Toyota says vehicles have faulty engines

Toyota says vehicles have faulty engines

WASHINGTON

Toyota Motor Corp. said Thursday about 270,000 cars sold worldwide, including luxury Lexus sedans, have potentially faulty engines. It’s the latest quality issue to confront the Japanese automaker after a string of massive recalls.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the U.S. government’s auto-safety agency, said Toyota had not formally notified it about a recall. Japan’s top-selling daily Yomiuri said the company will inform the Japanese transport ministry of a recall Monday, but the paper cited no sources.

Google to buy ITA Software

SAN FRANCISCO

Google Inc. plans to buy travel-technology company ITA Software Inc. in a $700 million deal that would enable the Internet search leader to steer more of the airline reservations booked on the Web.

The all-cash deal announced Thursday signals Google’s intention to challenge flight-comparison services that are ITA customers, including Kayak, FareCompare, Hotwire and Microsoft Corp.’s Bing Travel. The deal is likely to face a rigorous review by federal antitrust regulators.

Google: China blocking feature

BEIJING

A Google search feature was blocked in China on Thursday, the company said as it awaited Beijing’s decision on whether to renew its operating license amid tensions over censorship.

Google Inc. said mainland users were unable to use the search giant’s “suggest” feature, which offers possible results as they start to type a query. When it works, the feature may offer Chinese users a reminder that “tiananmen square massacre pictures” are available — but perhaps blocked — when they simply start typing in “tiananmen.”

From wire reports