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CHICAGO - Illinois environmental officials will dump a toxic chemical into a nearly 6-mile stretch of the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal Wednesday to keep the voracious Asian carp from entering the Great Lakes while an electrical barrier is turned off for maintenance.

DETROIT - The leader of the new General Motors was done in by an old problem at the nation's largest car maker: Change wasn't happening fast enough.

WASHINGTON - A Republican senator asserted Tuesday during a rancorous floor debate that President Barack Obama's health care overhaul will shorten the lives of America's seniors by cutting Medicare.

NEW YORK - Electronics sellers and online merchants thrived in November, particularly on Black Friday, but clothing and luxury merchants struggled, according to estimates released Wednesday.

LONDON - Google Inc. is allowing publishers of paid content to limit the number of free news articles accessed by people using its Internet search engine, a concession to an increasingly disgruntled media industry.

DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Co's chief executive Fritz Henderson abruptly resigned on Tuesday, after the company's board decided the automaker needed to push its restructuring faster under new leadership.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks rose on Wednesday after a private-sector employment report showed an improvement from October and the S&P pushed through a key technical level.

WASHINGTON - As unemployment spikes, the cost of compassion is going up too.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. labor market improved in November, with the number of jobs lost in the private sector falling again and the number of planned layoffs also easing, separate reports showed on Wednesday.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - Top Emirates officials rallied together Wednesday, extolling the strength of the country's economy in a show of bravado that ignored the debt woes facing the one-time Arab boomtown of Dubai.

(Bloomberg) The U.S. Treasury Dept. will begin taking action against lenders that aren't doing enough to ease mortgage payments for troubled homeowners as part of the Obama Administration's $75 billion pledge to curb foreclosures. Lenders> The> The> "We> Seriously>The> The> Eligible> Mortgage> The> A>Robert> One> The> Bank> "As> The>

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - A once high-flying attorney who courted politicians and celebrities was arrested Tuesday on federal racketeering and fraud charges alleging he operated a $1 billion investment scheme involving phony legal settlements.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - The state of Virginia wants to make sure that if you learn to be a yoga instructor, the people who teach you the Half Moon, the Sleeping Vishnu and the Upward Facing Dog poses know what they're doing.

LONDON (Reuters) - French media group Vivendi will not receive any cash upfront from a $5.8 billion sale of its stake in broadcast group NBC Universal to majority owner General Electric , the Financial Times reported.

Major business events and economic events scheduled for Wednesday:

LONDON - European and U.S. stock markets took a breather Wednesday following big gains the previous day as investors awaited key economic news for clues about the pace of recovery. Meanwhile, gold fell back from another record high as the dollar regained some ground.

Among the earnings stories for Tuesday, Dec. 1, from AP Financial News:

Nintendo's report on the U.S. Thanksgiving-week sales for its Wii, DS and DSi systems showed healthy numbers -- but the company left out the fact that its Wii system total fell short of last year's finish.

LONDON (Reuters) - Gold hit a record high at $1,216.75 an ounce in Europe on Wednesday as investors bet on higher prices, with funds lengthening positions on expectations for a fresh leg of dollar weakness and more central bank buying.

WASHINGTON - An auto parts employee laid off from his job last year has been able to hang onto his health insurance because the federal government has picked up most of the tab. That subsidy ends Tuesday for Don Hall and thousands of other Americans.

LONDON - Prince Charles' office says he will be attending the U.N. climate conference in Copenhagen, where he will deliver a speech to environmental activists.

NEW YORK - Stocks gave up early gains Wednesday after a private report showed job cuts slowed last month, but not as much as expected.

FRANKFURT - German carmaker Daimler AG said Wednesday it will move some of its Mercedes Benz C-Class car production to its Alabama plant to take advantage of a growing market, lower production costs and to avoid currency fluctuations.

WASHINGTON - Congressional budget experts say the health care bill on the Senate floor would lower the average price of insurance premiums if it passes, although millions would face higher costs.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner urged lawmakers on Wednesday to let regulators block companies from customizing derivatives contracts to avoid trading on central clearing houses.

FRANKFURT (AFP) - German automakers are bracing for tough times in 2010 after government subsisides helped them get through this year, the VDA auto federation said on Wednesday.

WASHINGTON - A House panel has approved legislation that slaps new restraints on big Wall Street institutions and demands greater openness from the nation's central bank. The bill is part of a sweeping regulatory overhaul that the House plans to vote on next week.