Four teams from South Korea’s K-League got off to mixed starts at the ongoing Asian Football Confederations Champions League this week.Jeju United, making its debut at the continent’s top club competition, opened its Group E campaign with a 1-0 loss to Tianjin Teda of China at home on Tuesday. The following day, Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors, the 2006 Champions League winner, edged Shandong Luneng FC of

GENEVA (AP) ― Mass-market automakers like Toyota, Fiat and Ford say green technologies on display at the Geneva Auto Show will help them weather the impact of skyrocketing fuel prices ― while less humble sports carmakers like Lamborghini flaunted their gas guzzlers.Companies rolled out a raft of new models ― including many electric, hybrid and more efficient conventional engines ― in a sign of ren

The Reserve Bank of Australia left its benchmark interest rate at the highest level in the developed world as consumer restraint and a strengthening currency tempered gains in inflation. Governor Glenn Stevens held the overnight cash rate target at 4.75 percent Tuesday, as forecast by all 25 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. Stevens told lawmakers in testimony less than three weeks ago the ce

Ford Motor Co. improved the most since last year in Consumer Reports’ annual automaker rankings, bolstered by reliability for resale value, the magazine said. Ford received 67 points out of 100, according to results released Monday at the National Press Club in Washington. It didn’t provide a year-earlier comparison. Consumer Reports commended the manufacturer for the amount of room inside its veh

BEIJING (AP) ― China’s leadership is promising to steer the economy in a new direction in its blueprint for the next five years that would empower consumers and narrow a yawning wealth gap but require politically contentious reforms.The latest Five-Year Plan ― a throwback to central planning but a useful roadmap of party goals ― calls for creating self-sustaining growth based on domestic consumpti

Fujifilm Holdings Corp. agreed to buy Merck & Co.’s BioManufacturing Network for making supplies used in clinical studies of biological drugs, a Merck spokesman said in an interview.The network Fujifilm is acquiring is made up of Merck subsidiaries Diosynth RTP LLC in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, and MSD Biologics (U.K.) Ltd. in Billingham, England, Ian McConnell, a spokesman for Whiteh

Fiat SpA submitted a plan to the Russian government to build as many as 300,000 cars a year in the country, after last week ending talks on a 2.3 billion-euro ($3.3 billion) deal with OAO Sollers. “The product plan will be principally based on production of C and D segment cars, SUVs and light commercial vehicles,” Fiat said in a statement Friday. “The Fiat and Jeep brands will be the mainstays of

Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City President Thomas Hoenig said U.S. regulators should avert another crisis by breaking up large financial institutions that pose a threat “to our capitalistic system.”“I am convinced that the existence of too-big-to-fail financial institutions poses the greatest risk to the U.S. economy,” Hoenig said Wednesday in a speech in Washington. “They must be broken up. We

MUMBA (AFP) ― BP’s multi-billion-dollar tie-up with Reliance will accelerate fuel-hungry India’s exploration for energy and hand the Indian giant the skills to develop hard-to-exploit reserves, analysts say.The British energy group on Monday agreed to pay $7.2 billion for a 30-percent stake in Reliance’s 23 largely unexplored deepwater oil and gas fields off the coast of India, which cover an area equivalent to the North Sea.The tie-up with embattled BP, which this month reported its first annua

Deputy P.M. says export ban could be extended after July 1MOSCOW (AFP) ― Russia on Tuesday said it may extend a ban on grain exports that has been blamed for triggering global food price rises beyond its provisional expiry date of July 1.The Russian government’s pointman on agriculture emerged from a closed-door cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to announce that such an opti

The world economy can withstand the surge in oil prices sparked by unrest in the Middle East and North Africa so long as the increase proves short-lived, said the International Monetary Fund’s No. 2 official, echoing Deutsche Bank AG and Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Futures for April delivery climbed to within $2 of $100 a barrel in New York Tuesday, and London-traded Brent rose to $108.57, clos

DETROIT (AP) ― Ford Motor Co. is teaming up with Russian automaker Sollers to make and distribute cars in Russia, one of the fastest growing auto markets.Under a deal announced Friday, Sollers will build Fords at Russian plants, helping boost a struggling local industry. Ford will have access to a huge market that could bolster its revenues.Financial details weren’t disclosed, but the automakers s

WASHINGTON (AFP) ― U.S. consumers are more likely to buy a smartphone than any other electronic gadget this year, according to a new survey.Technology research company Gartner said consumers in the United States are more likely to buy a smartphone in 2011 than a personal computer, a basic mobile phone, an electronic book reader, a tablet computer or gaming products.Gartner said the next most popul

   ROME (AFP) - Dozens of naked women surround the Italian primeminister vying with each other to arouse him -- Silvio Berlusconi's "bungabunga" parties as reportedly described to prosecutors by a key participant.   "After dinner we went into a hall in the basement where the bunga bunga washeld," Karima El Mahroug, a pole dancer nicknamed "Ruby the Heart Stealer", was quoted as saying to investiga

HTC Corp. may introduce larger tablet computers than the 7-inch screen “Flyer” device that the Taiwanese company unveiled Tuesday to challenge the dominance of Apple Inc.’s iPad. “We’re working on several form factors,” HTC Chief Executive Officer Peter Chou said on the sidelines at an industry conference in Barcelona Tuesday when asked whether the company may offer bigger tablets. Sales from tabl

BARCELONA (AFP) ― Computer security expert Eugene Kaspersky predicted on Tuesday that Google’s Android smartphone operating system will come to dominate the market, reducing Apple and BlackBerry to niche players.Kaspersky, who founded the leading anti-virus firm Kaspersky Lab, said there is only “one company, one operating system which follows Microsoft’s strategy of the 1990s” when its Windows co

SEATTLE (AP) ― Personal computer maker Dell Inc. said Tuesday its net income more than doubled in the most recent quarter to handily beat expectations, as businesses spent more on computers, servers and other technology.Dell also issued annual revenue guidance for the current fiscal year that beat Wall Street’s forecast. The results sent Dell’s shares soaring in extended trading after the report w

Multitasking, speedy IE9 coming to windows phoneBARCELONA (AFP) ― Microsoft announced Monday an Internet-friendly revamp of its Windows Phone operating system to help capture new territory in the smartphone wars.Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer unveiled a series of improvements this year to Windows Phone, which got a major boost last week when it was adopted by leading handphone maker Nokia.The softw

Eurozone to put up $674b for post-2013 bailout fund, disagreement over debt crisisBRUSSELS (AP) ― European finance ministers decided Monday to provide 500 billion euros ($674 billion) for a new crisis fund that will come into force in 2013, but continued to fight over the best way to combat the current debt crisis that has crippled the eurozone over the past year.The ministers “agreed on the provi

WASHINGTON (AFP) ― Apple is developing new lines of smaller and cheaper iPhones and overhauling its software to facilitate users’ access to entertainment, photos and video, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday.The new device ― code-named “N97” ― will be about half the size of the iPhone 4 and cost about half as much as Apple’s main line of iPhones, the Journal said, citing a person who saw a pr