UnitedHealth plans overseas growth with $4.9B deal

UnitedHealth Group Inc. will spend about $4.9 billion to buy a majority stake in Brazilian health benefits and care provider Amil Participacoes SA, as the largest U.S. health insurer leaps into an international market it says is primed for growth.

UnitedHealth, based in Minnetonka, Minn., said Monday that the deal gives it better access to a country of 200 million people where only 25 percent of the population is covered by private health insurance. In contrast, about 78 percent of the U.S. market has private health benefits, as opposed to government coverage like Medicaid or Medicare.

Freeze, drought take bite out of fall tourism

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- Devastating spring freezes and a historic drought have stripped some charm from rustic fall destinations, leaving some corn too short to create mazes, orchards virtually devoid of apples and fall colors muted.

Extreme weather has forced agritourism ventures in the heart of the country to scramble to hold onto their share of an industry that generates hundreds of millions of dollars each year.

Pat Schaefers, who runs Schaefers Corn Maze near Lollie, Ark., hopes visitors to the farm's two mazes won't mind that the corn is just 6 to 8 feet this fall - up to 4 feet shorter than the wall of corn families and school groups normally pay to get lost and turned-around in.

Papal pardon expected for butler after conviction

VATICAN CITY (AP) -- A painful and damaging chapter in Pope Benedict XVI's papacy closed Saturday with the conviction of his former butler on charges he stole the pontiff's private letters and leaked them to a journalist. But questions remain as to whether anyone else was involved in the plot, and when the pope will pardon his once-trusted aide.

Paolo Gabriele, until recently affectionately dubbed "Paoletto" by his intimate pontifical family, stood stone-faced as Judge Giuseppe Dalla Torre read out the conviction and sentenced him to 18-months in prison for the gravest Vatican security breach in recent memory.

Pakistanis, Americans protest drones in long drive

ISLAMABAD (AP) -- Thousands of Pakistanis joined by a group of U.S. anti-war activists headed toward Pakistan's militant-riddled tribal belt Saturday to protest U.S. drone strikes - even as a Pakistani Taliban faction warned that suicide bombers would stop the demonstration.

The motorcade march was led by Imran Khan, an ex-cricket star-turned-populist politician who heads the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party. Militants have dismissed Khan as a tool of the West despite his condemnations of the drone strikes, which have killed many Islamist insurgent leaders.

NKorean soldier defects to SKorea across border

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- A North Korean soldier killed two of his officers Saturday and defected to South Korea across the countries' heavily armed border in a rare crossing that prompted South Korean troops to immediately beef up their border patrol, officials said.

The soldier shot his platoon and company commanders before crossing the western side of the Demilitarized Zone at around noon, a Defense Ministry official said, citing the soldier's statement after he was taken into custody by South Korean border guards.