Business

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- President Felipe Calderon tried to rally frustrated Mexicans behind his increasingly bloody drug war Thursday, saying he knows violence has surged under his watch, but arguing that it is the price of confronting powerful and brutal cartels....

NEW YORK (AP) -- This year's back-to-school season isn't as big a bust for retailers as they feared - or as last year's - but it's not great either....

TOKYO (AP) -- Most Asian stock markets climbed Friday as investors took heart from improving U.S. housing and jobs data amid lingering worries over the pace of the global economic recovery....

NEW YORK (AP) -- Members of the original funk band War say they can't be friends with PepsiCo....

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- An oil platform exploded and burned off the Louisiana coast Thursday, the second such disaster in the Gulf of Mexico in less than five months. This time, the Coast Guard said there was no leak, and no one was killed....

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Engineers removed a temporary cap Thursday that stopped oil from gushing into the Gulf of Mexico from BP's blown-out well in mid-July. No more oil was expected to leak into the sea, but crews were standing by with collection vessels just in case....

BUXTON, N.C. (AP) -- The last ferry left for the mainland and coastal residents hunkered down at home as Hurricane Earl closed in with 105 mph winds Thursday on North Carolina's dangerously exposed Outer Banks, the first and perhaps most destructive stop on the storm's projected journey up the Eastern Seaboard....

BUXTON, N.C. (AP) -- A two-story Comfort Inn has become a makeshift hurricane hostel on North Carolina's Outer Banks for those who want to stay close to their homes but know they need better shelter from the outslaught of Earl....

TORONTO (AP) -- The head of a major Canadian pension fund says a Chinese sovereign wealth fund is interested in making a joint-bid with a Canadian pension fund for fertilizer-maker Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc....

SEATTLE (AP) -- Dell Inc. doesn't have to start over in its quest to become a significant purveyor of technology for businesses after losing a multibillion dollar bidding contest for an obscure data-storage maker....