Current Events

United States prosecutors said on Friday that they had charged three executives at Takata, the Japanese auto parts maker, with fabricating test data to mask a fatal airbag defect, a striking turn in a case that set off the largest automotive recall in United States history.

Prosecutors also announced that Takata had agreed to plead guilty to charges of wire fraud for providing the false data, a rare outcome for businesses accused of wrongdoing. The company, based in Tokyo, was also fined $1 billion.

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A Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (005930.KS) investigation into what caused some Galaxy Note 7 smartphones to catch fire has concluded that the battery was the main reason, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters on Monday.

The world's biggest smartphone maker is seeking to put behind it one of the biggest product safety failures in tech history as it prepares to launch the Galaxy S8, one of its flagship phones, sometime in the first half of this year.

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For decades, a staple of many parents' changing tables was a container of baby powder, but as with many child-rearing recommendations some pediatricians now recommend avoiding the product completely.

The American Pediatric Association recommends against using baby powder, initially over concerns that talc, which was used in some products but has been largely phased out, could be inhaled and harm babies' lungs. There are currently safer baby powder options that use cornstarch as a talc-substitute, like the Honest Company's organic baby powder, which was recently voluntarily recalled over rash concerns.

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The Environmental Protection Agency accused Fiat Chrysler on Thursday of installing software that enables certain diesel trucks to emit far more pollutants than emissions laws allow. The company denied those accusations, saying its software meets regulatory requirements.

The vehicles involved were the 2014 to 2016 model year Dodge Ram 1500 pickup trucks and Jeep Grand Cherokees with 3.0-liter diesel engines. The allegations affect roughly 104,000 vehicles, EPA officials said

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Troubled air bag maker Takata is reportedly set to reach a criminal settlement with U.S. prosecutors that will require payment of some $1 billion in fines, restitution and victim compensation, as well as a guilty plea on wire-fraud charges, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

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Honest Co, co-founded by actress Jessica Alba, voluntarily recalled all bottles of its organic baby powder in the United States due to concerns of eye and skin infections.

The Santa Monica, California-based company said that during recent tests conducted on the product, possible contaminations from microorganisms that could cause skin or eye infections were found.

"With the full knowledge and under the guidance of the FDA, we've decided to voluntarily recall this product out of an abundance of caution," Christopher Gavigan, co-founder, said in a video posted on the company's website on Wednesday.

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Honda is adding 772,000 more cars to the Takata airbag recalls as the troubled Japanese supplier announced new repair schedules for several million inflators currently under recall. No new models or model years are part of the latest Honda recall in the U.S., which specifically covers front-passenger airbags. A total of 1.
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Federal regulators told pacemaker patients with certain implantable cardiac devices on Monday to follow instructions needed to fix cybersecurity vulnerabilities found in products made by St. Jude Medical. The St. Paul, Minn.-based company issued security updates for its Merlin remote monitoring system Monday designed to fix flaws identified in a safety warning put out this week by the U.
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Volkswagen is on the verge of pleading guilty to criminal charges and paying $4.3 billion in fines, in a deal that would resolve a federal criminal investigation into its cheating on vehicle emissions tests, the automaker said on Tuesday.

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Drivers like Norma Caplan of Boynton Beach are growing impatient that dealers say they still do not have enough replacement parts to fix recalled Takata airbags as 2017 gets underway.

“Get it done,” Caplan urged Monday. “To be injured or killed by flying metal pieces is terrible. They’re supposed to protect you.”

Abbott Laboratories (ABT.N) moved to protect patients with its St. Jude heart implants against possible cyber attacks, releasing a software patch on Monday that the firm said will reduce the "extremely low" chance of them being hacked.