Honda's sportiest and most fun-to-drive Civic, the 2012 Si, has a freshened interior and exterior, more power than ever and higher fuel economy ratings than its predecessor.

DETROIT — Back when gas was cheap, Americans bought cars with V-8 engines like the Big Block, Cobra Jet and Ramcharger. Acceleration was all that mattered, even in family cars that never made it to full throttle.

A report that major central banks would be ready to pump money into the financial system after the Greek elections this weekend gave the stock market a late push higher.

Canada’s Aaa debt rating can withstand the dual threat of record household debt and provincial government deficits, Moody’s Investors Service’s lead sovereign analyst said.

More Americans applied for jobless benefits and consumer prices dropped by the most in three years, giving the Federal Reserve room to spur an economy that’s generating little growth or inflation.

June 14 (Bloomberg) -- Quest Software Inc., a maker of tools to help companies manage computer systems, rose above a new $25.50-a-share cash buyout offer from a strategic bidder that topped a previous agreement with Insight Venture Partners.

June 14 (Bloomberg) -- Microsoft Corp. is in discussions to acquire Yammer Inc., operator of a social network for businesses, said two people familiar with the matter.

Americans are digging themselves out of mortgage debt.

Average rates on fixed mortgages rose this week, the first increase in seven weeks.

Lenders initiated foreclosure proceedings against more U.S. homeowners in May, setting the stage for increases in home repossessions and short sales -- scenarios that could further weigh down home values in coming months.

The number of U.S. homes that are in the foreclosure process or seriously delinquent tumbled in April to the lowest level in more than three years, helping to stabilize prices, CoreLogic Inc. said.

Europe’s latest initiative to subdue its financial crisis fell apart in less than a day.

The debate over the death penalty offers a vivid illustration of a tragic flaw in the market of ideas: Strong beliefs attract a lot more attention, and can have a lot more influence, than the truth.

June 14 (Bloomberg) -- More Americans than forecast applied for unemployment insurance payments last week, another sign the labor market is struggling to improve.

June 14 (Bloomberg) -- Cave paintings in northern Spain, possibly created by Neanderthals, may be the oldest known examples in the world, according to a new analysis.

Shares of Zillow Inc. jumped nearly 9 percent Thursday, after a Pacific Crest analyst upgraded shares of the real estate information website to “outperform,” saying it has just begun to tap its profit potential.

June 14 (Bloomberg) -- Tax-allocation bonds tied to California’s former redevelopment agencies were cut to junk by Moody’s Investors Service, which cited the uncertainty of cash flow to make payments on $11.6 billion in debt.

June 14 (Bloomberg) -- Research In Motion Ltd., maker of the BlackBerry smartphone, nominated TPG Capital LP executive Timothy Dattels to take the board seat of Antonio Viana- Baptista, who won’t run for re-election.

June 14 (Bloomberg) -- Kroger Co., the largest U.S. grocery-store chain, rose the most in more than three years in New York after boosting its annual profit forecast and announcing a $1 billion share buyback.

June 14 (Bloomberg) -- Baidu Inc. said Apple Inc. will be entitled to a share of advertising sales after the Chinese company’s search-engine was added as part of a software upgrade for iPhones in China.

Some are already anticipating the Supreme Court's ruling on President Barack Obama's health care law as the “decision of the century.” But the justices are unlikely to have the last word on America's tangled efforts to address health care woes. The problems of high medical costs, widespread waste, and tens of millions of people without insurance will require Congress and the president to keep looking for answers, whether or not the Affordable Care Act passes the test of constitutionality.

June 14 (Bloomberg) -- Facebook Inc. plans to introduce real-time bidding for advertising on its site, a technology used by Google Inc. and other Web companies to more effectively target ads to consumers.

June 14 (Bloomberg) -- Dish Network Corp., the second- largest U.S. satellite-TV provider, applied for the Web-address suffixes “.direct” and “.dtv” -- names that relate more closely to the brand of its chief competitor, DirecTV.

Microsoft is being secretive about a “major” announcement it plans to make in Los Angeles on Monday.

June 14 (Bloomberg) -- R. Allen Stanford, found guilty of leading a $7 billion international fraud, was sentenced to 110 years in prison after a prosecutor said he treated his victims like “road kill.”

The chief financial officer of United Technologies Corp. said Thursday that the industrial conglomerate will sell more businesses.

The U.S. job market is flagging, and consumer prices are barely rising. The picture sketched by data released Thursday has made some economists predict the Federal Reserve will announce some new step next week to boost the economy.

If New York City bans big sodas, what's next on the list? Large slices of pizza? Double-scoop ice cream cones? Tubs of movie-theater popcorn? The 16-ounce strip steak?

June 15 (Bloomberg) -- Erik Berkman’s iPhone wallpaper isn’t of his wife, children or dog. When Honda Motor Co.’s new North American development chief gets a text message, he sees a background picture of the automaker’s V-6 IndyCar racing engine.

Facebook's stock is regaining some ground nearly a month after its rocky initial public offering.

June 14 (Bloomberg) -- Apple Inc. won a U.S. judge’s order scheduling an injunction hearing in a patent lawsuit against Google Inc.’s Motorola Mobility unit one week after the same jurist canceled a trial scheduled for June 11.

June 14 (Bloomberg) -- Republicans in the U.S. Congress, who have criticized billionaire Warren Buffett’s approach to tax policy, are largely holding on to their Berkshire Hathaway Inc. stocks and bonds, personal financial-disclosure forms show.

The first vaccine that protects children as young as six weeks against two potentially deadly bacterial infections has won approval from U.S. health regulators.

June 14 (Bloomberg) -- Gold futures for August delivery rose $5.50, or 0.3 percent, to $1,624.90 an ounce at 8:34 a.m. on the Comex in New York. The price climbed as high as $1,628.90, the highest for a most-active since June 7, after U.S. government data showed jobless claims rose unexpectedly last week.

June 14 (Bloomberg) -- Oil traded near its lowest closing price in eight months in New York before the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries meets to discuss potential changes to its production quotas.

June 14 (Bloomberg) -- Gold gained for a fifth day in New York, heading for the longest winning streak since October, on speculation the Federal Reserve will take more steps to buoy the economy, potentially hurting the dollar.

June 14 (Bloomberg) -- The following is a selection of the most important news affecting the oil market.

June 14 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Treasury Department announced pricing for public offerings of preferred stock in seven banks in the Troubled Asset Relief Program. The Treasury said it expects the proceeds from the auction to be approximately $245 million.

Spain's key borrowing rate hit a fresh high Thursday not seen since the country joined the euro in 1999, after a credit ratings agency downgraded the country's ability to just above junk status amid rising fears a bank bailout may not be enough to save the country from economic chaos.

June 14 (Bloomberg) -- Consumer confidence in the U.S. climbed for the fourth straight week as more Americans said their personal finances were improving.

June 14 (Bloomberg) -- The cost of living in the U.S. fell in May by the most in more than three years as fuel prices retreated, buttressing Federal Reserve projections that cheaper commodities will help reduce inflation.

Smithfield Foods Inc. said Thursday that its fourth-quarter profit fell 19 percent on lower margins on fresh pork, slow sales growth and higher selling costs.

June 14 (Bloomberg) -- Barnes & Noble Inc. founder Leonard Riggio agreed to pay $29 million to settle investors’ claims that he wrongfully pushed the biggest U.S. bookstore chain to acquire his college-textbook firm, lawyers said.

A federal judge has dismissed an antitrust lawsuit filed by three retired football players that accused the NFL of constraining the use of former players' images and likenesses.

A new online journalism organization called New Mexico In Depth has been established to publish investigative reports and articles on issues ranging from education and health care to politics and poverty.

McGREGOR, Texas (AP) -- Texas is interested in a company's plans to build a space launch site in the state.

June 14 (Bloomberg) -- Screening the genomes of healthy people may give important clues about their cancer risk, according to a study that suggests advanced DNA technology might be employed early in a patient’s health assessment.

AOL Inc. said Thursday shareholders voted at their annual meeting to re-elect all eight directors on the company's board, fending off a takeover attempt by one of its largest investors.

June 14 (Bloomberg) -- Investors are accepting the lowest yields since the real estate boom peaked in 2005 on the debt of U.S. homebuilders relative to the rest of the junk-bond market as evidence mounts that housing is on the rebound.

A combination of decades of vigorous fire suppression and the waning of the timber industry over environmental concerns has left many forests a tangled, overgrown mess, subject to the kind of super-fires that are now regularly consuming hundreds of homes and millions of acres.

Falling boulders are the single biggest force shaping Yosemite Valley, one of the most popular tourist destinations in the national park system. Now swaths of some popular haunts are closing for good after geologists confirmed that unsuspecting tourists and employees are being lodged in harm's way.

HELSINKI (AP) _ On Saturday, Aung San Suu Kyi, the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, will give her much-awaited Nobel Lecture at Oslo City Hall, 21 years late. The Myanmar democracy activist, held under house arrest by the military-led government for 15 years, was unable to accept her award at the time and it was handed over to her 18-year-old son. Suu Kyi arrives in Oslo on Friday on the Norwegian leg of her European tour -- her first visit to the continent in 24 years.

Falling boulders are the single biggest force shaping Yosemite Valley, one of the most popular tourist destinations in the national park system. Now swaths of some popular haunts are closing for good after geologists confirmed that unsuspecting tourists and employees are being lodged in harm's way.

June 14 (Bloomberg) -- Did Jamie Dimon, the chairman and chief executive officer of JPMorgan Chase & Co., put too much blind faith in Ina Drew, the former leader of the bank’s Chief Investment Office who was responsible for a proprietary trade that cost the firm $3 billion and counting?