n”> – Comcast Corp, the No. 1 U.S. cable operator, became the latest major name to take on Netflix Inc on Tuesday when it announced plans for an online video service offering a library of TV shows and movies.

The new service, called Xfinity Streampix, will be made available only to Comcast’s cable TV subscribers.

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Orange franchisee Partner Communications Ltd. on Wednesday published estimated results for the fourth quarter and full year of 2011 that showed sharply lower revenue and profits as subscribers abandoned the mobile carrier. The company will publish its final results in late March.

Partner, controlled by Ilan Ben Dov, estimated that its fourth-quarter revenue fell to NIS 1.59 billion from NIS 1.76b. for the corresponding quarter of 2010, and its net profit fell to NIS 132 million from NIS 304m.

It estimated that revenue rose to NIS 7b. in 2011 from NIS 6.67b. in 2010, but net profit fell to NIS 763m. from NIS 1.24b.

Partner said mobile revenue fell 40 percent to NIS 1b. Read more…

WASHINGTON

Visiting Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping, in line to be China’s next leader, said Wednesday that Beijing welcomes U.S. efforts to assert influence in the Asia-Pacific region, but that Washington must also respect the interests and concerns of China in its own neighborhood.

Appearing before the U.S.-China Business Council, Xi spoke warmly of evolving relations between the world’s two economic super powers but, as in earlier stops here, offered little new insight into how he will lead China, or whether the present tenseness in U.S.-Chinese relations might be eased.

China’s Vice President Xi Jinping speaks to the US-China Business Council, Wednesday, Feb. Read more…

As policymakers debate how to form Connecticut’s health insurance exchange ahead of a 2014 deadline, they may not need to look far for an answer.

Mercer, a national benefits consulting firm hired by the state to analyze the insurance market, is suggesting that Connecticut could adopt the exchange run by the Connecticut Business & Industry Association rather than create a whole new state-run entity, warning that two similar but separate exchanges may not be able to co-exist. <

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A judge in the EpiCentre bankruptcy case has disbanded the committee of unsecured creditors, the latest twist in the long-running, contentious case, and a move legal experts say is unprecedented and could hurt the voices of the smallest companies owed money by the entertainment giant.

The decision by U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge George Hodges comes as the uptown complex’s developers, lenders and bankruptcy trustee argue over whether millions of dollars in parking revenues and other money was wrongfully diverted from the project so they wouldn’t have to be paid out to creditors.

At stake is the future of the prominent, 302,000-square-foot retail and entertainment complex, which has been mired in court battles since filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2010.

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AP Photo LG Electronics USA showed the new large-screen Cinema 3D Smart TV lineup Monday, a day ahead of the opening of the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

AP Technology Writer

LAS VEGAS — Talking to the TV is usually a sign of extreme agitation, mental instability or loneliness. LG Electronics is set to make it a more rational behavior this year, with a range of TVs that respond to speech.

The company will sell a remote with its high-end flat-panel TVs that contains a microphone. Y

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