RadioShack files for bankruptcy

NEW YORK – A diminished RadioShack will live on, but its future may lie with Sprint.

Struggling consumer electronics chain RadioShack, founded nearly a century ago, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection late Thursday. It plans to sell 1,500 to 2,400 stores to its largest shareholder, investment firm Standard General, and has filed a motion to proceed with closing the remainder of its 4,000 U.S. stores.

Wireless carrier Sprint Corp. has a deal with Standard General to open mini-shops in as many as 1,750 of the RadioShack stores Standard General is buying.

NATO to boost forces in Europe

BRUSSELS – NATO defense ministers agreed Thursday to more than double the size of the alliance’s Response Force and create a new quick-reaction force of 5,000 troops to meet simultaneous challenges from Russian and Islamic extremists.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the decisions made during a daylong meeting at alliance headquarters in Brussels will “ensure that we have the right forces in the right place at the right time.”

NATO will now “be able to defend all allies against any threat, from the east or from the south,” he told reporters.

Associated Press