Motorola unveils budget smartphone, aimed at world

NEW YORK — Motorola says it wants to equip the world with the latest smartphone technology, at less than a third the price.

The new Moto G phone starts at $179 in the U.S. without a contract requirement. That compares with $600 or more that people must pay for phones without traditional two-year service agreements.

Motorola, which is owned by Google Inc., said Wednesday that it will target an estimated 500 million people worldwide who can't afford phones costing more than $200. In the past, the company said, those consumers were limited to phones with technology that's at least a year old and thus unable to run the latest apps and services.

The company is targeting not just emerging markets, but budget-conscious consumers in the U.S. Although people can often get phones with contract at the lower price, service fees are higher because they include the cost of subsidizing those phones. And many people don't have good enough credit to qualify and are limited to so-called pre-paid plans, which aren't eligible for the subsidized prices.

With the Moto G, Motorola is trying to offer a device that is closer to what leading high-end phones currently offer.

The phone's 4.5-inch screen, measured diagonally, is capable of high-definition video, but only at 720p, not at the better, 1020p standard found in leading phones. The resolution is 329 pixels per inch, which is comparable to the 326 pixels in the latest, 4-inch iPhones but short of the 441 pixels in Samsung's 5-inch Galaxy S4.

The $179 price is for a phone with 8 gigabytes of storage, not the 16 gigabytes typical with high-end phones. A 16-gigabyte version is available for $199.

The phone also has a recent processor from Qualcomm and runs a recent version of Google's operating system, Android 4.3, also known as Jelly Bean. The newest version, 4.4 or Kit Kat, is promised by January. Kit Kat was designed to work well with older phones and the latest devices alike.

The phone starts selling in Brazil and parts of Europe on Wednesday. It will be available in Canada, parts of Asia and the rest of Europe and Latin America over the next few weeks. It is expected in the U.S., India, the Middle East and additional markets in Asia in January. Motorola didn't announce any plans for Africa.

Moto G will have a removable back to allow for customization. Motorola's flagship Moto X also allows customization, but it must be ordered in advance and can't be changed.

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Swift has a spot on Victoria's Secret sexy catwalk

NEW YORK — Taylor Swift is set to share the catwalk with the Victoria's Secret Angels on Wednesday at the lingerie retailer's annual fashion show.

Swift is the headliner with performances also planned by Fall Out Boy, A Great Big World and Neon Jungle. The show is taped at Manhattan's Lexington Avenue Armory to air Dec. 10 on CBS.

The parade of models in lacy undergarments with elaborate trimmings of feathers, sequins and ribbons has become part of the holiday TV landscape. This year's honor of wearing the most bejeweled bra, valued at $10 million and covered in diamonds, rubies and sapphires, goes to model Candice Swanepoel (swan-e-POOL).

At her fitting earlier this month, Karlie Kloss said that while the outfits are skimpy, they take months to make.

The question is: Will Swift don a pair of Victoria's Secret's signature wings?

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Follow Samantha Critchell and AP fashion coverage on Twitter at @Sam_Critchell and @AP_Fashion

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Italian bank Intesa Sanpaolo 3Q earns drop by half

MILAN — Italian bank Intesa Sanpaolo SpA says third-quarter profits fell by nearly half due to lower interest income and lower profits on trading.

The bank reported net income of 218 million euros ($292 million) in the quarter, compared with 414 million euros last year. Operating income was flat at 2 billion euros.

Intesa, Italy's second-largest bank by assets, set aside 1.5 billion euros in loan loss provisions in the quarter. Provisioning for the first nine months was 4 billion euros, up nearly one-quarter on the year.

The bank said it strengthened provisions, despite stabilizing credit trends, to prepare for the upcoming European bank stress test. Intesa's Core Tier 1 ratio, a measure of a bank's health, was 12.1 percent, above European requirements.

Its shares dropped 2.6 percent to 1.72 euros Wednesday.

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Macy's profit beats on stronger sales

NEW YORK — Macy's reported a quarterly profit that handily beat Wall Street expectations on Wednesday, with the department store chain citing stepped up advertising for stronger sales.

Its stock surged more than 7 percent in premarket trading.

Macy's Inc., which is based in Cincinnati, Ohio and also operates Bloomingdale's, is the first of the major retailers to report third-quarter results and is often seen as a barometer of spending among middle- to upper-income shoppers.

The company has been a standout among its peers throughout the economic recovery and has been reaping the benefits of its strategy of tailoring merchandise to local markets. But like other clothing merchants, Macy's saw sales slow over the summer amid new worries about the economy.

Still, the chain said Wednesday that it saw "particular strength" in October and that it was heading into the critical holiday shopping season "with confidence." The company is already stepping up its game for the period, which can account for as much as 40 percent of a retailer's annual revenue. For the first time, it has said it plans to open on Thanksgiving evening.

Rival J.C. Penney, meanwhile, is trying to recover from a botched strategy under its former CEO Ron Johnson. Under Mike Ullman, who took back the helm in April, Penney has gone back to more frequent sales events and brought back basic merchandise that Johnson eliminated.

For the quarter ended Nov. 2, Macy's earned $177 million, or 47 cents per share. That compares with $145 million, or 36 cents per share, a year ago.

Revenue rose 3 percent to $6.28 billion.

Analysts expected earnings per share of 39 cents on revenue of $6.19 billion.

Revenue at stores opened at least a year, a key metric, was up 3.5 percent, stronger than the 2.1 percent analysts expected.

The company reaffirmed its guidance for sales at stores open at least a year to rise between 2 percent and 2.9 percent for the full year. Earnings are expected to be between $3.80 and $3.90 per share. Analysts expected revenue of $3.78 per share.

Shares of Macy's were up $3.47, or 7.5 percent, to $49.80 in premarket trading about 45 minutes ahead of the market opening.

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UN: 21 nations take up polio 'emergency'

GENEVA — Some 21 nations in the Middle East and nearby regions have jointly made the eradication of polio an emergency priority and recognized that Pakistan is a key part of the problem, the World Health Organization said Wednesday.

The joint resolution by nations who are part of the U.N. health agency's Eastern Mediterranean region have called on Pakistan to urgently vaccinate all of its children to prevent the virus from spreading internationally.

Pakistan also approved the resolution, which the Geneva-based agency says includes Afghanistan, Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.

The problem is particularly challenging in Pakistan, where a U.N.-backed eradication campaign has suffered from violence and mistrust directed against polio workers and people who want their children vaccinated.

Earlier this week, WHO officials said the polio virus has now been confirmed in 13 of 22 children who became paralyzed in a northern Syrian province. The health agency said the Syria outbreak comes from a strain that originated in Pakistan, where, along with Afghanistan and Nigeria, it is endemic — and has been spreading across the Middle East.

It said the virus has been detected in Egypt, and closely related strains of Pakistani origin turned up in sewage samples in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza Strip, but higher immunization rates in those places have helped keep the virus in check.

A third of the nations in the WHO's Eastern Mediterranean region are conducting mass polio vaccination programs, the agency said, and more such campaigns are planned for December.

The nations in those regions also said they are trying to improve access for health workers to reach children who have not yet been vaccinated. WHO said its emergency "outbreak response" to polio in Syria and the region is expected to continue at least six to eight months more.

In Syria, WHO and UNICEF, the U.N. children's agency, are trying to work with other humanitarian agencies to reach more of the millions of people affected by the civil war including unvaccinated children.

The two agencies "are coordinating the vaccination campaign with all concerned parties to make sure that all children are vaccinated no what where they are located," said Dr. Jaouad Mahjour, head of communicable diseases prevention and control for WHO's regional office.

Pakistan, which had 198 confirmed polio cases in 2011 — the highest number of any nation in the world that year — cut that number down to 58 in 2012 through an aggressive vaccination program.

But the program has been marred by violence carried out by militants who oppose the U.N. and government-led vaccinations, claiming it is meant to sterilize Muslim children.

In October, in a village outside the provincial capital of Peshawar, a bomb explosion killed a police officer and a member of a volunteer peace committee when it went off next to van carrying Pakistani security guards who were protecting workers carrying out an anti-polio drive in the country's northwest.

In May, Pakistani authorities had to suspend a four-day vaccination program after gunmen shot dead a female polio worker and wounded another.

The militants' suspicions stem from the CIA's use of a Pakistani doctor from an immunization program in the hunt for Osama bin Laden two years ago. The militants also accuse polio workers of spying for the U.S. government, and two Pakistani Taliban militants banned the polio work from two tribal regions due to opposition to U.S. drone strikes.

Those suspicions were reinforced by the disclosure that the CIA also used a Pakistani doctor for a hepatitis vaccination program to try to get blood samples from bin Laden's family before U.S. commandos killed him in May 2011.

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Boeing machinists voting on contract extension

SEATTLE — About 20,000 Boeing machinists in the Puget Sound area are voting Wednesday on an eight-year contract extension the company says it needs to assemble the new 777X in Washington state.

Some members of International Association of Machinists District 751 have called for a no vote, protesting concessions Boeing Co. wants in pension and health benefits. President Tom Wroblewski called it an emotional decision but said union members should consider what's best for their families.

On Monday, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee signed legislation passed in a special session of the state Legislature giving tax breaks to Boeing as part of the 777X deal. They are valued at $9 billion through 2040.

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Lincoln hopes for smoother 2014 with new MKC SUV

GROSSE POINTE SHORES, Mich. — After a bumpy start to its reinvention as a luxury brand, Lincoln hopes to smooth things out with a graceful new SUV.

The Lincoln MKC, being introduced Wednesday in New York, is the second of four new vehicles Ford Motor Co. is counting on to revive its luxury brand. It goes on sale in the U.S. next summer for a starting price of $33,995, making it the least expensive vehicle in Lincoln's lineup.

The MKC looks similar to the concept version that debuted at the Detroit auto show last January. It's low and wide, with a sloping roof, optional panoramic sunroof and a prominent winged grille. The tailgate cuts into the sides of the vehicle, instead of the rear, allowing a long, unbroken band of taillights. A sharp crease undulates along the sides, giving the vehicle a constant sense of movement.

"I'm optimistic about it. They did everything they needed to do," said Dave Sullivan, an analyst with the consulting firm AutoPacific. Lincoln showed the MKC to media and analysts last week at the suburban Detroit estate of Henry Ford's son, Edsel, who ran the Lincoln brand in the 1920s and 1930s.

The MKC's arrival closes out an up-and-down year for Lincoln, which was America's top-selling luxury brand two decades ago but lost ground after Ford stopped investing in it. In 2010, Ford began working on a plan to remake the brand.

Lincoln kicked off its comeback last February with a 90-second Super Bowl ad introducing the redesigned and updated MKZ sedan, but because of some quality issues, the MKZ wasn't in showrooms until several months later. Then, the brand was surprised by the high demand for hybrids, so it had to retool its production plans and cut back on hybrid advertising over the summer as supplies ran low.

"It's been a huge learning year," said Matt VanDyke, Lincoln's global marketing director.

Lincoln's U.S. sales were down 3 percent through October, and vehicle research site Edmunds.com said the brand is still getting far less consideration from buyers than German luxury brands like Audi and Mercedes-Benz.

But Lincoln executives point to some successes. It has seen record MKZ sales for six of the last seven months, and Lincoln brand sales were up 38 percent in October after it launched ads comparing the MKZ to the Lexus ES.

Ford has learned some lessons from the MKZ. The MKC has more knobs on the dashboard, for example, after customers complained about the MKZ's glitch-prone touch pads for climate and volume controls. And while the MKC shares the skeleton of the cheaper Ford Escape, the design — and most of the parts — are completely different. Past Lincolns have been criticized for looking too much like their Ford cousins.

The MKC will be built at a factory in Louisville, Ky., the same plant that now is working three shifts to meet demand for the Escape.

Max Wolff, Lincoln's chief designer, said the company went to great lengths to give the MKC a hand-crafted look that's different from the Escape. The tailgate, for example, is specially hydroformed by a supplier in Canada because Ford's stamping plants can't make such a complicated design.

The base MKC shares a 2.0-liter, 240 horsepower EcoBoost four-cylinder engine with the MKZ. Also available is a new, 2.3-liter, turbocharged four-cylinder with an estimated 275 horsepower. Unlike the MKZ, there's no hybrid version.

The MKC is arriving at the right time. U.S. sales of small luxury SUVs like the MKC are up 25 percent so far this year, making them the fastest growing segment in the luxury market. Sales of the smallest luxury SUVs have more than tripled since 2009 as Baby Boomers downsize from bigger SUVs and younger buyers enter the SUV market.

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Too much? Lady Gaga saturates market

There's just one way to escape the blitz surrounding Lady Gaga's new album: completely unplug from society.

To kick off the release of her new album, "Artpop," this week, the entertainer, never known for understatement, has been omnipresent.

She began with a huge release party Sunday where she debuted Volantis, billed as the "world's first flying dress." She floated about 6 feet above the floor before performing at the event, streamed live on Vevo.

The next day, she opened pop-up "Artpop" stores in New York and Los Angeles, where Gaga-related merchandise was sold, and she was one of the main honorees at Glamour's Women of the Year ceremony. On Wednesday, she was due to appear at the opening of an H&M store in New York's Times Square.

She's scheduled to tackle hosting and performance duties on NBC's "Saturday Night Live," and she redesigned the Life section logo of USA Today in her image — the first time the newspaper has had a celebrity do so. The newspaper also featured an interview with the superstar. And a concert special with Ryan Seacrest is set to air on the CW Network next week.

Gaga's publicity push leading up to the debut of "Artpop" could be described much like the singer herself — eye-catching, unique, daring and, of course, over the top. It comes amid mixed reviews for the album, the departure of her longtime manager and questions about whether Gaga-mania might be on the wane outside her core Little Monsters. The album's first single, "Applause," remains a top 10 hit, but was considered a bit of an underperformer compared with her previous hits.

Bill Werde, Billboard's editorial director, thinks folks wondering if the 27-year-old is approaching her expiration date are missing the point.

"She's presenting an artistic view of pop music that's a lot more challenging than anything else that's even approaching the top of our charts now. She is risking her top success for the sake of art, and I think a lot of people don't get that," Werde said after viewing Sunday's show online.

"You have to really appreciate how conservative most pop fans are in the world. They don't necessarily want their music dipped in art. They don't want to see pop stars come out for a performance wearing a terrifying scarecrow mask," he added.

It's what we've come to expect from Gaga, however. Her career has been as much about performance art as music. After all, this is the woman who has paraded around in a dress made of meat, assumed a male alter-ego for an awards show, arrived at another in an egg and stripped naked onstage in Europe last month.

"She's definitely one of the most iconic artists that we have on the planet," said hitmaker David Guetta, who worked with Gaga on her new album. "I like the way that she works because she's just an artist. I don't see her as belonging to one school. She's just art. Even though it's pop music and it can some time have emotional (aspects), pop can also be very commercial. And I like the way that she's doing pop in a very artistic way."

Some have questioned how much her approach resonates these days, especially when Miley Cyrus draws weeks of headlines by twerking onstage at the MTV Video Music Awards. Gaga's performance at that show barely rated a blip at the water cooler the next morning.

Gaga's supporters, though, warn against viewing her in the short term. They believe she's built something more durable. Kid Kelly, SiriusXM's vice president of music programming, hosted an interview session with Gaga last week that drew an eclectic crowd that ranged from pre-teen to middle age.

"She has a vision for what she does as an artist, but not necessarily like you're on the assembly line of creating formulaic hits," Kelly said. "She's a genius, the way she presents, the way she acts, the way she's thinking constantly about innovating and re-innovating herself, the way she is very, very forward thinking. She understands her audience I think better than most people give her credit for."

"Artpop" is Gaga's fourth full-length album, and comes after a forced hiatus. A hip injury sidelined her and forced her to cancel her tour last year. In a brief interview before her Sunday performance, Gaga said that time off gave her some perspective.

"You know what I realized? That I don't need to reinvent myself. What I realized is that in your lifetime, if you have one really great idea, run with it. And run all the way to outer space if you can," she said. "If you believe in yourself and you work hard, rehearse and have discipline, these ideas could take us to the moon."

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AP Writer John Carucci in New York contributed to this report.

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Follow AP Music Writer Chris Talbott: http://twitter.com/Chris_Talbott .

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Online:

http://ladygaga.com

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Stocks lower as China reform promise disappoints

LONDON — Global stock markets were under pressure Wednesday after a highly anticipated meeting of Chinese leaders failed to yield bold reforms to overhaul a growth model that is running out of steam.

Communist Party leaders in Beijing pledged to promote market forces in the country's state-dominated economy after the four-day meeting wrapped up late Tuesday. But in a disappointment for reform advocates, they failed to announce dramatic changes such as curbing the dominance of state industry, extending property rights to farmers or relaxing the one child birth control policy.

The ruling party said that market forces will play a "decisive role" in China's economy, an upgrade from "core role" assigned to the market in party policy over the past two decades, and flagged 2020 as a timeframe for changes.

"While the general approach is market-oriented, the absence of clear details is slightly disappointing," said Neil MacKinnon, global macro strategist at VTB Capital.

In Europe, Germany's DAX was down 0.7 percent at 9,016, while the CAC-40 in France fell 0.7 percent at 4,237.

The FTSE 100 index of leading British shares underperformed, trading 1.6 percent lower at 6,635 after new unemployment projections from the Bank of England raised speculation in the markets that interest rates may rise sooner than anticipated. In contrast, the British pound spiked, trading 0.5 percent higher at $1.5966.

In the U.S., the Dow Jones industrial average was down 0.4 percent at 15,691, while the broader S&P 500 index fell 0.2 percent to 1,763.

Earlier in Asia, China's Shanghai Composite plunged 1.8 percent to 2,087.94, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng sank 1.9 percent to 22,463.83. Tokyo's Nikkei shed 0.2 percent to 14,567.16, and South Korea's Kospi lost 1.6 percent to 1,963.56. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 fell 1.4 percent to 5,319.2.

Confirmation hearings for Janet Yellen as the new Federal Reserve chief on Thursday could provide a fresh cue for financial markets. Investors will look to her testimony for clues about when the Fed will begin reducing its massive monetary stimulus that has propped up the world's largest economy. Yellen has been tapped to replace Ben Bernanke as Fed chairman at the end of January.

In currency markets, trading was muted, with the euro down 0.3 percent at $1.3398 and the dollar 0.1 percent lower at 99.51 yen.

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Lee contributed from Seoul, South Korea.

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House oversight panel probes health website woes

WASHINGTON — Probing whether the White House shares blame for health care website woes, the House's chief investigator Wednesday plunged into the technical issues behind the dysfunctional rollout of HealthCare.gov.

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, is exploring a long list of issues: insufficient testing, possible security flaws, design shortcomings — even allegations of political meddling. It was the sixth major congressional hearing since President Barack Obama's computerized insurance markets went live Oct. 1 and millions of consumers encountered frozen screens.

"Established best practices of our government were not used in this case," said Issa. As a result, the law's promise of affordable health insurance "does not exist today in a meaningful way." Like other Republicans, Issa wants the law repealed, not fixed.

Ranking Democrat Elijah Cummings of Maryland questioned Issa's fairness.

Addressing Issa directly, Cummings said: "Over the past month, instead of working in a bipartisan manner to improve the website, you've politicized this issue by repeatedly making unfounded allegations."

A key issue for Issa is why the administration required consumers to first create online accounts at HealthCare.gov before they could shop for health plans. That runs counter to the common e-commerce practice of allowing anonymous window-shopping. Outside experts say it increased the workload on a wobbly system.

Republicans suspect a political motive; Democrats say the explanation has to do with technical issues.

The hearing comes during a week in which the administration is expected to release tightly held enrollment numbers for October. They are believed to amount to only a small fraction of the nearly 500,000 initial signups that officials had projected a month before the trouble-plagued website's launch.

It also could produce one of the more memorable witnesses of the administration's tangle with technology. Henry Chao, a little-known Medicare official, presented an overview of the enrollment system back in the spring, and commented, "Let's just make sure it's not a third-world experience."

Chao is deputy chief information officer for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which also is leading the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. A career official who earlier helped implement the Medicare prescription drug benefit, he is widely seen as the operational official most knowledgeable about the health care law's online system.

Chao's public comment in March at an insurance industry forum was taken as an edgy joke, and he later joined the parade of administration officials who assured lawmakers that everything was on track for a smooth launch, even as nonpartisan experts from the congressional Government Accountability Office warned that could not be taken for granted.

Issa's investigators have already grilled Chao in a private session that lasted some nine hours. Chao's name appears on a key Sept. 27 document authorizing the launch of the website despite incomplete security testing. But Issa's staff has released materials indicating that Chao was unaware of a memo earlier that month detailing unresolved security issues.

Chao was also involved in the decision not to allow anonymous window-shopping, which is available on most e-commerce sites, including Medicare.gov.

Issa has suggested a political calculation: The administration wanted to avoid consumers experiencing "sticker shock" over premiums, so it first required them to compute tax credits that work like a discount. Government Oversight and Reform Committee Democrats say Chao told investigators the reason was technical: A planned window-shopping feature was full of glitches.

The committee is also hearing from Todd Park, the White House chief technology officer.

Issa has launched high-profile investigations of other troubling episodes for the administration, including the 2012 attack in Benghazi, Libya, that killed U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans; the failure of the Solyndra solar power company that received government loans; and the "Fast and Furious" gun-tracking program on the Mexican border.

Separately, the House Homeland Security Committee was also holding a hearing Wednesday on the health care website, focusing on whether personal information is adequately protected.

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