Stocks rise…Judge to decide on sports betting in NJ…NBCUniversal settles with unpaid interns

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are rising in afternoon trading on Wall Street, putting the market on track for its best week in almost two years. Investors are encouraged by strong quarterly earnings from Microsoft and UPS. But Amazon sank after the company reported dismal third-quarter results.

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — A federal judge is deciding whether to grant a request from the four major U.S. professional sports leagues and the NCAA to stop New Jersey from allowing legalized sports betting. Judge Michael Shipp is scheduled to announce his decision this afternoon (at 4:30 p.m. EDT) in a Trenton courtroom. Gov. Chris Christie signed a law last week that effectively repeals the state’s ban on sports wagering. The leagues have asked for a temporary injunction.

NEW YORK (AP) — NBCUniversal will pay $6.4 million to settle a class-action lawsuit brought by unpaid interns who worked on “Saturday Night Live” and other shows who claim they are owed wages, according to court documents. The interns claim NBCUniversal wrongly classified them as non-employees in an effort to avoid labor laws. NBCUniversal denies the allegations and doesn’t admit any wrongdoing.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — The founder of a popular brand of food for observant Muslims has been indicted on charges that he shipped beef to Malaysia and Indonesia that didn’t meet those countries’ import requirements. A federal grand jury returned a 19-count indictment against Bill Aossey (AH’-see) Jr., who founded the Midamar Corp. in 1974. The Cedar Rapids, Iowa company grew into the leading U.S. halal brand. His attorney calls the allegations “a minor regulatory violation” at most.

LONDON (AP) — The World Health Organization says millions of doses of two experimental Ebola vaccines could be ready in 2015 and five more experimental vaccines will start being tested in March. Trials of the two most advanced vaccines have already begun in the U.S., U.K. and Mali. One was developed by GlaxoSmithKline in cooperation with the U.S. National Institutes of Health. The other was developed by the Canadian Public Health Agency and licensed to the U.S. company NewLink Genetics.

Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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