AUTOMOTIVE: Toyota may be poised to oust GM

Tokyo —- Toyota sold more than 4.8 million vehicles worldwide in the first half of the year, up 2 percent from the same period a year earlier. That exceeded General Motors Corp.'s sales of 4.5 million vehicles in the same period, setting up Japan-based Toyota to potentially end GM's 76-year run as the world's top automaker by sales.

Porsche closer to controlling VW

Porsche SE won European Union antitrust approval of its plan to gain a controlling stake in Volkswagen AG, Europe's largest automaker. Combining the German carmakers wouldn't harm competition, the European Commission said in a statement Wednesday. The decision allows Porsche to add 4.9 percent to its existing 31 percent holding through a share-purchase agreement, giving it "de facto" control of Volkswagen, the commission said.

Post office eyes alternative fuels

The U.S. Postal Service, facing a 35 percent jump in fuel costs this year, is looking at using mail delivery trucks powered by hydrogen and electricity. Electric models may replace 195,000 of the agency's fleet of almost 220,000 vehicles, the Postal Service announced Wednesday. As part of the effort, General Motors Corp. delivered a Chevrolet Equinox fuel-cell vehicle to the main post office in Irvine, Calif., for testing on mail routes. The Postal Service expects fuel costs to rise by $600 million this year on top of the $1.7 billion it paid in 2007.

Chrysler to cut 1,000 salaried jobs

Chrysler LLC plans to cut an additional 1,000 salaried jobs after its first-half U.S. sales tumbled 22 percent. The reductions will be completed by Sept. 30 through "retirements, special programs and attrition," spokesman Dave Elshoff said Wednesday. The jobs represent 5.4 percent of Chrysler's salaried work force.

FINANCIAL: B of A approves share repurchase

Bank of America Corp., the biggest U.S. consumer bank, approved the purchase of up to 75 million shares of common stock for as much as $3.75 billion. Bank of America's board authorized management to repurchase shares over the next 12 to 18 months, according to a statement Wednesday from the Charlotte-based company.

Overdue card debt rises slightly

Overdue debt at the six largest U.S. credit card lenders rose in June after falling the two previous months as the effects of tax rebates faded, data compiled by Bloomberg News show. Loans on which payments were late by at least 30 days averaged 4.03 percent of all credit card debt in June, 0.05 of a percentage point higher than May, according to reports filed by American Express, Bank of America, Capital One Financial, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and Discover Financial.

MEDIA: Care Bears will migrate northward

Cleveland —- Strawberry Shortcake and the Care Bears are moving to Canada. Greeting card maker American Greetings Corp. said Wednesday that it will sell the product licenses to Cookie Jar Entertainment of Toronto for $195 million. Cookie Jar produces children's entertainment and educational materials. American Greetings will still have greeting card licensing rights to Strawberry Shortcake and the Care Bears for 10 years. Strawberry Shortcake and the Care Bears were reintroduced in 2002 and have since generated more than $5 billion in combined licensed retail sales.

Satellite radio deal hangs in balance

Washington —- A Federal Communications Commission member who sought further concessions in a pending satellite radio buyout has withdrawn his offer after it failed to draw support. Because of this, Democratic commissioner Jonathan Adesltein voted against Sirius Satellite Radio Inc.'s proposed takeover of XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. This also means the vote on the regulatory body stands at 2-2, with Republican member Deborah Taylor Tate undecided.

Clear Channel settles lawsuit

Clear Channel Communications Inc. agreed to settle a lawsuit accusing Tribune Co. of stealing trade secrets after the Chicago media company hired one of its vice presidents in May. Clear Channel settled claims against Tribune and several former Clear Channel employees, Michele Clarke, a spokeswoman for the company, said Wednesday in an e-mailed statement.

MANUFACTURING: Northrop wins slice of contract

Herndon, Va. —- Northrop Grumman says it is among eight companies awarded a contract worth up to $10.12 billion to support weapons systems at U.S. military installations in the United States and abroad. Under the seven-year contract, Northrop Grumman Corp. and its subcontractors will provide field service teams to work on Air Force, Army and Navy weapons systems and support equipment.

TECHNOLOGY: Wireless high-def standard proposed

New York —- Sony, Samsung and other consumer electronics heavyweights are uniting to support a technology that could send high-definition video signals wirelessly from a single set-top box to screens around the home. The consortium, announced Wednesday, is an important development in the race to create a definitive way to replace tangles of video cables, but doesn't end it —- both Sony and Samsung also are supporting a competing technology. In the new consortium, Sony Corp. and Samsung Electronics Co. —- along with Motorola Inc., Sharp Corp. and Hitachi Ltd. —- will develop an industry standard around technology from Amimon Ltd. of Israel called WHDI, for Wireless Home Digital Interface. "If you have a TV in the home, that TV will be able to access any source in the home, whether it's a set-top box in the living room, or the PlayStation in the bedroom, or a DVD player in another bedroom. That's the message of WHDI," said Noam Geri, co-founder of Amimon.

Motorola settles trade secrets suit

Motorola Inc. agreed to settle a $10 billion lawsuit filed by a defunct Florida company that accused the largest U.S. mobile-phone maker of stealing trade secrets. SPS Technologies Corp., originally based in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., sued Motorola in 2002, claiming the company stole technology for a vehicle-tracking system SPS developed to combat car thefts in Latin America. Terms of the settlement are confidential, Motorola spokeswoman Paula Thornton-Greear said.

Airfares up 4.4% year-over-year

Average domestic airfares rose 4.4 percent in the first quarter of 2008 compared with the same period a year earlier, the government said Wednesday in an analysis that was based on a small sample of itineraries and excluded some high-priced destinations. The Department of Transportation's Bureau of Transportation Statistics said its first-quarter numbers represented the largest year-to-year increase in average domestic airfares since the second quarter of 2006. Even so, it said, average fares through the first quarter remained 4.6 percent below the January-to-March high set in 2001.

Mexico suspends 2 regional airlines

Mexico said it suspended flights by Aero California SA and ExpressJet Airlines Inc., a U.S. operator of regional jets for large airlines, for tax violations. The carriers failed to show that they had paid taxes dating to 2005, Mexico's Transportation Ministry said Wednesday in a statement. Houston-based ExpressJet provides commuter flights for Continental Airlines and Delta Air Lines.

WORKPLACE: Lawmakers fight rules on chemicals

Washington —- Leading congressional lawmakers are pushing the Bush administration to withdraw a last-minute proposal that could make it harder to limit workers' exposure to dangerous chemicals. Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), chairmen of the Senate and House labor committees, made the demand in a letter Wednesday to Labor Secretary Elaine Chao. It came in response to a Washington Post report that the Labor Department is skirting normal procedures to push through a rule change that could slow limits on workplace chemicals and toxins. Such a change has been sought by industry. A Kennedy spokesman called it "outrageous."