Business

SYDNEY/TORONTO (Reuters) - BHP Billiton formally launched its hostile takeover bid for Potash Corp on Friday but a poll of investors suggested the world's biggest miner would need to significantly raise its $39 billion offer to capture the top fertilizer producer. Full Story »

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's National Union of Mine Workers (NUM) and Impala Platinum reached a deal on wages and housing allowances on Saturday, ending threats of strike action, a union official said. Full Story »

TORONTO (Reuters) - Toronto's main stock index ended lower on Thursday after weaker-than-expected U.S. and Canadian economic data sparked investor jitters and underscored the fragility of the global recovery. Full Story »

NEW YORK - The dollar got further support Friday from fears of a slowdown in global growth. Full Story »

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The war that has erupted between Barnes & Noble Inc's two largest shareholders over control of the bookseller is putting a wrench in its plans to sell itself and could make the retailer less appealing. Full Story »

GENEVA - The U.S. appealed on Thursday its own victory in a landmark trade ruling against European subsidies for planemaker Airbus, asking the World Trade Organization to toughen its condemnation of the EU's financial meddling in a market worth more than $3 trillion over the next two decades. Full Story »

WASHINGTON - Nearly half of the 1.3 million homeowners who enrolled in the Obama administration's flagship mortgage-relief program have fallen out. Full Story »

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bank of America Corp and former Chief Executive Kenneth Lewis denied civil fraud charges brought by New York's attorney general over the bank's takeover of Merrill Lynch & Co amid the 2008 financial crisis. Full Story »

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Women's clothing retailer AnnTaylor Stores Corp said quarterly sales rebounded at its namesake stores and it was able to sell more merchandise at full price, sending shares up 2 percent. Full Story »

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New York judge has put on hold a foreclosure auction for equity in Manhattan's giant Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village apartment complexes, a victory for senior lenders owed nearly $3.7 billion after the property's owner defaulted. Full Story »

MIAMI - A flower shop in Florida that saw a drop-off in weddings this summer is probably out of luck. So is a restaurant in Idaho that had to switch seafood suppliers. A hardware store on the Mississippi coast may be left out, too. Full Story »

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The Congressional Budget Office released an improved outlook for the federal budget deficit this year, but the report also amounted to a warning to President Obama and Congress about the limits of policies designed to stimulate the economy. Full Story »

WASHINGTON - Automaker Nissan's North American division spent $870,000 lobbying Congress and the federal government during the second quarter on a range of issues from vehicle safety to financial reform. Full Story »