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U.S. safety regulators are investigating complaints of power-assisted steering failure in three Ford Motor Co. midsize car models.

A suddenly stormy month on the stock market came to a quiet end on Tuesday.

A top oil industry official says the oil and railroad industries are urging federal regulators to allow them as long as seven years to retrofit existing tank cars that transport highly volatile crude oil.

Global stocks were mostly higher Tuesday after Wall Street declined and pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, a major financial center, added to political risk worries.

General Motors expects its sales in China this year to top 3.1 million vehicles and sees no impact on business from an anti-monopoly probe of the industry.

In July, two scary notices arrived in Amaris McGee's mailbox.

The developer of a northern Nevada biofuel production plant declared his project ready for construction, after receiving a federal loan guarantee for about half the cost.

A Japanese auto parts supplier, NSK, says it has been fined by Chinese anti-monopoly regulators in a growing investigation of the industry.

New U.S. auto loans jumped to the highest level in eight years this spring, fueled by a big increase in lending to risky borrowers.

General Motors Co.'s main China joint venture has joined automakers that say they have been contacted by Chinese anti-monopoly regulators as part of an investigation of the industry.

People are waiting longer than they should for an answer when they petition the government to open an investigation into what could be serious safety problems.

A New York judge has told lawyers he'll encourage settlements in lawsuits brought on behalf of nearly 1,000 plaintiffs against General Motors for defective ignition switches.

___ US airfares on the rise, outpacing inflation NEW YORK (AP) — The average roundtrip ticket within the U.S., including taxes, reached $509.15 in the first six months of this year, up nearly $14 from the same period last year.

Business News at 1:30 p.m.

Hyundai Motor Co. says its second-quarter profit fell 7 percent as the appreciation of South Korean diluted its overseas earnings.

General Motors knew of ignition switch problems with 6.7 million midsize and large cars for 11 years, yet it failed to warn customers with a recall until last month, according to documents posted by federal safety regulators.

A Senate subcommittee chairwoman says General Motors should have fired its chief lawyer in the wake of a long-delayed recall of millions of small cars.

Two environmental groups are asking the U.S. Department of Transportation to immediately ban shipments of volatile crude oil in older railroad tank cars, citing recent explosive oil train wrecks and the department's own findings that those accidents pose an "imminent hazard." The petition filed Tuesday by the Sierra Club and ForestEthics seeks an emergency order within 30 days to prohibit crude from the Northern Plains' Bakken region and elsewhere from being carried in the older tank cars, known as DOT-111s.

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A string of fiery train derailments across the country has triggered a high-stakes but behind-the-scenes campaign to shape how the government responds to calls for tighter safety rules.