Stocks rise...Industrial production up, manufacturing down....Volkswagen CEO charged

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks opened with modest gains in early trading on Wall Street. If the early direction holds, the market would finish the week with a solid gain and erase last week's decline. Gains for technology and retailers led the opening advance. While shares in Asia rose after China's...

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks opened with modest gains in early trading on Wall Street. If the early direction holds, the market would finish the week with a solid gain and erase last week's decline. Gains for technology and retailers led the opening advance. While shares in Asia rose after China's premier pledged support for the country's slowing economy.

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. industrial production increased a slight 0.1 percent in February, as an increase in utilities and mining, offset the second straight monthly drop in manufacturing. The Federal Reserve says that the manufacturing component of the index fell 0.4 percent last month, after having fallen 0.5 percent in January. Factory production has slipped 1 percent during the past 12 months.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charged Volkswagen, former CEO Martin Winterkorn (VIHN'-tehr-korn) with defrauding American bond investors during its emissions scandal. The SEC said that between April 2014 and May 2015 Volkswagen issued more than $13 billion in bonds, and asset-backed securities in U.S. markets, when senior executives knew that more than 500,000 vehicles in the country exceeded legal emissions limits.

LONDON (AP) —British Prime Minister Theresa May is working to pull off an against-the-odds rescue for her European Union divorce deal, after Parliament voted to postpone Brexit to avert a chaotic departure in two weeks. May is spending the next several days trying to persuade British lawmakers to support the withdrawal agreement, which Parliament has resoundingly defeated twice. May is expected to hold another Parliament vote on her Brexit deal next week. If it is rejected, she says Britain will need a longer extension, which could see Brexit postponed indefinitely.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Facebook is rolling out technology to make it easier to find and remove intimate pictures and videos posted without consent, often called "revenge porn." Currently, Facebook users or victims of revenge porn have to report the inappropriate pictures before content moderators will review them. This new technology is trained to recognize and flag photos and videos that may have been uploaded without consent. The company does not expect the new technology to catch every instance of revenge porn, and said it will still rely on users reporting photos and videos.

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