MOUNTAIN VIEW, California (AP) ― You might use Google Translate to read a hard-to-find Manga comic book or to decipher an obscure recipe for authentic Polish blintzes. Or, like Phillip and Niki Smith in rural Mississippi, you could use it to rescue a Chinese orphan and fall in love at the same time. Google is now doing a record billion translations on any given day, as much text as you’d find in 1 million books for everything from understanding school lunch menus to gathering national security i

April 7, 2013

Portugal’s center-right government on Saturday condemned the constitutional court’s rejection of several aspects of the country’s tough 2013 budget, saying that the decision “makes it difficult” to make budget cuts promised to creditors.The court’s decision would have “a negative impact” on the austerity program underway, said government spokesman Luis Marques Guedes.He said that the Portuguese prime minister had requested an emergency meeting with President Anibal Cavaco Silva to discuss the si

April 7, 2013

Britain retained its top “AAA” credit rating at Standard & Poor’s, which said the government has the capacity to meet its fiscal challenges, though the outlook for the grade remains negative.“We believe that the government will implement its fiscal mandate and that it has the ability and willingness to respond rapidly to economic challenges,” S&P said in a statement in London. The negative outlook means “at least a one-in-three chance” of a downgrade if economic and fiscal performances were to w

April 7, 2013

The dollar and the euro soared against the yen Thursday after the Bank of Japan unveiled an aggressive spending program to get the flagging economy back on track.After its first meeting under new governor Haruhiko Kuroda, the BoJ announced a doubling of the money supply and vowed no let-up in the battle against deflation."We will carry out quantitative and qualitative monetary easing that is unprecedented in its scale and quality," Kuroda told a packed news conference.The yen plummeted, with the

April 5, 2013

European banks may have to offer higher interest rates to attract deposits because of the Cypriot financial crisis, costing the industry about 8 billion euros ($10.2 billion) a year, according to analysts at Barclays Plc.The industry cost could increase to 15 billion euros or 11 percent of its annual profit, as nations bolster deposit guarantee plans and resolution funds, the analysts including Simon Samuels wrote in a note to clients today."Before Cyprus there was hardly any difference in inter

April 4, 2013

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The number of Americans seeking unemployment aid rose last week by 28,000, the third straight increase.Weekly applications increased to a seasonally adjusted 385,000, the Labor Department said Thursday. That's the highest level since late November. The gain pushed the four-week average, a less volatile measure, to 354,250.A Labor Department spokesman says the figures may have been affected by the Easter holiday. The department says the holiday's timing varies from year to year

April 4, 2013

TOKYO (AP) -- Japan is making a sweeping shift in its monetary policy, aiming to spur inflation and get the world's third-largest economy out of a long, debilitating slump.Bowing to demands from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for more aggressive monetary easing, the Bank of Japan announced Thursday a policy overhaul intended to double the money supply and achieve a 2 percent inflation target at the ``earliest possible time, with a time horizon of about two years.''BOJ governor Haruhiko Kuroda describ

April 4, 2013

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) -- European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said Thursday that the bank is considering doing more to shore up the ailing eurozone economy.In comments following the bank's widely anticipated decision to leave its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 0.75 percent, Draghi confirmed that an interest rate cut was discussed.He also said the 23-member governing council was looking at ``various tools'' that go beyond lower interest rates in case the economic recovery doesn't

April 4, 2013

BEIJING (AFP) ― Gleaming new helicopters and small planes worth millions of dollars are on show at Beijing’s first “aircraft supermarket,” but some wealthy private buyers will still face curbs when taking to the skies.“Selling airplanes in China is as easy as selling cabbages,” said Zhang Changyi, a manager at the “supermarket”, standing beside an imported French helicopter.The dealership opened this week in a cluster of buildings surrounded by farmland on the edge of the capital, offering a ran

April 4, 2013

TOKYO (AFP) ― The Bank of Japan unveiled fresh easing measures Thursday to kickstart the stuttering economy after its first policy meeting under new management, moves hailed by some analysts as game-changing.The yen plunged on the news, sparking a huge swing in the Nikkei 225 stock index, with investors cheering the measures as Japan wrestles with a mixed bag of economic data and no clear sign of a firm recovery.A moderate 5.0-magnitude quake struck east of the Japanese capital just as the bank

April 4, 2013

The Bank of Japan unveiled fresh easing measures Thursday, sending the yen plunging after the central bank's first policy meeting under a new leader who has vowed to turn around the stuttering economy.The closely watched announcement was welcomed by as a "positive surprise" by investors, who had been concerned new governor Haruhiko Kuroda would fall short of expectations after promising to reverse decades of deflation and limp growth.After a two-day meeting the central bank said it would embark

April 4, 2013