Reader's Digest Association Inc., publisher of the iconic general interest magazine that began gracing American homes in 1922 and now reaches a worldwide audience of 130 million, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection yesterday as it faces falling print circulation and looming debt payments.

Known for its heartwarming stories about American life as other publications moved toward edgier fare, the company's flagship Reader's Digest magazine has seen its U.S. circulation drop from a peak of more than 17 million in the 1970s to just above 8 million last year.

Magnifying the publishing world's woes is an advertising slump that already has led to the closing of several other high-profile magazines.

IRISH FIRM TO PAY $3.1B FOR P&G UNIT

TRENTON, N.J. — Shares of Ireland's Warner Chilcott PLC skyrocketed yesterday on news of its bid to morph from a small, specialty pharmaceutical company to a global player by buying Procter & Gamble Co.'s prescription drug business for $3.1 billion.

The maker of women's health and dermatology products will get a portfolio with $2.3 billion in annual sales, including blockbuster osteoporosis drug Actonel, tripling its revenue in a rare deal financed entirely by bank debt.

The deal brings Warner Chilcott an unspecified number of Procter and Gamble's prescription drugs in development, manufacturing facilities in Puerto Rico and Germany, and sales and research forces numbering 2,400.

UNION LEADER PICKED AS N.Y. FED CHAIR

WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve Bank of New York has named a top state labor union official its chairman, the bank said yesterday.

Denis M. Hughes, president of the New York State AFL-CIO, has been deputy chairman since January 2007. He became acting chairman in May after the surprise resignation of Stephen Friedman. News reports had raised questions about Friedman's ties to Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

Hughes, 59, has been a director of the New York Fed since January 2004. The Fed's Board of Governors appointed him chairman for the remainder of this year.

SWISS OFFICIAL LATEST TO DECRY STREET VIEW

BERN, Switzerland — A Swiss government official is demanding that Google Inc. immediately take off the Internet any "Street View" images of Switzerland, and the company said yesterday it would work to resolve problems with the privacy rights regulator.

Hanspeter Thuer, Switzerland's federal data protection commissioner, said Google's pictures were violating Switzerland's strict privacy laws by failing to obscure people's identities on the mapping service, which offers detailed street-level images.

Since launching in 2007, Street View has expanded to more than 100 cities worldwide but has faced privacy complaints from many individuals and institutions that have been photographed.