PITTSBURGH — The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center is banning smoking and smokeless-tobacco use by its employees, students, doctors and volunteers during the work day starting next July.

UPMC previously made its hospitals and campuses smoke-free in 2007, though workers could leave the grounds and buildings to smoke. Starting July 1, 2014, that will not be allowed and smoke breaks will be banned.

The hospital network will offer a free smoking cessation program to its employees. UPMC will still hire smokers; they will just have to quit or refrain from tobacco use during their shifts.

Dr. Timothy Cline, senior director of UPMC Health Plans' clinical training and development, says the policy is aimed at the “health and well-being” of patients, employees and visitors.

The hospital network is the state's largest employer with 55,000 workers.

LOS ANGELES — Fewer U.S. homes entered the foreclosure process or were repossessed by banks in June, the latest sign that the nation is shaking off its housing bust hangover.Lenders initiated the foreclosure process on 57,286 homes last month, the lowest level for any month in 7½ years, foreclosure listing firm RealtyTrac said Thursday.Foreclosure starts are on pace to reach roughly 800,000 this year, down from 1.1 million last year, the firm said.Completed foreclosures, when the lender repossesses a home, are on track to hit a half-million, or about a quarter below last year's total.The trend comes as the U.S. housing recovery continues to gain strength, propelled by steady job gains, low interest rates, improving consumer confidence and growing demand for homes at a time when there's a thin supply of available homes for sale in many markets.That's helped boost home prices, which jumped 12.2 percent in May from a year earlier — the biggest gain in seven years, data provider CoreLogic reported.

NEW YORK — Apple broke antitrust laws and conspired with publishers to raise electronic book prices significantly in spring 2010, a federal judge ruled Wednesday, citing “compelling evidence” from the words of the late Steve Jobs.U.S. District Judge Denise Cote said Apple knew that no publisher could risk acting alone to try to eliminate Amazon.com's $9.99 price for the most popular e-books, so it “created a mechanism and environment that enabled them to act together in a matter of weeks to eliminate all retail price competition for their e-books.”“Apple seized the moment and brilliantly played its hand,” Cote said. She wrote that Apple's deals with publishers caused some e-book prices to rise 50 percent or more virtually overnight.The Manhattan jurist, who did not determine damages, said the evidence was “overwhelming that Apple knew of the unlawful aims of the conspiracy.”