center of gravity, the idea being to optimize cornering while still going quick enough to produce a healthy grin.

This new trend in less showy fuel economy was perhaps best exhibited in the show’s opening moment. A jury of automotive journalists awarded the North American Car and Truck of the Year Awards to the Hyundai Elantra and the Land Rover Range Rover Evoque.

The Elantra, a compact car, gets 40 miles a gallon without sacrificing driving fun. The Range Rover Evoque uses a turbocharged 4-cylinder engine to provide enjoyable driving performance while still getting an impressive — in this context — 22 miles per gallon in combined city and highway driving.

Of course, there are still those plug-in cars. But with standard, run-of-the-mill gasoline-powered cars pushing the fuel economy bar ever higher, they seem likely to remain car show sideshows for a few years longer. 

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