NEW YORK (AP) ― Apple wants the plastic credit card to become as rare as the paper check. On Tuesday, the company announced Apple Pay, a digital payment system that lets people pay for retail store purchases using their phones rather than cash or credit cards. The service, which will work both with iPhones and Apple’s new Watch, is backed by a host of big retailers, along with most major banks and credit card issuers, including Visa, MasterCard and American Express. So-called contactless payment

HONG KONG (AFP) ― Wealthy mainland Chinese looking to buy the new iPhone 6 this week could expect to pay an eye-watering $2,500 for the handsets in Hong Kong, following Apple’s decision to delay the launch in China.Hong Kong has long been a hub for resold and refurbished phones, and delighted vendors there were coping with a flood of preorders from the Apple-obsessed mainland.The price, say sellers in the southern Chinese city, is a bargain ― the phones can then be resold on the mainland, where

WASHINGTON (AP) ― The United States hit Russia Friday with a new round of economic sanctions, levying penalties on Russia’s largest bank and expanding financing restrictions on major energy and defense companies. The sanctions were imposed in coordination with the European Union, which unveiled its own package of penalties hours earlier. Officials said the parallel penalties are aimed at punishing Russia for deepening its provocations in Ukraine, including sending forces and weaponry across the

WASHINGTON (AP) ― British bank HSBC has agreed to pay $550 million to resolve U.S. claims that it misled U.S. mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac about risky mortgage securities it sold them before the housing market collapsed in 2007.The Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees Fannie and Freddie, announced the settlement Friday with HSBC. London-based HSBC is Europe’s largest bank and also has extensive operations in the U.S. Its U.S. division has about $289 billion in assets, mak

BUENOS AIRES (AFP) ― Recession-hit Argentines are flocking to buy dollars, nervous over the government’s latest debt default and pressure from the business community to devalue the peso for the second time this year.Officially, a dollar is worth 8.42 Argentine pesos.But it takes 14.26 pesos to buy one on the black market, a gap that only shows signs of widening.President Cristina Kirchner has tried to convince Argentines to stop hoarding greenbacks and spend their pesos instead.“You have to inve

BERLIN (AFP) ― It’s long been the stuff of science fiction, but tech giants hope the “smart home,” where gadgets talk to each other and the fridge orders the milk, will soon become reality.The futuristic vision of wireless domestic bliss that puts people and their smartphones or tablets at the center of an “Internet of Things” is a key theme at this year’s IFA consumer electronics fair in Berlin.Industry titans such as Google, Samsung and Apple have been battling for an early lead in the race to

BEIJING (AP) ― China’s premier promised Wednesday to open the world’s No. 2 economy wider to foreign companies, promising favorable conditions despite a wave of anti-monopoly investigations that business groups say might be aimed at limiting competition. Speaking at a business conference, Premier Li Keqiang made no mention of the probes against foreign automakers, drug and technology suppliers and other companies. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce said in a report this week the investigations unfairl

TOKYO (AP) ― Rakuten Inc. announced Tuesday it plans to buy U.S.-based cash-back site Ebates for $1 billion, part of a series of overseas acquisitions aimed at building what the Japanese e-commerce company says will be the “world’s largest product line-up.”With goods ranging from toys and cat beds to luxury watches and golf clubs, Rakuten is the top Internet retailer in Japan. It has made numerous overseas acquisitions, including Cyprus-based Internet phone application Viber Media and led a $100

DETROIT (AP) ― Honda shared its vision of the hands-free highway commute Tuesday, a car that can safely drive itself on the freeway while the driver’s hands are off the wheel. While the car is just a prototype, Honda says the technology could start appearing on Honda cars in 2020 and beyond. The prototype ― an Acura RLX sedan ― has cameras that monitor lane marking and multiple radar sensors on the front and sides. On top is a beacon that uses laser beams to continually scan the car’s surroundin

TOKYO (AFP) ― Even as the friendship between Shinzo Abe and Narendra Modi blossomed during the new Indian leader’s first foreign trip, Japan Inc. refused to get misty-eyed, wary of the pitfalls of doing business on the subcontinent.A five-day tour that began with a bear hug and a day of sightseeing in the ancient Japanese capital of Kyoto worked itself up through a crescendo of mutual compliments that culminated in Tokyo’s pledge to spend $34 billion in India over the next five years.Companies l

SYDNEY (AFP) ― The world is facing a global jobs crisis that is hurting the chances of reigniting economic growth and there is no magic bullet to solve the problem, the World Bank warned on Tuesday.In a study released at a G20 Labor and Employment Ministerial Meeting in Australia, the Bank said an extra 600 million jobs needed to be created worldwide by 2030 just to cope with the expanding population.“There’s little doubt there is a global jobs crisis,” said the World Bank’s senior director for