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Asian-Pacific leaders gathering in warm, sunny Honolulu this week will be searching for ways to kickstart faster growth through freer trade, moving on from the gloom over European debt that prevailed days earlier at the G20 summit in chilly Cannes.

In an era of debt crises and protests over inequality, the role of the annual Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation summit may turn out to be just as much about confidence building as it is about combating protectionism.

The leaders of the 21 regional economies “do see freer trade flows as critical to growth and jobs,” said Charles Morrison, president of the East-West Center, a think tank in Honolulu.

“The main contribution APEC can make in the short-run is to restore the feeling that the leaders, ministers and central bankers of the major economies are indeed working closely together,” he said.

APEC’s activities encompass a wide range of issues, including climate change, energy and food security, and politics. But the spotlight in Honolulu will be on its original mission: promoting growth through trade and closer economic ties among Pacific Rim nations from Chile to China.

For President Barack Obama, the Aloha APEC, as the event is being dubbed, is a chance to spotlight progress on re-energizing exports, while pushing for a major Pacific rim trade pact.

The U.S. recently clinched long-sought free trade pacts with South Korea, Colombia, and Panama _ agreements that if ratified will bring to 20 the number of countries that have free trade agreements with the U.S.

Such arrangements are potentially worth billions to American exporters, and thousands of new jobs. Despite a recent surge in exports, the U.S. share in Asian international trade has fallen 9 percent since 1990 as other nations have set trading agreements among themselves.

Europe’s debt troubles remain a concern, with talks Wednesday among deputy ministers focusing on how that may affect the global outlook and on the need for willingness to act to counter those headwinds, said a senior U.S. Treasury official.

Officials agreed on the need to push ahead with reducing trade gaps, especially through flexible management of exchange rates. China’s willingness to make that commitment both in Cannes and in Honolulu could encourage similar moves by other Asia-Pacific economies, he said.

Prospects for major progress in Hawaii on establishing a Pacific-wide free trade zone, encompassing more than half the world’s economic output, remain unclear.

The U.S., Australia, Malaysia, Vietnam and Peru are negotiating to join the bloc, called the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which already brings together the smaller economies of Chile, New Zealand, Brunei and Singapore.

Bringing onboard other big regional powers such as Japan and China, the world’s third and second-largest economies, would vastly expand the bloc’s scope and impact.

But Japan’s debate on joining the TPP, sidetracked by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami disaster, remains in limbo, with the ruling party split fast payday loan no faxing. Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda is expected to hold a news conference in Tokyo before leaving for APEC, when he may announce a decision.

Supporters view membership as a way to revive Japan’s sagging economy, enabling it to better tap into Asia’s dynamism, but politically influential farmers say that cutting tariffs _ the duty on imported rice, for example, is 778 percent _ would destroy them.

Such moves are risky for other countries as well.

“It’s very difficult for countries to make concessions on significant sectors like agriculture or things like that in an environment where there’s not enough to go around in the first place,” Patrick Chovanec, an associate professor at Tsinghua University’s School of Economics and Management in Beijing.

“In this environment, when the world’s gone through the worst contraction since the 1930s, it’s actually pretty miraculous that everybody’s not at each other’s throats over trade. That is something of an accomplishment,” he said.

China, which has not been invited to join the Pacific trade pact, says Washington’s goals are overly ambitious and run the risk of requiring concessions that might not take into account regional disparities in development.

Despite qualms over the pace and scope of any push for a regional free trade bloc, the 20,000 business and political leaders meeting in Hawaii appear to share a general consensus over the region’s potential _ and need _ to compensate for malaise in the U.S. and Europe.

“Our goal for the meetings is to build a commitment for practical policies that will strengthen the global recovery,” Charles Collyns, the U.S. Treasury assistant secretary for international finance, told reporters at a briefing Monday to preview the meetings.

“The dynamic emerging markets must play a bigger role in bolstering global growth,” he said.

The share of exports in the U.S. GDP has risen to 14 percent from 11 percent over the past few years, the highest share in over 200 years, helped by the rebound from the global crisis, a weak U.S. dollar, strong growth in China and South America as well as by policy.

But so far, the export boom has not provided the oomph needed to make a significant dent in unemployment, partly because most growth has been concentrated in sales of corn and soybeans, coal and other resources, rather than in more labor intensive manufacturing, said Ed Gresser of the Progressive Policy Institute in Washington, D.C.

“The export sector has done really well, but the general economy hasn’t,” he said. “In farm areas there are jobs, but in the cities and suburbs we still have 14 million out of work.”

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The maker of Robert Mondavi wine and Svedka vodka says its second-quarter profit jumped 78 percent on lower costs and improved wine and spirits sales in North America.

Constellation Brands Inc.’s earnings beat Wall Street estimates. Its shares rose 4 percent to $19.49 in premarket trading.

The Victor, N.Y.-based company reported net income climbed to $162.7 million, or 76 cents per share, in the June-to-August quarter. That’s up from $91.3 million, or 43 cents, a year earlier.

Excluding one-time items, the Victor, N business card design.Y., company earned 77 cents per share. Wall Street expected 65 cents per share.

Its revenue fell 20 percent to $690.2 million largely because it sold the bulk of its Australian and British wine business in January.

Its wine and spirits sales in North America rose 5 percent to $690.2 million.

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U.S. stock futures are falling as traders close out what could be the worst quarter since the peak of the financial crisis.

Fears about a European debt crisis with potentially catastrophic consequences have weighed on markets since the spring. Economic data are mostly weak. Major stock indexes have fallen more than 10 percent. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index is down 12 percent _ the most since the final quarter of 2008.

The government reports before the market opens on consumer spending and personal incomes in August easy to get unsecured personal loans. Economists expect spending edged up after rising in July.

At 7:33 a.m. Eastern time, S&P 500 futures were down 14, or 1.2 percent, at 1,143. Dow futures were down 118, or 1.1 percent, at 10,981. Nasdaq 100 futures were down 22, or 1 percent, at 2,168.

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Under pressure from skeptical financial markets, the world’s economic powers scrambled on Saturday for ways to keep Europe’s debt crisis from spiraling out of control.

The continent’s financial woes grabbed the attention of the policy-setting committees of the 187-nation International Monetary Fund and the World Bank during the lending institutions’ annual meetings.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told the IMF panel that the debt crisis posed the most serious threat to the global economy and that failure to take bold action raised the risk of domino-style defaults by heavily indebted European countries.

He said the European Central Bank should try to ensure that governments pursuing sound reforms could get loans at affordable rates and that European banks have access to the capital they need to operate. The ECB is the central bank for the 17 nations that use the euro as a common currency.

Global financial markets plunged this week on fears of a possible default within weeks by Greece on its government debt and on worries a default would cause runs on major European banks with heavy exposure to Athens’ debt.

“The threat of cascading default, bank runs and catastrophic risk must be taken off the table. Otherwise, it will undermine all other efforts, both within Europe and globally,” Geithner said. “Decisions as to how to conclusively address the region’s problems cannot wait until the crisis gets even more severe.”

Geithner was one of a number of finance leaders demanding forceful action.

Mark Carney, the head of Canada’s central bank, called for “overwhelming” the problem with a big increase in Europe’s rescue fund for heavily indebted countries.

In an interview with CBC radio, Carney suggested that a European financial stability fund should be increased from 440 billion euros to 1 trillion euros. At current exchange rates, that would be the equivalent of expanding a $590 billion fund to $1.35 trillion.

“You need a big pot of money,” he said.

For Christine Lagarde, who took over as head of the IMF in June, the debt crisis was a tough first test. Lagarde has warned that without strong and collective action, the world’s major economies risk slipping back into recession.

To avoid that, finance officials of the Group of 20 major economies pledged on Thursday to “take all necessary actions to preserve the stability of banking systems and financial markets.”

But private economists have questioned whether the plan goes far enough to deal with market concerns that a Greek default is a virtual certainty.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said a second bailout package for Greece may have to be re-evaluated because of Athens’ problems in fulfilling earlier financial promises.

This re-evaluation could include changing the terms of the voluntary contribution from banks and other private investors to Greece’s rescue, two European officials said.

One of the officials said that Germany and other rich eurozone nations, including the Netherlands and Austria, are now pushing for an “orderly default” by Greece. That would entail losses for investors that go beyond the 21 percent cut in the face value of government bonds foreseen under the voluntary contribution. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

The comments underline how confidence is eroding among core eurozone countries over whether they can actually save Greece. The Greek debt is close to 160 percent of its gross domestic product and its economy looks set for a fourth straight year of recession.

Stock markets in Europe and the U.S. recouped some of their previous day’s hefty losses Friday, but investors remained skeptical about whether the world’s leading economies can keep the global economy from going over the cliff.

Despite the modest gains Friday, the worries are piling up for investors. The Federal Reserve warned this week that the American economy is in significant difficulty, while there were several downbeat European and Asian economic indicators.

Sung Won Sohn, an economics professor at California State University’s Martin Smith School of Business said the great concern is that if Greece doesn’t make further painful cuts in government spending and ends up defaulting on its debt, the shock waves will rock big banks in Europe.

He said this would cause fearful investors to sell bonds of other heavily indebted countries such as Italy and Spain, countries with much bigger economies.

“The fear in markets is that the problem will spread to bigger economies such as Spain and Italy. Europe would not have the resources to handle a crisis of that magnitude,” Sohn said.

The finance officials at the Washington meeting said they believed that the 17 nations that use the common euro currency were getting the message they needed to move more quickly to reform their surveillance procedures and increase economic support.

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Associated Press writers Martin Crutsinger and Luis Alonso Lugo in Washington and Sarah DiLorenzo in Paris contributed to this report.

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A brand new Oakville house that was listed for $1 has been pulled off the market after six bids came in over the weekend, two of them in the $700,000 range.

That was about $200,000 less than the sellers had been hoping for after first listing their three-bedroom stucco home for $1.088 million in August and then urging their agent to drop the price last week.

The unusual $1 price tag stimulated a lot of interest, along with some accusations of false advertising. About 170 people came from miles away to tour the house Saturday and Sunday, but the bidding war never got as heated as hoped.

News Corp. on Friday said long-time independent board member and venture capitalist Thomas Perkins is leaving its board of directors.

The media conglomerate has been struggling with a phone hacking scandal at one of its British papers.

Perkins resigned from Hewlett-Packard Co.’s board in 2006 after learning that the company had hired private detectives to obtain his phone records. News Corp. didn’t say why he was leaving.

A message seeking from from Perkins was not immediately returned on Friday morning. He is one of the founders of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, a Menlo Park, Calif., venture capital firm that has funded many Silicon Valley companies.

Also leaving News Corp fast cash loans.’s board is Kenneth Cowley, a former News Corp. executive.

Cowley and Perkins will leave after News Corp.’s Oct. 21 annual meeting, the company said.

Standing for election at the meeting will be James Breyer, another venture capitalist and nominee to the board. He is a partner of Accel Partners and serves on the board of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Dell Inc.

News Corp.’s independent directors, including Perkins, expressed their support for the company’s senior management in a July statement.

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BHP Billiton Ltd. announced Friday that it completed its takeover of U.S.-based Petrohawk Energy Corp.

BHP Billiton said the $12.1 billion acquisition follows the previously announced completion of the tender offer.

BHP Billiton petroleum chief executive Michael Yeager said the Petrohawk takeover adds high-quality growth to the company.

“With the completion of this transaction, BHP Billiton Petroleum is on track to deliver compound annual growth in production volumes of 10 percent for the remainder of the decade,” he said.

“We are excited that Petrohawk’s sizable U.S. work force is joining our talented group of professionals and we are ready to grow this business over the long-term,” he added payday loan online.

BHP Billiton announced in July it would buy Petrohawk for $12.1 billion in cash, giving it greater access to U.S. shale gas assets.

The acquisition gives BHP Billiton assets covering about 1 million acres in Texas and Louisiana, with an estimated 2011 production of 158,000 barrels of oil equivalent each day.

“Petrohawk has requested the New York Stock Exchange to take the necessary steps with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to delist Petrohawk’s common stock from the NYSE,” BHP Billiton’s statement said.

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Swiss specialty chemicals and biotechnology company Lonza Group Ltd. says it will buy Arch Chemicals Inc., a maker of antibacterial products, for $1.2 billion in cash.

The deal values the Norwalk, Conn., company at $47.20 per share. Lonza says it will start a tender offer for Arch Chemicals shares by Friday, and it expects to complete the acquisition later in 2011.

Lonza said it will have about $1.6 billion in annual revenue from sales of bacteria-killing products, making it one of the leaders in that market short term personal loans. It said Arch Chemicals reported $1.2 billion in sales of those products in 2010, and $1.4 billion in total revenue.

Shares of Arch Chemicals surged in recent days, and the stock gained $4.23, or 10 percent, to $46.40 in premarket trading.

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Federal documents show it took Exxon Mobil nearly twice as long as it publicly disclosed to fully seal a pipeline that spilled roughly 1,000 barrels of crude oil into the Yellowstone River.

Details about the company’s response to the Montana pipeline burst emerged late Tuesday as the Department of Transportation ordered the company bury the duct deeper beneath the riverbed, where it is buried 5 to 8 feet underground to deliver 40,000 barrels of oil a day to a refinery in Billings.

The federal agency’s records indicate the pipeline was not fully shut down for 56 minutes after the break occurred Friday near Laurel. That’s longer than the 30 minutes that company officials claimed Tuesday in a briefing with federal officials and Gov. Brian Schweitzer.

An Exxon Mobil spokesman said the longer time span was based on information provided to the agency by the company and the discrepancy might have come about because Exxon Mobil Pipeline Co. President Gary Pruessing was speaking without any notes in front of him when he addressed Schweitzer.

“Clearly our communication with the regulator (DOT) is the one that we’ve got precision on,” spokesman Alan Jeffers said.

It was not the first time the company offered clarification of its response and assessment of the spill. A day earlier, the company acknowledged under political pressure that the leak’s impact could extend far beyond a 10-mile stretch of the river it initially said was the most affected area. The company had earlier downplayed government officials’ assertions that damage was spread over dozens of miles.

The governor toured the area Tuesday as the waterway rose above flood stage and stoked fears that surging currents could push crude into undamaged areas and back channels vital to the river’s prized fishery. Conditions have hampered efforts to find the cause of the break.

The river has been flowing too swiftly for crews to reach some oiled areas, and forecasters said mountain snowmelt was adding to high water levels. Officials speculated that the surge may push oil into areas that haven’t yet been damaged.

Most observations have been made through aerial flights.

A few miles downriver from the broken pipe, homeowner Robert Castleberry said he had been out of his house since Saturday because of dangerous fumes from oil that the river pushed across his yard and into the crawlspace beneath his house.

Castleberry’s wife suffers from heart disease and the fumes gave her difficulty breathing, he said. While he appreciated the company promising to cover the couple’s immediate expenses, the retired fuel truck driver was doubtful workers would be able to clean up the black, gooey film that laced through the underbrush along the river.

“Exxon’s been nothing but 100 percent with us,” he said. “But when you get into brush that thick, that’s going to be virtually impossible to clean.”

Company and federal officials said they have only seen oil about 25 miles downstream from the site of the break near Laurel. But Schweitzer said he believes some has traveled hundreds of miles to North Dakota.

“At seven miles per hour, some oil is already in North Dakota. That’s a given,” Schweitzer said. “I’m asking everyone to get out there and report what you see on the river.”

Representatives of Exxon Mobil and the Environmental Protection Agency said they had no reports of oil beyond the town of Huntley.

Transportation officials said Tuesday that oil was observed as far downstream as 240 miles in Terry, Mont. The agency said that information was provided by Exxon Mobil, but company spokesman Alan Jeffers said he was not aware of any such sighting.

Exxon planned to test the river’s conditions with a jet boat, with eight more on standby if the launch is successful, Glass said.

Federal regulators have ordered Exxon to make safety improvements to the 20-year-old pipeline. Among them was an order to re-bury the line to protect against external damage and assess risk where it crosses a waterway, which the company intended to comply with, Jeffers said.

“We will follow their requirements,” he said.

The company also will have to submit a restart plan to the Department of Transportation before crude can again flow through the line.

Schweitzer also ordered a review of pipelines that cross major and minor rivers in the state. Officials will look at the pipes’ age, location of shut-off valves and whether they are similar to the ruptured pipe. He said the state has 88 such crossings.

Modern pipelines can be buried as much as 25 feet beneath bodies of water; Exxon Mobil’s Silvertip line was 5 to 8 feet below the bottom of the Yellowstone.

The line was temporarily shut down in May after Laurel officials raised concerns that it could be at risk as the Yellowstone started to rise. The company restarted the line after a day, following a review of its safety record.

Schweitzer said he noticed that oil was pooling in areas near banks with slower-moving water, close to islands and cottonwood stands that support the microbes and insects that bring life to the river.

“Those riparian areas are a biological treasure trove. That’s the health and wealth of the river,” he said.

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