Japan ended a 58-year era of analog television broadcast Sunday, becoming the first Asian nation to complete the transition to digital transmission. Cathode-ray tube TVs, usually with a curved screen and a protruding box at the back, could no longer display programs without adding a special tuner after the switchover Sunday afternoon. Public broadcaster NHK news and Pocket Monsters cartoon serie...

A few entrepreneurs think positively in forbidding landscape of anger and entitlement ATHENS (AP) ― A few Greek entrepreneurs perch in front of laptops in bare offices above a ground-floor supermarket, five minutes’ walk from the Athens square convulsed by riots last month over the country’s economic crisis. “Innovate,” a wall slogan exhorts. “Originate.” A bowl of fist-sized plastic balls sits...

TEHRAN (AFP) ― Iran on Tuesday issued a new warning that it will halt supplies of crude to India unless the issue of billions of dollars in overdue payments is resolved. “If the Iranian side feels it cannot receive the money for its exported oil punctually and under desirable conditions, it will reconsider” its crude exports to India, foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told his weekly...

iPad’s advantages make it a threat to entire computer market NEW YORK (AP) ― The response by computer makers to the iPad stealing sales from them: Make their PCs more like iPads. The “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” strategy is prompting a wave of experimentation with the design of the laptop, which has been largely unchanged for two decades. Touch-sensitive screens and the use of Google’s And...

Bayerische Motoren Werke AG is rolling out a bigger 1-Series compact car to surpass Audi in the competition for younger customers purchasing entry-level luxury autos. BMW’s smallest model will add more than 3 inches in length and about 1 inch in width, allowing for a roomier interior and more trunk space, the carmaker said. The vehicle’s starting price will be 23,850 euros ($33,480) in Germany, ...

Mulberry Group Plc, the 40-year-old British luxury-handbag maker, is the world’s best-performing fashion retail stock over the past year and its sales may keep gaining, driven by overseas growth, analysts say. The stock has risen 506 percent to 1,720 pence in the past 12 months, making it best performer in the apparel retailers segment, according to Bloomberg data. Among all retailers, it’s behi...

Chrysler Group LLC, benefiting from demand for its fuel-efficient crossover sport-utility vehicles, overtook Ford Motor Co. as the biggest seller of light trucks in Canada this year. Sales of light trucks, a category that includes pickups, minivans and SUVs, grew twice as fast as total auto deliveries in Canada in the first half, helped by growth in construction jobs. Chrysler led deliveries las...

BAGHDAD (AFP) ― Iraq will be the key player in international oil politics over the next two decades, the country’s top government official for the energy sector said on Saturday. “If we continue along the path we are on, Iraq will over the next two decades be the country that sets oil policy in the world in terms of price, supply and demand,” Deputy Prime Minister Hussein al-Shahristani said at ...

Fed chief also tells Senate no immediate stimulus planned for now WASHINGTON (AP) ― Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke warned U.S. lawmakers Thursday that they would deliver a “self-inflicted” wound to the nation’s economy by holding up efforts to raise the government’s borrowing limit. The Fed chief also said the central bank had no immediate plans to introduce new stimulus measures, elabor...