DETROIT, Michigan (AFP) -- Mitt Romney hopes to avoid an embarrassing slip-up in his native Michigan on Tuesday as he looks to wrest the momentum back from surging Republican presidential rival Rick Santorum.The state-by-state voting process that will decide which of the four remaining Republican contenders will face off against Democratic President Barack Obama in November's general election is reaching a pivotal phase.Santorum edged out Romney in the first contest in Iowa on January 3 by a han

NAIROBI (AP) ― An Italian cruise liner carrying more than 1,000 people was adrift without power in the pirate-infested Indian Ocean after a fire erupted in its generator room. The blaze, which was extinguished, caused no injuries, officials said.Two tug boats from the island nation of Seychelles were steaming toward the drifting Costa Allegra, which had 636 passengers and 413 crew members on board, but they were not expected to arrive until Tuesday afternoon at the earliest.Italian coast guard o

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) ― Struggling cell phone maker Nokia kicked off the world’s largest mobile phone trade show Monday by unveiling a new low-cost Windows smartphone that operators could give away free to customers, and another aimed at snap-happy consumers demanding better photo quality.Chief executive Stephen Elop told reporters at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona that the new phones ― a low-price euro189 ($254) smartphone that runs on Windows software and a handset with a high-resoluti

DETROIT (AP) ― Auto sales are growing so fast that Detroit can barely keep up.Three years after the U.S. auto industry nearly collapsed, sales of cars and trucks are surging. Sales could exceed 14 million this year, above last year’s 12.8 million.The result: Carmakers are adding shifts and hiring thousands of workers around the country. Carmakers and parts companies added more than 38,000 jobs last year, reaching a total of 717,000. And automakers have announced plans to add another 13,000 this

Leafy green sugar cane stands in a field in Yomitan Village, Japan. (Bloomberg)Japan’s Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda risks sparking the deepest split in his party since taking office two months ago as he determines whether to join trade talks with the U.S., his country’s No. 2 export destination. No

The battle between an ailing Chinese electronics maker and Apple Inc. over the iPad name is just as much a tale of obsolescence in the fast-moving global technology industry as it is a legal row over a trademark. A salesman stands in front of an Apple Ipad advertisement board at an Apple store

Chairman Mao Zedong’s Red Flag limousine is making a comeback after a $280 million overhaul, seeking to regain its standing as the ride of Chinese leaders from Volkswagen AG’s Audi. China FAW Group Corp., which built the first Hongqi ― as the brand is known in Chinese ― for Mao in 1958, received state approval this month to make the C131, reviving the Red Flag’s production after it was discontinued in 2010. The sedan will be the official car for minister-level officials, according to the Communi

Research In Motion Ltd., whose U.S. sales plunged 45 percent last quarter, is counting on Europe to regain ground lost to Apple Inc. and Google Inc. as the BlackBerry maker races to introduce a new operating system. Thorsten Heins, who took the top job at RIM last month, heads to Barcelona for the Mobile World Congress this week to convince carriers he has the products European consumers want. His challenge is to bolster market share in the region, where sales in the U.K., for example, have begu