The worst U.S. drought in more than half a century has rallied critics of the federal renewable fuel standard, which will reserve about 40 percent of the nation's corn crop for ethanol production this year.

U.S. officials deployed new financial weapons to try to end the bloodshed in Central Africa and the exploitation of natural resources worldwide, raising the ire of corporations that said the rules could cost them billions of dollars.

Frito-Lay plans to put 45 more electric delivery trucks on California roads in the coming months, bringing its fleet of such vehicles in the state to 105 by the end of the year.

In another sign of China's economic slowdown, shipyards are now closing and half-finished vessels lie rusting. Prosperity is receding like the tide, and thousands of laborers have lost their jobs.

Putting aside their big-box ways, giant retailers Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Target Corp. are going urban with a new look and a metro-oriented feel as they expand in Southern California.

At the end of this month, 211 million Ikea catalogs will be sent off into the world. If one lands on your doorstep, you'll want to have your smartphone handy.

Good artists copy, but does the saying apply to retailers too? Best Buy hopes so, as it's converting 60 of its locations into Apple Store lookalikes, according to a new report.

Driven in part by the global financial crisis, foreign intelligence services, corporations and computer hackers have stepped up efforts to steal technology and trade secrets from American companies, the FBI's top spy hunter told Congress.

New car prices have fallen from a year ago, primarily because the inventory shortage created by the Japanese earthquake has been entirely erased.

The Obama administration ordered tariffs of 31 percent and higher on solar panels imported from China, escalating a simmering trade dispute with China over a case that has sharply divided American interests in the growing clean-energy industry.