Business_Finance

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Sen. Charles E. Schumer calls the car-rental industry's proposed two-tier program on cars under recall a "double standard" that does not ensure user safety. (Associated Press)

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Greenpeace activists secure an arctic survival pod on the underside of the Leiv Eiriksson oil rig off Greenland's coast on Sunday, May 29, 2011, in an attempt to stop a Scottish oil company from starting deepwater drilling in the arctic waters. (AP Photo/Greenpeace, Steve Morgan)

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Sony Corp., Japan's largest exporter of consumer electronics, has felt the effects of the recent earthquake and tsunami. The company reported a $3.2 billion loss for the year that ended March 31 the company's biggest net loss in 16 years. (Associated Press)

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ASSOCIATED PRESS Syrian street vendors wait for customers on a historic street in old Damascus, an area usually teeming with visiting foreign tourist at this time of the year. The uprising against President Bashar Assad is eviscerating the country's economy, threatening to hit hard at the business community and prosperous merchant classes, which the embattled regime relies on to help retain its grip on power.

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Tokyo Electric Power Co. President Masataka Shimizu arrives for a news conference at company headquarters in Tokyo on Friday to announce that he is stepping down. (Associated Press)

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"We can't have the people getting paid by the taxpayers getting a better deal than the taxpayers themselves," presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty said at the Cato Institute on Wednesday. Institute President Ed Crane is at left. (Rod Lamkey Jr./The Washington Times)

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Nail technician Alexis Carter and hairstylist Karen Doron serve customers Monday at Piaf Salon & Day Spa in Northwest Washington. The salon uses products that are free of dibutyl phthalate, formaldehyde and toluene, which cosmetics traditionally have contained. (Barbara L. Salisbury/The Washington Times)

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Employees of Venezuela's PDVSA state oil company shout anti-U.S. slogans at the company's main offices in Caracas on Wednesday to protest sanctions the U.S. imposed on the firm after it sent Iran two shipments of an oil-blending component worth $50 million. (Associated Press)

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Marine Corps Gen. James E. Cartwright is vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. (Associated Press)

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French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde announces her bid to lead the International Monetary Fund at a news conference in Paris on Wednesday, May 25, 2011. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

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A limousine believed to be carrying North Korean leader Kim Jong-il drives ahead of a convoy of cars traveling toward the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Wednesday, May 25, 2011. Mr. Kim reportedly arrived in Beijing on Wednesday for a meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao that would highlight the influence that economic powerhouse China has with the isolated regime, which is struggling to feed its people. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

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Sen. Tom Coburn, Oklahoma Republican, says of the GAO review of stimulus recipients: "Average Americans are likely wondering why we gave such a huge amount of federal money to tax cheats when our national debt is more than $14 trillion." (Associated Press)