MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (AP) — Google said today that it will cut about 4,000 jobs at its Motorola Mobility wireless phone business and will close or consolidate about one-third of Motorola’s 90 locations. The reductions represent about 20 percent of Motorola Mobility’s 20,000 employees, and two-thirds of the job cuts will take place outside of […]

LONDON (AP) — Oil company BP said today that it has agreed to sell its refinery in Carson, Calif., and other West Coast assets to Tesoro Corp. Tesoro is paying $2.5 billion cash for the refinery, pipelines, storage terminals, marine terminals and about 800 Arco-branded retail outlets in southern California, Arizona and Nevada, the British […]

MADRID (AP) — Two firefighters have died from injuries sustained in battling a wildfire in Spain’s eastern province of Alicante while hundreds were evacuated by boat to escape a fire raging on the Canary Island of La Gomera, an emergency services official said today. One firefighter died today in an Alicante city hospital while another […]

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt’s military has shown no sign of opposing the president’s surprise decision to retire the defense minister and chief of staff and seize back the powers the military grabbed from his office. Nearly a full day after the order, no unusual military movements were reported anywhere across the nation. President Mohammed Morsi’s […]

BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian state-run media say a pilot ejected from a warplane after technical failure while rebels claim they shot it down. Activists released a video which they claim shows a government Soviet-made MiG warplane catching fire apparently after it was hit by ground fire over the eastern province of Deir el-Zour.