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Many sectors of the United States economy are neither overly optimistic nor pessimistic about the future, but rather have mixed and complicated forecasts.

Fifty two large companies have joined together to pressure pharmacy-benefit managers into passing along rebates from drug companies and to disclose more financial information about drug costs.

Robert Zollitsch, archbishop of Freiburg, is under investigation by German authorities for allegedly allowing a allowed a priest accused of child sexual abuse to be reassigned to another parish about twenty years afterward. The investigation was begun as a result of a complaint by the alleged victim.

As the scandal surrounding the revelation of child sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests in Germany and elsewhere widens, Pope Benedict XVI has accepted the resignation of Irish priest John Magee of the southern Ireland Cloyne Diocese. Magee resigned after a government investigation revealed that he failed to report abusive priests to the police.

Officials in Germany are planning to pay US$3.4 million to obtain the names of German holders of Swiss bank accounts who are believed to be evading taxation. They are considering new information from informants. The move is seen as a German attack on the Swiss banking system and its laws of secrecy. The move has been vehemently protested by Switzerland, which believes that the Swiss banking system could be seriously destabilized.

Two subsidiaries of MAN SE have been ordered by a court in Germany to pay a fine of US$221 million in connection with a bribery case in which the court discovered several instances of bribes paid in Germany in order to obtain sales of buses and trucks. Individual suspects will continue to be investigated by German authorities.

China's participation as guest of honor at the Frankfurt Book Fair is in jeopardy over the inclusion of two activist authors, Bei Ling, and Qing Dai. The incident has caused a major headache for the German government.

A group headed by Magna International Inc. will acquire a majority holding in General Motors Corp.'s Opel AG unit. It will invest US$$726 million in Opel and the G erman government will give loans of 4.5 billion euros.

UnitedHealth Group Inc. and Cisco Systems Inc. will join to fashion a medical network that will join doctors and patients across the country using medical-information technology and video. It is looking to establish itself in the burgeoning and potentially lucrative telehealth field.

Express Scripts will pay $4.68 billion to acquire the pharmacy-benefit management unit of WellPoint Inc. As part of the deal, Express Scripts has a ten-year contract supplying WellPoint with pharmacy-benefit management services.

America's health Insurance Plans and Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, two trade associations representing the insurance industry, sent a letter to leaders of the Senate stating that, if all Americans were required to purchase insurance, they would stop charging the sick more for coverage.