Shortages of parts hitting Honda, Toyota factories

Shortages of auto parts from Japan are hitting Honda and Toyota’s North American operations.

Toyota Motor Corp. on Tuesday said it wants its U.S. car dealers to stop ordering more than 200 replacement parts made in Japan because it’s worried about running out of them.

Honda Motor Co. said it will temporarily cut production at its North American auto factories starting Wednesday due to shortages.

Industry analysts expect many automakers to run into shortages because supply factories in Japan were damaged by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. Several automakers already have been forced to cut production.

Chrysler Group LLC, Ford Motor Co. and others have stopped taking orders for certain paint colors because a specialized pigment factory hasn’t been able to come back on line.

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Nokia again sues Apple for patent infringement

Nokia is suing Apple in the United States for allegedly infringing patents in its mobile phones, portable music players, tablets and computers, the Finnish company said Tuesday.

The complaint, filed with United States International Trade Commission, ITC, is the latest in a string of lawsuits by Nokia and comes as the world’s largest handset maker struggles to keep up with smartphone rivals such as Apple Inc.

Apple and Nokia Corp. have been locked in a long-running legal battle over patent claims.

 

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GE buys equipment maker in its bid to enter oil industry

General Electric Co. said Tuesday it will spend $3.2 billion for a controlling stake in French equipment developer Converteam as it continues to position itself as a major player in what’s expected to be a 20-year boom in oil and natural gas demand.

Converteam, which serves a variety of industries including oil and gas companies, is the latest of $11 billion in acquisitions by GE’s energy business. GE also has acquired Dresser Inc., Wellstream Holdings, Lineage Power Holdings and Well Support in the past six months.

 

Levi Strauss told to pay back wages of $1 million

Clothing maker Levi Strauss & Co. will pay about $1 million in back wages to 596 employees after the government found overtime and record keeping violations, the Labor Department said Tuesday. A government investigation found that the San Francisco-based company misclassified several groups of workers as exempt from overtime, including assistant store managers at some newly acquired stores.

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Tylenol again being recalled because of odor

Health care products maker Johnson & Johnson recalled another lot of Tylenol on Tuesday due to a musty odor that has already triggered five other recalls of the company’s over-the-counter medicines.

The latest recall involves more than 34,000 bottles of Tylenol 8 Hour Extended Release, which were distributed throughout the U.S. All of the products come from lot number ADM074, which appears on the bottom of the bottles.

 

Amazon music service to be cloud-based

Amazon.com announced a cloud-based music service that will let users upload digital music files to the company’s servers and access them from anywhere on the Internet or through Android mobile devices.

The move marks the latest effort by Amazon to strengthen its growing digital media business, in which the company competes primarily against Apple Inc. Apple is reportedly working on a similar type of cloud service.


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