Toyota to recall 1 million cars for faulty air bags, wipers

Toyota is recalling over one million cars around the world for faulty air bags and defective windshield wipers.

The move comes just days after Toyota regained its spot as the world’s No. 1 automaker from U.S. rival General Motors Co., with global vehicle sales that climbed to a record 9.748 million vehicles. The company is now recalling 907,000 cars, mostly Corollas, due to air bags that can improperly inflate when the vehicle’s electronic signals damage a chip in the part that controls the air bags. It also is recalling 385,000 Lexus IS luxury cars with wipers that can get stuck if there is heavy snowfall.

In total, the automaker has received 46 reports of problems involving the air bags from North America, and one from Japan, and 25 reports of problems related to the windshield wipers. 

Facebook tops expectations with a good fourth quarter

Facebook delivered fourth-quarter results above Wall Street’s expectations on Wednesday and sought to show that it has finally transformed into a “mobile company.”

Its stock price fluctuated sharply in after-hours trading, as investors weighed lower net income and growing expenses against an increasing user base and higher advertising revenue.

Facebook Inc., the world’s largest social media company, earned $64 million, or 3 cents per share, in the October-December period. That’s down from $360 million, or 14 cents per share, a year earlier when it was still a privately held company. 

Dow average falls 44 points to close at 13,910.42

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 44 points to close at 13,910.42. The Standard & Poor’s 500 fell 6 points to 1,501.96. The Nasdaq composite fell 11 points to 3,142.31.

Brent crude, used to price international varieties of oil, gained 54 cents to end at $114.90 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange in London. Oil rose 37 cents to finish at $97.94 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Wholesale gasoline rose 6 cents to $3.03 per gallon. Natural gas rose 8 cents to $3.34 per 1,000 cubic feet. Heating oil was up about a penny at $3.12 a gallon. 

Boeing: No plans to drop use of lithium-ion batteries

Boeing is sticking with plans to speed up production of its 787 and sees no reason to drop the troubled lithium-ion batteries at the center of the plane’s problems, CEO Jim McNerney said Wednesday.

A fire and emergency landing earlier this month, both involving the batteries, prompted regulators to ground Boeing’s newest and highest-profile plane.

All Nippon Airways said Wednesday that it replaced batteries 10 times before the overheating problems surfaced earlier this month. McNerney said airlines have been replacing 787 batteries at a rate that’s “slightly higher” than expected.

McNerney said he didn’t have a timeline for when the plane would get back in the air. 

Both sides claim win in suit over oil leak in Nigeria

A Dutch court has ruled that a subsidiary of international oil giant Royal Dutch Shell should be held responsible for a pipeline leak that poisoned one farmer’s land in Nigeria, arguing it had failed to take adequate measures to prevent sabotage.

It was believed to be the first time a Dutch court has held a multinational’s foreign subsidiary liable for environmental damage and ordered it to pay damages. Pressure groups welcomed the judges’ decision, but Shell also hailed the judgment as a victory.

In its ruling Wednesday, the Hague Civil Court rejected most of the case brought by Nigerian farmers and environmental pressure group Friends of the Earth against Shell, saying pipeline leaks were caused by saboteurs, not Shell negligence.

However, in one case, the judges ordered a subsidiary, Shell Nigeria, to compensate a farmer for breach of duty of care by making it too easy for saboteurs to open an oil-well head that leaked on his land.

— From news service reports