COMPANIES

The U.S. Congress, known for moving painfully slowly, can kick into high gear when it is staring down a deadline important to the entire country -- or when lawmakers are approaching their cherished August recess.

The hotel maid who accused ex-IMF boss Dominique Strauss-Kahn of sexually assaulting her made an emotional public appeal on Thursday for people to believe her story as her lawyer threatened a civil lawsuit.

Starbucks had higher-than-expected sales increases at its U.S. stores in the company's fiscal third-quarter, pushing profits beyond the expectations of analysts. The company's stock rose in after-hours trading.

Stiff competition from Apple and other competitors using Google's Android system are dragging on the company's profits. The company forecast today it will likely miss estimates from analysts in the third quarter and for the full fiscal year.

A report says Apple is having discussions with bookseller Barnes & Noble about buying the chain. But don't believe everything you read. It's not going to happen.

Polygamous leader's request to represent himself at trial has been granted

Tropical Storm Don, the fourth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, was churning northwestward across the southern Gulf of Mexico toward the Texas coast.

JetBlue will offer customers in Boston and Long Beach the option of purchasing unlimited passes for certain markets. Sales for the offer will begin online on August 15.

Amazon has added 1,000 more streaming movies to its lineup for Prime customers. With another deal or two like the one Amazon announced Thursday with Universal Pictures and Amazon could have a streaming video library as big as Netflix's.

Some 100,000 South African gold miners went on strike on Thursday, but fuel workers ended a stoppage that had slowed commerce and caused panic buying.

Amazon has struck a deal with NBCUniversal to add 1,000 movies to its streaming video services offered to its Prime customers.

Jeffs is facing two counts of sexual assault

An analyst says Apple will push legal claims to protect its iPhone and other mobile technology patents "hard and unrelentingly." He says should Apple win, it could have an impact of $30 billion in additional revenue for the company.

Sony reported a $199 million loss in its first quarter because of the March earthquake and tsunami, softer TV sales, Playstation hacking, and a strong yen, and cut its profit forecast for the fiscal year by 25 percent.

Dunkin' Donuts had a successful IPO launch Wednesday, with shares increasing more than 40 percent on the first day of trading. But something about it smells a lot like Boston Chicken in the 1990s.

Gulliver had warned that Europe?s largest bank ?clearly [has] a cost problem."

South Koreans were cautioned about rogue landmines and explosives on Thursday after scores of deadly landslides in and around the capital swamped homes, a monastery and military sites after the heaviest rainfall in a century, officials said.

In a rundown patch of Detroit, enclosed by a cyclone fence and barbed wire, stands an unremarkable warehouse that investment bank Goldman Sachs has transformed into a money-making machine.

An Air Canada plane bound for Vancouver was forced to dump fuel and return to Sydney on Thursday after crew reported smoke coming from an oven in the galley, the airline said.

Exxon reported second-quarter earnings before the market open Thursday and the company showed an increase due to higher oil prices but the number was below Wall Street's expectations.

Nintendo is dropping the price of its 3DS handheld device by $80 on August 12 in hopes of improving slow sales.

Cinedigm will sell its physical and electronic distribution business to Technicolor, the two companies announced on Wednesday.

Median house prices have seen their fourth consecutive drop in the June quarter.

Housing in Australia has become "severely unaffordable", and it will take 10 years of flat-lined prices to rectify, a study has found.

Investors punished Juniper Networks (JNPR.N) by selling its shares after the networking equipment maker joined Cisco Systems Inc (CSCO.O) in warning that this year's results will miss Wall Street projections.

For more than three years, U.S. securities regulators investigated allegations of accounting fraud at a small telecom firm called China Voice Holding Corp, but could not make a case.

Investors sought protection in options on Wednesday as fears of a U.S. credit rating downgrade intensified.

Dunkin' Donuts IPO launches and the company is giving away a free lunch on Friday July 29.

Dunkin' Donuts IPO saw shares increase more than 40 percent Wednesday. Dunkin' is involved in a large-scale growth plan over the next 20 years, seeking to grow from 6,800 stores to more than 15,000.