I know it may seem small and insignificant, but at least I can say I'm trying to make this a better place to live. I'm hoping it will spread a message of love and caring in a world with too much hurt and violence. Ideally, one or two people will notice and pay it forward.

It's spring, and so far I have volunteered as a math tutor at a local school and shoveled the snow off a neighbor's sidewalk. But I'm already falling behind, and I'm struggling to come up with some good ideas. I know you and your readers often have creative suggestions. Can you suggest more acts of service I can do for strangers? -- TRYING TO BE NICE

DEAR TRYING TO BE NICE: You could volunteer at a local food pantry. Or find an organization that delivers food to shut-ins and take meals to the clients they serve a couple of days a month.

You could bring a garbage bag with you when you take walks in the morning or evening and pick up paper cups, plastic bags, cigarette butts and candy wrappers that litter our streets and beaches. Or simply acknowledge the presence of others by smiling and saying, "good morning," "good afternoon" and "good evening" to people you encounter.

Readers, if you'd like to chime in, I'd be interested in your ideas.

DEAR ABBY: Two years ago, when I was a senior in high school, a guy became overly attached to me. He shared many very private feelings with me about his lack of friends and severe depression. After trying to help him, first by myself and later with a school guidance counselor and even involving his parents, I decided his problems were too much for me to handle and ended the friendship. I know I hurt him, but I saw no other alternative. After high school we didn't speak for about a year.

We are now in the same college and he's trying to force himself back into my life and be friends again. Abby, he hasn't changed at all. I feel bad, but I have no interest in becoming his friend.

What should I do? I have a hard time saying no because he is so persistent and I feel guilty. -- FEELING PITY IN NEW JERSEY

DEAR FEELING PITY: Tell him the truth. Say, "I can't be your friend because your problems overwhelm me. But you can do something about them by going to the student health center and asking for counseling, and by joining some clubs and activities so you can interact with new people."

DEAR ABBY: Why are brownies called brownies if they are black? -- JUST WONDERING IN HOUSTON

DEAR JUST WONDERING: I took your question to Lachlan Sands, executive chef at Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts, Los Angeles, who says, "The first mention of 'brownies' is in a Fanny Farmer cookbook published in 1906. They are not called brownies because of the color, but were named after Celtic pixies."

P.S. If your brownies are turning out black, you may be baking them too long.

Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren, also known as Jeanne Phillips, and was founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips. Write Dear Abby ator P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069.

What teens need to know about sex, drugs, AIDS and getting along with peers and parents is in "What Every Teen Should Know." Send your name and mailing address, plus check or money order for $7 (U.S. funds) to: Dear Abby, Teen Booklet, P.O. Box 447, Mount Morris, IL 61054-0447. (Shipping and handling are included in the price.)

Recep Tayyip Erdogan made the most inflammatory of his speeches as he arrived in the capital, Ankara. Erdogan belittled the protesters, again calling them "capulcu," the Turkish word for looters or vandals. He made his speech in Ankara on an open-top bus, which then drove into the city in a motorcade.

"If you look in the dictionary, you will see how right a description this is," Erdogan said, speaking to thousands of supporters who greeted him at the airport. "Those who burn and destroy are called capulcu. Those who back them are of the same family."

The increasingly fiery tone could inflame tensions, with protesters in both Ankara and the country's largest city, Istanbul, remaining on the streets. Protests have been held in at least 78 cities across the country so far. On two occasions, including one in the southern city of Adana Saturday night, clashes have been reported between Erdogan supporters and protesters.

"All they do is to break and destroy, to attack public buildings ... They didn't stop at that," Erdogan said. "They attacked daughters who wear headscarves. They entered Dolmabahce mosque with their beer bottles and their shoes."

Some of the injured in the initial clashes in Istanbul's Besiktas area were treated in Dolmabahce mosque. The mosque's imam has denied reports that people entered with beer. In the initial days of the protests, some women said they were harassed verbally. The majority of protesters however, have denounced those who did it and have been welcoming toward them.

Anti-government protesters have turned Erdogan's label of them as "capulcu" into a humorous retort, printing stickers with the word, scrawling it on their tents and uploading music videos onto social network sites.

Erdogan had earlier visited another two cities where unrest had occurred and made speeches again condemning his detractors. He planned more speeches in a day that looked much like an election candidate on the campaign trail.

After the speech, crowds at Istanbul's Taksim Square swelled, with several tens of thousands packing into the square. Thousands more flooded Ankara's central square, a day after police used tear gas and water cannons to oust them from the area.

Erdogan's refusal to moderate his tone caused dismay.

"As the prime minister continues (with) his harsh style, the resistance also continues and is getting bigger," said Cagdas Ersoy, a 23-year-old student who joined the protests in Ankara's Kizilay square. "He is making the resistance bigger without realizing it."

Protester Cihan Akburun said: "He should not provoke the people. We invite everyone to (have) common sense."

Erdogan challenged the protesters as the ballot box.

"It's not these marginal groups, but the people, who are going to call us to account, and they are going to do it at the ballot box. The people brought us here (through elections) and it's the people who will vote us out. Apart from the people, no one has the power to oust us," he said.

"Stand firm, don't yield, Turkey is with you," his supporters chanted in return.

The nationwide anti-government protests were sparked by outrage over police use of force against an environmental protest in Istanbul's Taksim Square on May 31, and have grown into a display of discontent toward Erdogan's government.

The protests have attracted a diverse crowd from a variety of social backgrounds and age groups. Many accuse the prime minister of becoming increasingly authoritarian after 10 years in power and of trying to impose his conservative, religious mores in the country which is governed by secular laws.

Erdogan has rejected the accusations, insisting he respects all lifestyles and is the "servant" of his people.

Three people have died in the protests, including a police officer in Adana who fell into an underpass that was under construction while chasing demonstrators. More than 4,300 protesters have sought medical treatment, human rights groups have said.

Thousands of protesters have occupied Taksim and its Gezi Park, where the protests began over objections to Erdogan's plan to develop the park by building a replica Ottoman barracks and a shopping mall. The mall idea has since been dropped, and has been replaced by possibilities of an opera house, theater and museum.

Erdogan, referring to the crowd of thousands of supporters before him, said: "The whole of Turkey should look at Ankara. They should not look at those who are wreaking terrorism."

He again made obscure references to an "interest rates lobby" as being involved in the protests, saying that they would be made to account "heavily." For those who might speculate on the financial markets, he said: "If we catch you speculating, we will strangle you."

The prime minister accused the anti-government protesters of killing policemen and said hundreds of police had been injured. So far, only one police death has been confirmed officially that of the officer who fell into the underpass.

Earlier in the day, he gave a speech in Adana, where pro- and anti-government protesters clashed Saturday night, according to the state-run Anadolu Agency.

"We won't do what a handful of looters have done. They burn and destroy. ... They destroy the shops of civilians. They destroy the cars of civilians," he told supporters at Adana airport. "They are low enough to insult the prime minister of this country."

He urged his supporters to avoid violence themselves and predicted that his Islamic-rooted party would defeat his opponents during local elections in March.

"I want you to give them the first lesson through democratic means in the ballot box," he said.

Erdogan has repeatedly branded the protests as illegal efforts to discredit his government before local elections next year. He frequently refers to the 50 percent majority he received in elections in 2011 to dismiss the protest as attempts by a minority group to dominate over a majority of his supporters.

____

Elena Becatoros reported from Istanbul.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Hall of Fame football great David "Deacon" Jones, considered one of the best defensive players the game has seen and an innovator at his position, has died at the age of 74, his former team the Washington Redskins said.

Jones, who played for the Los Angeles Rams, San Diego Chargers and Redskins during a stellar 13-year National Football League career, died of natural causes at his home in Southern California on Monday, the team said in a statement on its website.

"Deacon Jones was one of the greatest players in NFL history. Off the field, he was a true giant. His passion and spirit will continue to inspire those who knew him," Redskins General Manager Bruce Allen said in the statement.

"He was a cherished member of the Allen family and I will always consider him my big brother," Allen said of Jones, who was nicknamed the "Secretary of Defense" for his prowess as a defensive end.

"He was an icon among the icons," NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement. "Even with his fellow Hall of Famers, Deacon Jones held a special status.

"He is warmly regarded by his peers not only as one of the greatest players in NFL history but also for his tremendous influence and sense of humor."

Jones, who was inducted into the National Football Hall of Fame during his first year of eligibility in 1980, was credited with inventing the term "sack" to describe tackling the quarterback for a loss.

It was a maneuver he did better than any other player of his time, making him an intimidating force on the football field.

"Deacon Jones was one of the rare players who changed the way the game was played," current St. Louis Rams executive vice president of football operations Kevin Demoff said. "In this day and age, the term 'great' is often overused, but it only begins to describe Deacon Jones as a player and person."

Former team mate and fellow Hall of Famer Jack Youngblood said: "Deacon Jones has been the most inspirational person in my football career."

His innovative play drew praise from current and past players.

"You paved the way for guys like myself, played the game like it should have been played and told it like it was," said three times Pro Bowl linebacker Shawne Merriman, who played with the Chargers and Buffalo Bills.

Philadelphia Eagles running back Felix Jones said the NFL had lost a true legend.

"He truly changed the culture and way the games played," Jones said on Twitter.

Fellow Hall of Famer Jack Youngblood said "Deacon Jones has been the most inspirational person in my football career,"

Jones, who was born in Florida in 1938, played football at South Carolina State University and Mississippi Valley State University before he was drafted by the Rams in the 14th round in 1961.

He joined Larry Lundy, Rosey Grier and Merlin Olsen to form what became known as the Fearsome Foursome, still remembered as one of the top defensive lines in the history of the game, and played under head coach George Allen.

Jones was traded to the San Diego Chargers in 1972, becoming a defensive leader of that team before reuniting with Allen on the Redskins for a final year in 1974.

He was a first-team All-Pro selection for five seasons running, from 1965 through 1969, earned Pro Bowl honors eight times, and was named the game's defensive player of the year in 1967 and 1968.

(Reporting by Dan Whitcomb; Additional reporting by Gene Cherry in Raleigh, North Carolina; Editing by Pravin Char)

This is neat. The British Antarctic Survey has createdof what Antarctica looks like underneath all that ice, which is nearly two miles thick in some areas.

Bedmap2, as it's called, was created by culling together millions of measurements from satellite imagery, aircraft using radio echo sound, and cartographic data, to create the most accurate map of the hidden continent to date. Thetaken in 2001 wasn't nearly as detailed, and relied solely on measurements taken from the ground.

"The new Bedmap shows, with unprecedented detail, the bedrock beneath the ice sheets of Antarctica,"of the British Antarctic Survey. "Before we had a regional overview of the topography, but this new map, with its much higher resolution, shows the landscape itself; a complex landscape of mountains, hills and rolling plains, dissected by valleys troughs, and deep gorges."

One of the researchers' primary goals in doing this analysis is to figure out exactly how fast Antarctica's ice is melting, which will help them better predict rising sea levels. Although it might not look that way, the continent's ice is slowly flowing into the ocean. And those sheets are said to contain more than half of the world's fresh water.

While you're thinking about this issue, , which demonstrates what Antarctica looks like with and without ice.

View this article onGetIssues of The Week

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Nelly will perform the crossover hit "Cruise" with country duo Florida Georgia Line during the CMT Music Awards. The imaginary, but once impenetrable, lines between American music genres are blurring more each day, and Nelly's happy to serve as an eraser.

"Obviously our views today aren't the same as our grandparents', so when you look at the way the youth migrates and the way everything intertwines, the Internet has brought so many people together around the world in the same place at the same time," said Nelly, who's also scored a hit with Tim McGraw.

"Music was only in line to be integrated like that. It's a beautiful thing because you want your kids to be multifaceted. You want your kids to experience a lot more than you did as a child," he said. "So I welcome it. My kids are Taylor Swift fans. They love Florida Georgia Line. But they also love Lil Wayne."

More than any of the legion of country music honors shows, the CMT Awards have helped push boundaries. Nelly's not the first rapper to appear, and rockers like Lenny Kravitz, who will perform with co-host Jason Aldean, are common as well.

The fan-voted awards show will air live at 8 p.m. EDT from the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville. Aldean hosts with actress Kristen Bell.

Miranda Lambert, Eric Church and Luke Bryan lead with four nominations apiece. They're among 10 nominees for top honor video of the year. Six finalists will be announced for the award at the top of the show and fans will vote for a winner at the network's website during the broadcast. Voting in other categories has closed.

Aldean and Kenny Chesney are among the acts with three nominations.

The awards usually are overshadowed by performances, off-brand celebrity appearances and the occasional weird mashup.

Take Wednesday night's announced kickoff segment. It will feature country heavyweights Reba McEntire, Blake Shelton, Carrie Underwood and Luke Bryan and ... Dr. Drew Pinsky, Kelsey Grammer, Lorraine Bracco and Vince Vaughn.

The network doesn't describe what this unlikely group of eight will be doing together.

Underwood will pay tribute to the victims of the Oklahoma tornadoes during the show. And Swift, Bryan, Keith Urban and Hunter Hayes and Lady Antebellum with Darius Rucker also will perform. Presenters include Sheryl Crow, Ed Sheeran, "Dancing With the Stars" winner Kellie Pickler, brothers Kevin and Michael Bacon, and Lisa Marie Presley.

___

Online:

http://cmt.com

___

Follow AP Music Writer Chris Talbott: http://twitter.com/Chris_Talbott.

The sudden burst of interest in God's word has also spread to the stage, with a six-hour play called "Bibelen," Norwegian for "the Bible," drawing 16,000 people in a three-month run that recently ended at one of Oslo's most prominent theaters.

Officials of the Lutheran Church of Norway have stopped short of calling it a spiritual awakening, but they see the newfound interest in the Bible as proof that it still resonates in a country where only 1 percent of the 5 million residents regularly attends church.

"Thoughts and images from the Bible still have an impact on how we experience reality," said Karl Ove Knausgaard, one of several famous Norwegian authors enlisted to help with the translation.

Scholars aren't surprised at the success of the plays or the new Bible translation, explaining that faith is a deeply personal matter in this nation of taciturn Scandinavians who regularly withdraw from city life to spend holidays at remote cottages in the solitude of the mountains, fjords and forests.

"Church attendance is a poor measure of the Norwegian state of faith," said post-doctoral fellow Thorgeir Kolshus at the University of Oslo. "Religion is a very private thing for Norwegians."

Anne Veiteberg, publishing director of Norway's Bible Society, said that increased immigration also probably has been a factor.

More than 258,000 immigrants have settled in the country during the last six years alone, adding diversity of race and religion. The Church of Norway estimates that around 60 percent of immigrants are Christian, while the rest are Muslim, Buddhist or Hindu.

"Now that we're exposed to other faiths, Norwegians have gotten more interested in their own faith," Veiteberg said.

Released in October 2011 by the Norwegian Bible Society, the new translation replaces a 1978 edition, with the goal of improving readability and accuracy. For example, in the older version, Mary was called a "virgin." In the new translation she is referred to instead as a "young" woman. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops also made this change in its latest Bible translation from 2011, saying the change didn't alter teaching about Mary, but was meant to address the possible different meanings of the Hebrew word "almah" in the text.

Norway's Bible Society promoted the new translation like a pop fiction novel, stirring anticipation by giving out teasers of biblical stories before its release.

It turned to poets and authors such as Knausgard to make the text sing and resonate for a new generation. And it was packaged in a variety of ways, targeting teenagers with pink leather or denim covers, and adults with bridal or sophisticated literary covers.

"It's easier to read," says Helga Haugland Byfuglien, presiding bishop for the Church of Norway. "There is no over-interpretation of the text."

It has sold nearly 160,000 copies and was Norway's best-selling book in 2012. Church officials concede that hefty marketing campaigns helped explain the strong sales.

Like many other European nations, Norwegians have experienced decades of secularization as religion has taken a back seat to other pursuits. They are fiercely committed to jamming weekends with skiing, hiking and other outdoor activities, leaving little time other than Christmas or Easter to fill the pews.

Last year, Parliament unanimously decided to end the Lutheran church's status as the official state religion.

Erik Ulfsby, artistic director at Det Norske Teatret, which staged the "Bibelen" play, said that even if Norwegians don't go to church, they still see the Bible as an important part of their literary heritage.

"The (church) wants you to agree with their interpretation but the theater gives you the chance to think out loud and discuss the Bible," he said.

The play, directed by Stein Winge, certainly offered a nontraditional interpretation.

For instance, rather than dying on a cross, Jesus was committed to a mental hospital and eventually executed via lethal injection. And, at the wedding at Cana, show-goers saw Jesus portrayed as being drunk when he changed water to wine.

"Bible" isn't the first religious production to have Norwegians at the edge of their seats. Renowned actor Svein Tindberg has staged three monologues based on the Bible, each more successful than the last.

In the mid-1990s, "Gospel of Mark" was slated to run for 20 nights but was such a hit that Tindberg performed 220 nights. His latest production, "Abraham's Children," opened last year and has sold 52,000 tickets, compared to expectations of 1,000 outselling "Evita" in Norway.

Despite the unorthodox artistic interpretations that are emerging, religious authorities in Norway are embracing the concept of experiencing religion through art.

"Even if you don't believe the core of the message, the Bible has rich, meaningful stories," Byfuglien said. "Culture breaks the religious shyness that people have in association with the church and it's a way for those who have distanced themselves to experience it in an interesting way."

(Reuters) - Target Corpcut its full-year profit forecast on Wednesday while turning in a weak first quarter with disappointing sales, as a chilly start to spring kept shoppers from buying seasonal items like clothing.

Target warned in April its first-quarter results would be weaker than anticipated, and its performance was even worse than revised Wall Street expectations due to the cool weather and the impact of higher payroll taxes on spending.

Shares of Target fell 3.6 percent to $68.70.

First-quarter sales at stores open at least a year fell 0.6 percent, while analysts targeted a 0.03 percent decline, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Back in April, Target forecast same-store sales would be about flat versus its previous outlook of flat to up 2 percent.

"This is Target's weakest quarterly same-store sales performance since the Great Recession year of 2009," said Sandy Skrovan, U.S. research director at Planet Retail.

The last time Target's quarterly same-store sales fell was in the third quarter of 2009, when it posted a decline of 1.6 percent.

This year, shoppers held off buying spring merchandise such as clothing, fans and garden supplies as a chilly start to the season left them little reason to splurge.

"Across the board things were disappointing for a lot of retailers," Skrovan said.

The U.S. economy has been somewhat resilient. Core U.S. retail sales, which strip out automobiles, gasoline and building materials, rose 0.5 percent in April, after an upwardly revised 0.1 percent gain in March.

The end of a 2 percent payroll tax cut took effect on January 1 and the smaller paychecks have made some consumers less willing to spend. Still, declining gasoline prices have offset some of the drag on household income.

"While weather was a clear negative in (the first quarter), the revised view suggests that underlying pressure on moderate income consumer spending remains," said Bernstein Research analyst Colin McGranahan.

The pressure is not limited to Target. Last week, Wal-Mart Stores Incposted an unexpected 1.4 percent decline in same-store sales at its Walmart U.S. unit, while Kohl's Corpposted a 1.9 percent decline in same-store sales. And on Wednesday, Lowe's Cos Increported weaker-than-expected quarterly profit, hurt by the chilly weather as well as competition from larger rival Home Depot Inc .

PROFIT DOWN

Target earned $498 million, or 77 cents per share, in the first quarter ended on May 4, compared with a profit of $697 million, or $1.04 per share, a year earlier.

Including the effects from opening Canadian stores, but excluding losses related to the early retirement of debt and gains from the sale of its credit card business, Target earned 82 cents per share. On that basis, analysts looked for 85 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Total sales rose 1 percent to $16.71 billion, while analysts expected $16.78 billion in revenue.

The number of transactions in stores open at least a year fell 1.9 percent. Shoppers spent more overall and bought more items, but the selling price per unit was down, suggesting lower-priced items like groceries were selling well, Skrovan said.

Also, more shoppers took advantage of the 5 percent discount offered to Target's REDcard holders. It said 17.1 percent of sales in its stores were paid for with REDcard credit and debit cards, versus 11.6 percent a year ago.

Target said its first 24 Canadian stores, opened in March, generated $86 million in sales in the quarter. The company, which plans to have 124 stores in Canada by the end of the year, said costs related to the Canadian launch reduced earnings by 24 cents per share in the first quarter.

Target now expects adjusted earnings of $4.70 to $4.90 per share this year, down from its April forecast of $4.85 to $5.05.

(Reporting by Jessica Wohl in Chicago; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

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Minus the on-the-record remarks from park officials there's not much evidence to support the claims that the Internet did this. The Times article mentions a vandal putting her vacation pictures on Facebook — but in the context of the police using it to find the violators. That is the only reference to a specific someone posting their dirty doings online.  a "graffiti expert," former San Bernardino police investigator Dwight Waldo, who pushed the Facebook theory. "It's all about the fame. They want worldwide attention," he said. "A lot of these things are posted on Facebook and stuff. These guys have their own pages." (An Internet search for said Facebook pages comes up empty.)

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There might be some truth to what they say: if people are Instagramming their brunches and everything else they do, why wouldn't vandals put up photos of their work? But that's not the same thing as saying there is more graffiti because of Instagram. "In the old days,” said Lorna Lange, the spokeswoman for Joshua Tree, “people would paint something on a rock — it wouldn’t be till someone else came along that someone would report it and anybody would know about it," notes Lange. But, as much as that might gall people whose job it is to stop graffiti, having these incidents catalogued on the Internet should help track down the people who decided to deface nature. As with most societal woes,— not the Internet. 

TOKYO (Reuters) - Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pledged to raise incomes by 3 percent annually and set up special economic zones to attract foreign businesses in the third tranche of measures aimed at boosting growth in the world's third-biggest economy. Abe is also considering a push for public pensions and other public funds - a pool of $2 trillion - to increase returns by raising investment in equities, a government draft growth strategy showed, confirming a Reuters report.

Dollar, shares fall on concerns about Japan, Fed stimulus

LONDON (Reuters) - The dollar sank below 100 yen and global shares fell on Wednesday, as modest additions to Japan's growth strategy and renewed concerns of a cut in U.S. stimulus efforts hit demand for riskier assets. With markets dominated by speculation on when the Federal Reserve will taper its bond-buying program, there was little reaction to data showing euro zone business activity eased slightly in May, and confirming the region's economy contracted in the first quarter.

Analysis: As Facebook grows up, grand ambitions get reality check

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Facebook, which once seemed poised to take over the Internet, is showing its limitations: a host of newer services are gaining ground among trend-setting youth; a much-hyped smartphone app has received a tepid response; and grand ambitions such as taking on Google in the search business seem ever more fanciful. In a volatile Internet industry where companies can rise and fall almost overnight, one might even say that the nine-year-old Facebook Incis suffering a mid-life crisis.

TSX hits two-week low on Fed worries; CP Rail dips

TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada's main stock index fell on Tuesday to a two-week low, hurt by declines in Canadian Pacific Railway Ltdand Barrick Gold Corpas well as concerns that the U.S. Federal Reserve might taper its stimulus program. RBC Capital Markets cut its rating on CP Rail, a day after activist investor Pershing Square Capital Management said it would sell nearly one-third of its roughly 14 percent stake in the company. CP shares tumbled 2.8 percent.

Euro zone GDP contraction slows in first quarter, April retail sales worse than forecast

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The pace of the euro zone's economic contraction slowed quarter-on-quarter in the first three months of this year, EU statistics showed on Wednesday, but retail sales in April pointed to continued weakness in household demand. The European Union's statistics office confirmed its earlier estimates that gross domestic product in the 17 countries using the euro fell 0.2 percent quarter-on-quarter in the January-March period, for a 1.1 percent year-on-year contraction.

China ready to start deposit insurance system: cenbank report

BEIJING (Reuters) - Conditions are ripe for China to launch a long-awaited deposit insurance system after a consensus was reached within the government, according to the central bank's 2013 financial stability report, sources with knowledge of the report's contents said on Wednesday. The report paves the way for liberalizing the interest rate regime and marks the latest step forward towards market-based reforms to eventually free up China's financial sector.

Fiat and Chrysler to refinance loans before deal

LONDON (Reuters) - Fiathas launched the first part of a three-stage multibillion-euro financing package, seeking to refinance loans taken out by Fiat and Chrysler before the Italian group's looming purchase of the rest of the U.S. carmaker, bankers said. Fiat and Chrysler's loans are expected to be refinanced before the summer to take advantage of strong loan market conditions to cut borrowing costs and build in the flexibility to allow a potential acquisition to go ahead, the sources said.

China hits back at EU wine over solar panel duties

BEIJING (Reuters) - China hit back at European wine exports on Wednesday in response to the European Union's decision to impose duties on imports of Chinese solar panels, as tensions mounted between two of the world's biggest trading partners. In a step targeting southern European states such as France and Italy that back the duties but largely sparing north European opponents such as Germany, Beijing said it launched an anti-dumping and anti-subsidy probe into sales of European wine.

Toyota says will recall 242,000 hybrids for brake design flaw

TOKYO (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corpis recalling about 242,000 gas-electric hybrid vehicles worldwide, including the bestselling Prius model, due to a brake design flaw, the automaker said on Wednesday. Toyota is recalling the Prius produced between March and October 2009, and the Lexus HS 250h made between June and October 2009, spokeswoman Shino Yamada said.

Tesco recovery in doubt as UK sales resume slide

LONDON (Reuters) - Tesco , the world's No.3 retailer, posted a drop in quarterly underlying sales in its main British market, resuming a trend seen for most of the past three years and raising doubts about its 1 billion pound ($1.5 billion) turnaround plan. The supermarket group said on Wednesday it had suffered from weak demand for general merchandise as cash-strapped Britons cut back on discretionary purchases in a flagging economy, as well as fallout from Europe's horsemeat food contamination scandal.

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) -- Gas prices in Minnesota have eased a bit as increased supplies have caused prices to drop after hitting an all-time high last week.

The travel group AAA says the average gas price peaked at $4.28 a gallon last week statewide, but dropped to $4.05 Monday. That's still well above the national average.

AAA Minnesota-Iowa spokeswoman Gail Weinholzer says the state should soon be in line with the rest of the nation. Midwest refineries that were closed for maintenance are resuming operations and fuel is arriving from other parts of the country.