SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) ― Yahoo!’s brand new chief executive Scott Thompson promised urgent action to turn the company around on Tuesday after it reported another quarter and year of falling income and profits.Thompson, named Yahoo! CEO only on Jan. 4, said the web giant needed to move quickly to exploit its huge bank of user data to regain market share, especially in display ads where it has lost ground.The former PayPal chief stressed that Yahoo! needed to become an agile and “disruptive” force te

Ford Motor Co. Chief Executive Officer Alan Mulally has suggested that his stylish new Fusion sedan is seeking sales supremacy over Toyota Motor Corp.’s Camry. That’s not exactly what the boss wants, executives said. Ford can’t make enough Fusions to outsell the Camry, the top car in the U.S. for the past decade, according to researcher IHS Automotive. Instead, with Fusion, Mulally is aiming for a balance between commanding top dollar for each car and selling a lot more of them. “Between price a

Trade deficit stood at $32 billion in 2011, the first time since 1980TOKYO (AP) ― Japan reported its first annual trade deficit since 1980 as it imported expensive energy to offset shortfalls caused by the devastating tsunami and manufacturers shifted production overseas to avoid the damage inflicted by the strong yen. The 2.49 trillion yen ($32 billion) deficit for 2011 reflects a 2.7 percent decline in the value of Japan’s exports to 65.55 trillion yen ($843 billion). In December, the trade b

WASHINGTON (AP) ― Global leaders are sharply at odds over how to rescue Europe from its escalating debt crisis: Should they focus more urgently on economic growth or on budget cuts?The disagreement presents another obstacle to solving the region’s financial crisis, and it pits one of the world’s most important lenders against Europe’s strongest economy.The International Monetary Fund said Tuesday that encouraging growth should be policymakers’ highest priority. It issued the warning on a day whe

Economy Minister Luis de Guindos said Spain is sticking to its deficit goal even as the economy shrinks, underlining a rift in the month-old Cabinet over whether the nation can halve its shortfall during a recession. De Guindos said the government’s commitment to budget cuts is “total” and there’s “no change” to this year’s target. His comments in Brussels Tuesday came after reporters asked him about Budget Minister Cristobal Montoro’s call on Jan. 22 for the European Union to ease Spain’s 2012

Nokia Oyj’s first phones running Microsoft Corp. software may have sold enough units last year to help rebuild investor confidence in the Finnish company, which lost $19 billion in market value in 2011. The Lumia handsets, which went on sale in Europe in November, probably sold 1.3 million units globally to operators and retailers by the end of last year, according to the average estimate of 22 analysts compiled by Bloomberg. The projections range from 800,000 to 2 million and only one analyst p

GENEVA (AFP) ― The International Labour Organization on Tuesday released a pessimistic report for the global jobs market in 2012 saying urgent attention is needed to create 600 million new jobs in the next 10 years.“Despite strenuous government efforts, the jobs crisis continues unabated, with one in three workers worldwide, or an estimated 1.1 billion people, either unemployed or living in poverty,” said ILO director-general, Juan Somavia, in the Global Employment Trends 2012 report.“What is ne

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ― Tablets and e-readers were a popular gift over the holidays, so much so that the number of people who own them nearly doubled between mid-December and January, a new study finds.A report from the Pew Internet and American Life Project, released on Monday, found that 29 percent of Americans owned at least one tablet or e-reader as of the beginning of this month. That’s up from 18 percent who said the same in December.The iPad from Apple Inc. is perhaps the best-known example

 New RIM CEO stays course, but analysts doubt new software can revive the BlackBerryNEW YORK (AP) ― In the trend-setting North American market, BlackBerry phones have gone from must-have messaging toys to outdated clunkers ― all in the space of a few years. The new CEO of Research In Motion Ltd., the company behind the phones, says it can claw its way back to the top with new software, but analysts are deeply doubtful.The two co-CEOs of the Canadian company resigned Sunday. The new CEO is Thorst

 TEHRAN, Iran (AP) _ Senior Iranian lawmakers have stepped up threats that Islamic Republic warships could block the Persian Gulf's oil tanker traffic after the latest blow by Western leaders seeking to rein in Tehran's nuclear program: A punishing oil embargo by the European Union that sharply

NEW YORK (AP) ― Apple Inc. on Thursday launched its attempt to make the iPad a replacement for a satchel full of textbooks by starting to sell electronic versions of a handful of standard high-school books.The electronic textbooks, which include “Biology” and “Environmental Science” from Pearson and “Algebra 1” and “Chemistry” from McGraw-Hill, contain videos and other interactive elements.But it’s far from clear that even a company with Apple’s clout will be able to reform the primary and high-

U.S. company ousts Toyota by selling more than 9 million vehiclesDETROIT (AP) ― General Motors Co. has retaken the title of world’s top-selling automaker, selling just over 9 million cars and trucks across the globe. The company said Thursday that it sold 9.03 million vehicles worldwide last year, up 7.6 percent from 2010. That’s more than 1 million better than Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp., which took the title away from GM in 2008. GM had held the global sales crown for more than seven decades be