IBT Staff Reporter

Toyota Motor Corp President Akio Toyoda said on Wednesday he has no plans to testify before U.S. investigators, setting the stage for a possible showdown over a safety crisis that has rocked the automaker's reputation and results.

CHICAGO (Reuters.com) - Several years ago Greg Whisenant unsuspectingly opened the door of his apartment building for a burglar, who then ripped off several of his neighbors. To make amends, Whisenant built an information-sharing web site for the local police, which is now one of the fast-growing crime data-mapping services in the United States.

A former Goldman Sachs Group Inc computer programmer pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to charges he stole code from the bank's lucrative high-frequency trading platform before leaving for another company last year.

Sirius XM Radio Inc shares topped $1 a share on Wednesday, vaulting the critical threshold for the first time in 17 months, amid improved sentiment about the pay-radio company's future.

Stocks advanced on Wednesday as stronger-than-expected earnings from companies including Deere & Co and economic data underpinned hopes for the recovery.

Genzyme Corp said on Wednesday it is on the way to resolving a manufacturing crisis that led to shortages of two key drugs, but said production of one of them remains below par and the company's shares fell more than 1 percent.

Google's Chief Executive Eric Schmidt urged the mobile industry to embrace the mobile Web instead of seeing Google as the enemy, in his first speech to the world's biggest wireless industry fair.

The massive manufacturing complex in the South China city of Longhua resembles an industrial fortress. To enter the facility, workers swipe security cards at the gate. Guards check the occupants of each vehicle with fingerprint recognition scanners.

President Barack Obama vigorously defended his $787 billion stimulus on Wednesday, insisting it rescued Americans from the worst of the economic calamity and ripping Republican critics who called it a waste.

The federal regulator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on Wednesday proposed an overhaul of rules governing how the mortgage funding giants serve low-income homeowners while limiting their risks.

U.S. housing starts rose to a six-month high in January and industrial output increased solidly, pointing to an economic recovery that was taking a firm hold and respectable first-quarter growth.

U.S. stocks edged up on Wednesday as stronger-than-expected earnings and economic data underpinned hopes about the recovery, but gains were limited by a dip in energy and other commodity-related shares.

Call it network congestion, capacity crunch or data overload -- the complaints aired at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week were all about cellphone network operators trying to find ways of profitably handling an explosion in mobile data traffic.

The satellite navigation industry is looking for direction now that Google and Nokia are offering free maps on smart phones, with the issue a hot topic at the Mobile World Congress industry fair in Barcelona this week.

(Corrects fourth paragraph to say that the deal includes the assumption of $457 million in addition to the $618 million in cash paid for the equity)

Health insurer Humana Inc is reducing its workforce by about 1,400 jobs, or 5 percent, during 2010 to align the size of the company with its lower membership.

American trains have long had a strong hold on the popular imagination, inspiring countless songs, stories, scandals and legends.

U.S. industrial output rose by a bigger than expected 0.9 percent in January with gains recorded in all major categories, Federal Reserve data showed on Wednesday.

Deere & Co posted higher-than-expected earnings, sending its shares up more than 8 percent, as wider margins at its farm equipment and finance units helped it overcome weak economic conditions.

Okay, so strictly speaking, Japan's wartime aim was control of the Pacific and not world domination. However, if by some freak accident they had ended up inheriting the human race, things may not have been that bad.

Wall Street stocks rose on Wednesday, boosted by strong results from farm equipment maker Deere & Co, and data showing housing starts rebounded more strongly than expected.

They said high cholesterol, high blood pressure and a family history of heart disease were the strongest predictors of a woman's heart disease risk.

In a review of 27 studies that involved nearly 3,000 women, researchers from the Oriental Hospital at Kyung Hee University Medical Center in South Korea found that acupuncture may be more effective than drugs or herbal medicines.

Norway laid out ways to reach one of the world's toughest climate goals on Wednesday with measures to clean up sectors from oil to transport that it said would trim just 0.25 percent from the economy by 2020.

Ford Motor Co on said on Tuesday it will eliminate the second shift at a Michigan assembly plant that builds the Ford Mustang and the Mazda 6 sedan, cutting about 900 jobs at the facility.

The U.S. aircraft carrier USS Nimitz sailed into Hong Kong on schedule on Wednesday despite a Chinese pledge to suspend military exchanges with the United States after its announced arms sales to Taiwan.

U.S. regulators opened an investigation on Tuesday to see whether recent recalls of Toyota Motor Corp vehicles were carried out in a timely manner, the Transportation Department said.

Deere & Co posted higher-than-expected quarterly earnings on cost-cutting and strength at its finance arm and flagship farm equipment division, sending its shares up 8 percent.

Iran rejected calls to release all political prisoners and accept an international inquiry into violence after last June's contested presidential elections, an official U.N. report said.