WASHINGTON—A total of 75,768 discrimination charges were filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in fiscal year 2006, a nearly 0.5% increase from the previous year and the first rise since fiscal 2002, the agency said Thursday.

The EEOC reported that—as in past years—charges based on race were the most frequent. The 27,238 race-based charges were followed by 23,247 complaints based on sex and 22,555 based on retaliation.

(Reuters)—Americans lost about $49.3 billion in 2006 to criminals who stole their identities, an 11.5% decline that may reflect increased vigilance among consumers and businesses, a study released on Thursday shows.

Losses declined from a revised $55.7 billion in 2005, according to the third annual study by Javelin Strategy & Research. They had increased in each of the prior two years.

SAN FRANCISCO—The San Francisco-based Fair Employment and Housing Commission has issued new proposed regulations intended to clarify California legislation that requires employers to provide sexual harassment prevention training.

The commission had issued its final proposed regulations last November, but California’s Office of Administrative Law, which must approve them, returned them to the FEHC last month and said further clarification related to the requirements for "subject matter expert" and "trainer or educator" was needed.

ATLANTA—Closing large public gatherings and asking infected workers to stay home for at least a week are part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s new set of guidelines for dealing with a potential influenza epidemic.

The CDC released its "pandemic severity index," which is modeled on the five-category index used to classify hurricanes, on Thursday. For example, a Category 1 pandemic would be as harmful as a severe seasonal influenza season with fewer than 90,000 deaths, while a Category 5 could result in more than 1.8 million deaths.

LONDON—Economic and financial stability is set to continue in the global economy in 2007, but if something were to go wrong, the impact would be far greater than only two or three years ago, according to the U.K. regulator—the Financial Services Authority.

The FSA published its analysis of the global risk landscape in its annual “Financial Risk Outlook” report.

This document is to designed to raise awareness of the priority risks which it believes it—and the users and providers of financial services—need to focus upon.

SACRAMENTO, Calif.—Calling California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s health care reform proposal a giveaway to insurers, state Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Santa Monica, has introduced single-payer health care legislation for the third time.

The measure, which passed both houses of the California Assembly last year and was vetoed by Gov. Schwarzenegger, would virtually eliminate the need for private health insurance by creating a state agency funded by taxes on payroll and income to pay for medical treatment for all California residents.