House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., is testing support for his idea to replace Medicare with a fixed payment to buy a private medical plan from a menu of coverage options.

Party leaders will determine if the so-called voucher plan will be part of the budget Republicans put forward in the spring.

"No decisions have been made on the details of our House GOP budget." Michael Steel, a spokesman for Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said Thursday. "There are a lot of ideas out there, and we're going to listen to our members and the American people."

Medicare was one of the most highly charged issues during last year's congressional elections, which put the House back in GOP control. Republicans slammed Democrats for cutting Medicare by about 6 percent over 10 years to finance President Barack Obama's health overhaul.

A new foundation, Investor Claims against Fortis, has started legal proceedings in the Netherlands against the former bancassurer Fortis for "misleading investors", which it claims led to combined losses of €2bn.

The organisation argues that Fortis persisted in persuading investors to invest between May 2007 and October 2008 when the company was already on the ropes.

One of the foundation's claims is that Fortis failed to supply timely, accurate information about its exposure to sub-prime mortgages in the US.

The legal case – brought for the Utrecht court in the Netherlands – comes after the US high court decided that a class action by "foreign investors who have bought a stake in foreign companies on foreign stock markets" was inadmissible in a US court.

Within the EU, the legal climate in the Netherlands is ideal for shareholders wishing to reclaim damages from listed companies, according to Jay Eisenhofer, partner at law firm Grant & Eisenhofer.

Stuart Berman of law firm Barroway Topaz added: "This case offers a valuable framework for compensating duped investors outside the US."

Both law firms, as well as Alexander Reus, the foundation's director, have represented international shareholders against Shell for providing incorrect information about its oil reserves.

After Fortis became one of the three players that took over Dutch bank ABN Amro, it had to be rescued by the national governments of the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg.

After years of preparation, consumer-electronics pioneer Motorola Inc. formally split into two companies on Tuesday -- one for its consumer-oriented businesses such as cell phones, and the other for police radios and other products targeted at professionals.

In midday Tuesday, shares of the consumer-focused Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. climbed $2.44, or 8.1 percent, to $32.68 after rising as high as $33.45 earlier in the session, while its other business, Motorola Solutions Inc. fell 7 cents to $37.41. The shares were trading on the New York Stock Exchange with the ticket symbols MMI and MSI, respectively.

Although Motorola began by making car radios, TVs and cell phones, the company has since expanded into police radios and barcode scanners aimed at government agencies and large businesses. The company has become increasingly diverse, and the breakup that began in 2008 is motivated by the desire to present two simple businesses to investors rather than one complicated one.

In a 1-for-7 stock split, Motorola shareholders of record on Dec. 21 received one share of Mobility and seven shares of Solutions for every eight shares of Motorola Inc. they already held. People who already owned shares in Motorola have already been trading stock in the newly formed companies on a "when issued" basis for almost a month. Those shares became official Tuesday.

While Motorola's professional business soared, its cell phone business fell into a years-long slump as Apple Inc.'s iPhone and other smart phones took off. The company's cell phone division once enjoyed strong sales thanks to the Razr, a slim, clamshell-style feature phone that debuted in 2004 and became a best-seller. As recently as 2007, cell phones accounted for two-thirds of the company's revenue.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has accused unknown Martek Bioscience Corp. investors of insider trading ahead of the company's announcement last week of its $1.09 billion sale to Royal DSM NV, according to recent court filings.

On Dec. 21, Netherlands-based Royal DSM said it would pay $31.50 per share for Columbia, Md.-based Martek, marking a 35 percent premium to its stock value on Dec. 20. Martek makes nutritional supplements for infant formula and Royal DSM makes nutritional supplements, vaccine ingredients and industrial chemicals. The deal is expected to close in the second quarter.

In a complaint filed in federal court in Manhattan on Dec. 22, the SEC said unknown buyers bought 2,615 call option contracts between Dec. 10 and Dec. 15, through a UBS Ltd. account. The options were sold on the same day the buyout deal was publicly announced, putting those buyers in a position to gain $1.2 million in profit.

There was no information made public about the deal prior to the companies' Dec. 21 announcement.

The SEC wants the court to require the buyers to return the profits and pay a fine. On Dec. 23 the court agreed to freeze assets in the UBS account and ordered the buyers to come forward. A hearing date of Jan. 6 was set.

Federal prosecutors have charged a former Chicago man of swindling nearly $8 million from more than 50 victims who were led to believe they were buying specially discounted stock in a number of well-known companies, including Google Inc., and Facebook Inc.

The U.S. Attorney's office in Chicago says 39-year-old Randy Cho, now of Newton, Mass., was charged Monday with one count of wire fraud and one count of filing a false federal income tax return. The office says Cho will be arraigned at a later date, and did not say whether he had an attorney.

Randall Samborn, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's office, says Cho styled himself as a self-employed securities trader while running the alleged swindle from locations in Chicago, Seattle, Boston, and Newton.