Toyota starts fixing Priuses recalled in Japan
TOKYO (AP) -- Prius owners in Japan are rushing to dealers Wednesday, a day after Toyota's president announced a global recall. Instead of screwdrivers and wrenches, what the mechanic is using to tackle the fix is a small laptop-like device that rewrites programming for the brakes....

China exports show trade recovery on track
BEIJING (AP) -- China's export growth accelerated in January and imports rose, adding to signs a recovery in global and Chinese demand is on track....

New report: Consumers spent modestly in January
NEW YORK (AP) -- Americans backed off from holiday spending in January, but retail sales rose for a third month in a row compared with a year earlier, largely because of gas price hikes, according to figures released Wednesday by a key data service....

Asia stocks rise as Europe debt crisis fears ease
BANGKOK (AP) -- Asian stock markets mostly rose Wednesday after Europe and Wall Street gained on hopes a government debt crisis in Europe can be quarantined to smaller economies....

Baidu posts jump in 4Q earnings as revenue climbs
BEIJING (AP) -- Baidu Inc., which operates China's most popular Internet search engine, said its quarterly earnings jumped 48 percent, beating expectations on strong revenue growth....

Oil drops to near $73 amid jump in US supplies
SINGAPORE (AP) -- Oil prices fell to near $73 a barrel Wednesday in Asia after a report showing unexpected growth in U.S. crude inventories cast more doubt on the recovery in the world's biggest economy....

Honda adds 437,000 cars to global air bag recall
TOKYO (AP) -- Honda Motor Co. is adding 437,000 vehicles to its 15-month old global recall for faulty airbags in the latest quality problem to hit a Japanese automaker....

Toyota seeks damage control, in public and private
WASHINGTON (AP) -- In public, Toyota is running apologetic TV ads and vowing to win back customers' trust. Behind the scenes, the besieged carmaker is trying to learn all it can about congressional investigations, maybe even steer them if it can....

Anthem asked to justify rate hike in California
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- In his push to move stalled health care reform, President Barack Obama is appealing to American pocketbooks by calling one health insurer's major rate hike in California a harbinger of rising premiums....

Senate Democrats unveil jobs package
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Senate Democrats circulated a jobs bill Tuesday that's light on new initiatives on boosting hiring and heavy with provisions sought by lobbyists for business groups, doctors and the satellite broadcasting industry....