BEIJING/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. arms sales to Taiwan hurt China's national security, its foreign minister said, escalating the rhetoric in a dispute threatening to deepen rifts between the world's biggest and third-biggest economies.

Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi was the latest and most senior official to denounce the arms sale plan Washington announced on Friday.

The Obama administration has defended the package worth about $6.4 billion as necessary to boost regional security.

Yang, traveling in Cyprus, said China and the United States had held many discussions about the arms sales, but Washington had ignored Beijing's demand they be stopped, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Sunday.

LAKEWOOD, N.J. – Toyota has launched a media campaign to bolster its reputation for quality as nervous customers confront dealers across the country about faulty gas pedal systems.

Crisis-management experts said Sunday that the recall of millions of cars and trucks isn't the Japanese auto maker's only problem: its message to Toyota owners — delivered in full-page ads Sunday in 20 major newspapers — isn't as clear and reassuring as it needs to be.

On Monday, the head of Toyota's North American sales division, Jim Lentz, is scheduled to appear on NBC's The Today Show to detail the company's plans for a fix. Federal regulators have approved Toyota's plan to start sending parts to dealers in the coming days.

SEOUL, South Korea – South Korea's exports surged in January, posting their biggest gain in more two than decades as shipments of auto parts, semiconductors and consumer electronics rose amid the global economic recovery.

Exports increased 47.1 percent to $31.08 billion in January from the same month the year before, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy said Monday. That was the biggest gain since South Korean exports rose of 52.6 percent in August of 1988, said ministry official So Myoung-hee.

Auto parts soared 158 percent from a year earlier, while semiconductors jumped 121.6 percent and liquid crystal devices gained 103.4 percent, the ministry said. Consumer electronics, petrochemicals and automobiles all racked up double-digit percentage increases.

TOKYO – Toyota Motor Corp. will give details early Monday in the U.S. on how it plans to fix gas pedals in millions of vehicles being recalled there.

The plan will come in a release at 6:30 a.m EST and will be followed by a conference call for the media at 11 a.m. EST, Toyota Motor Sales USA said. Toyota spokesman Paul Nolasco in Tokyo declined comment.

Toyota has recalled 4.2 million cars and trucks in North America, Europe and China to fix accelerator pedals that can get stuck or are slow to return when released, increasing the risk of a crash. The recalls do not involve Toyota models made and sold in Japan.

ROME (AFP) – Admiration for Sergio Marchionne, the dynamic boss of Italian automaker Fiat, is giving way to grumbling as unions and the government question some of his more aggressive decisions.

The Canadian-Italian credited with rescuing the Italian icon from the brink of bankruptcy in 2005 has come under fire recently for his "irreversible" decision to shut down Fiat's Termini Imerese factory in Sicily.

As workers called a four-hour strike over that decision next Wednesday, Fiat announced Tuesday it will halt production at all Italian plants for two weeks from February 22 because of a fall-off in orders.

LONDON (AFP) – Leading shares ended higher in London on Friday as sentiment was lifted by data showing stronger-than-expected US economic growth chalked up in the final quarter of last year.

The benchmark FTSE 100 index gained 0.83 percent to end the week at 5,188.52 points.

A US government report earlier showed the US economy roaring to life in the fourth quarter with a 5.7 percent growth rate on the back of brisk business spending to replenish inventories.

Lloyds was the most traded stock, seeing 190 million units change hands, followed by Vodafone, which saw 155 million shares switch owners.

TOKYO – Toyota is the latest Japanese corporate icon making headlines for all the wrong reasons.

News of the automaker's massive vehicle recalls over faulty gas pedals in the U.S. came just days after Japan Airlines, a once proud flag carrier, filed for bankruptcy, saddled with billions in debt.

Sony has lost its lead in consumer gadgets to the likes of Apple Inc. and has suffered its own quality mishaps. Honda, Japan's No. 2 automaker, is recalling 646,000 cars worldwide because of a faulty window switch.

BERLIN/ZURICH (Reuters) – German politicians were divided at the weekend over whether to buy the bank data of up to 1,500 possible tax evaders with accounts in Switzerland that media say an informant has offered to sell authorities.

The respected Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported that the whistleblower is asking for 2.5 million euros for the confidential data, which tax investigators believe could rake in 100 million euros for German state coffers.

The case risks prompting a fresh row over bank secrecy between Germany and Switzerland. Top Swiss politicians, including President Doris Leuthard, and bankers warned Germany against acquiring the data.

WASHINGTON – The economy's 5.7 percent growth last quarter — the fastest pace since 2003 — was a step toward shrinking the nation's 10 percent unemployment rate.

There's just one problem: Growth would have to equal 5 percent for all of 2010 just to lower the average jobless rate for the year by 1 percentage point.

And economists don't think that's possible.

Most analysts say economic activity will slow to 2.5 percent or 3 percent growth for the current quarter as the benefits fade from government stimulus efforts and from companies drawing down less of their stockpiles.

'Come on, don't ask me that,' Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele said when presented with the inevitable question about his 2012 intentions and if his political aspirations included running for the White House next time around.