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WASHINGTON – The US government, while pushing for tougher sanctions against Tehran, has given $107 billion in the last 10 years to US and foreign companies doing business in Iran, much of it in the energy sector, The New York Times reported Saturday.

Despite the threat of punishment for companies that seek US federal contracts while dealing with Iran, the Times said successive administrations have struggled to exert authority over foreign companies and overseas units of US firms.

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WASHINGTON – President Barack Obamas budget plans would rack up $9.8 trillion more US debt by 2020, or $1.2 trillion more than the White House has forecast, the Congressional Budget Office said on Friday.

Republicans seized on the estimate to fault Obama, saying his plans would raise US government debt to an “alarming” 90 percent of the US economy.

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TOKYO – Toyota is considering a recall of its hot-selling Corolla subcompact after complaints about power steering problems – another blow to the worlds largest automaker already reeling from a string of recalls for safety problems.

Company President Akio Toyoda, meanwhile, said he wont be attending the US congressional hearing on the automakers safety lapses, entrusting the job to US-based executives – though he did say he would consider appearing if summoned. He said he wanted to focus his energies on improving quality worldwide.

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WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama Friday signed into law a bill allowing the United States to borrow another 1.9 trillion dollars, and offsetting the cost of new programs with spending cuts or tax rises.

Obama signed the measure, raising the US debt ceiling to $14.3 trillion, with no public flourish, at a time of rising public anxiety over increasing US government debts and deficits.

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TOKYO/WASHINGTON: Toyota Motor Corp said it would call in nearly half a million new Prius and other hybrid cars for braking problems, the third recall in a spiraling safety crisis at the world’s biggest carmaker.

US authorities stepped up scrutiny of Toyota, whose reputation was already on the line over fixes to more than 8 million vehicles worldwide for slipping floormats and sticky accelerator pedals.

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NEW YORK: US and European stocks eked out gains on Monday, lifted by defensive shares, while the euro edged up from 8-1/2-month lows despite persistent worries about the fiscal health of highly indebted nations in the euro zone.

A modest rebound on Wall Street helped pushed the euro to a session high above $1.37, although sentiment toward the single currency remained broadly negative, analysts said. US stocks edged higher after results at drugstore operator CVS Caremark Corp. and toy maker Hasbro Inc. topped expectations and both companies raised their outlooks. Rising defensive stocks such as drug makers helped European shares snap three days of losses, but worries about Greece and other debt-laden European countries kept gains in check.

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TOKYO – Toyota is counting on a trusted veteran with ample US experience, Yoshimi Inaba, when the Japanese automakers recall problems are scrutinized by Congress later this week.

Inaba, 63, a sales expert, was hand-picked from semiretirement by Toyota Motor Corp. President Akio Toyoda last year to head the North American operations and help steer Toyota through the companys biggest earnings slump in its 72-year history as global auto sales dived.

Now he must explain a spate of safety problems – first with floor mats that could entangle the gas pedal, followed by a design flaw that could cause a depressed gas pedal to get stuck – covering more than 7 million vehicles worldwide.

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TOKYO: Toyota Motor Corp. has been hit by over 100 complaints in the US and Japan about brake problems with the popular Prius hybrid, the latest in a spate of quality troubles for the automaker as it grapples with massive global recalls.

The Japanese companys sales are being battered in the US Toyotas biggest market after recalls of top-selling models to fix a gas pedal that can stick in the depressed position. The new Prius gas-electric hybrid, which went on sale in Japan and the US in May 2009, is not part of the recalls that extend to Europe and China, covering nearly 4.5 million vehicles. The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has received about 100 complaints involving the brakes of the Prius new model. Two involved crashes resulting in injuries.

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Washington – The 700-billion-dollar US government effort to rescue the financial system has failed to meet key goals such as sparking lending and curbing risky activities by banks, a special auditor said Sunday.

The special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program said in a report to Congress that it is too soon to measure the overall success of the program passed at the height of the financial crisis in October 2008.

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SAN FRANCISCO – More than half of the operators of US power plants and other “critical infrastructure” say in a new study that their computer networks have been infiltrated by sophisticated adversaries. In many cases, foreign governments are suspected.

Extortion is a common motivation, with hackers demanding money to end or agree not to carry out an attack.

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