NEW YORK – Toyota Motor Corp. plans Monday to try to undercut allegations that its electronics systems caused the sudden acceleration problems that led to the recall of more than 8 million vehicles.

The automaker plans an event in which it will seek to debunk a critic who claims faulty gas pedals did not cause the sudden acceleration.

Toyota will aim to duplicate the scenario created by David W. Gilbert, a professor at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Gilbert told Congress on Feb. 23 that he was able to recreate sudden acceleration in a Toyota vehicle by manipulating its electronics.

WASHINGTON – At last, the unemployment crisis seems to be easing. That's the good news.

The bad news? Job creation remains scant because companies still lack enough confidence in the economy to ramp up hiring.

The U.S. jobless rate held steady at 9.7 percent in February. And employers cut 36,000 jobs — fewer than predicted. Those figures signaled that the job market is slowly healing.

Some economists said the jobless rate may have peaked and predicted the employment report for March will kick off a string of monthly job gains.

CLEVELAND – Actor and activist Danny Glover is calling on Academy Awards nominees and others in the film industry to not wear Hugo Boss suits at Sunday's awards ceremony.

The 'Lethal Weapon' star, in collaboration with the Workers United labor union, made the request in a letter on behalf of 375 Cleveland-area factory workers who'll lose their jobs if the German company closes the plant at the end of next month as planned.

SKOPJE (AFP) – Macedonia's government on Saturday unveiled a new set of anti-crisis measures in a bid to cope with the economic fallout from the global financial crisis.

The so-called "anti-crisis package" consists of 24 measures aimed at strengthening and supporting loans, ownership issues, agriculture, construction and social politics, Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski told reporters.

"These new measures come as a result of serious and continuous dialogue between the government and businesses," Gruevski said.

WASHINGTON, March 6 –

NEW YORK – American International Group Inc. will receive a termination fee of $230.6 million if the sale of its Asian life insurance business to Britain's Prudential PLC falls through.

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission late Friday, AIG said the deal, announced March 1 and given the go-ahead by the U.S. government, still requires regulatory and shareholder approval.

The sale of American International Assurance Co., or AIA Group Ltd., is expected to net AIG $25 billion in cash and $10.5 billion in securities. It's the largest in a series of deals in AIG's efforts to restructure and pay off its $182.5 billion rescue package from the government.

PHILADELPHIA – The CEO of Norfolk Southern Corp. received $10.9 million in compensation for 2009, 9 percent less than the prior year as the railroad operator grappled with the economic downturn, according to an Associated Press analysis of a regulatory filing Friday.

The smaller compensation was due to a $1.1 million decline in Charles Moorman's performance-based bonus, which was not offset by much smaller increases in other compensation. Moorman is also the company's chairman and president.

A filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission shows that his base salary remained the same from 2008, at $950,000. His performance-linked bonus fell to $613,700 from nearly $1.8 million.

A law firm faces conflict allegations over its projected $3.5 million fee for representing shareholders who obtained no monetary or equitable relief in a class action settlement over the merger of drug giants Merck and Schering-Plough.

Class member Allan Marain, a lawyer in New Brunswick, N.J., filed papers Wednesday opposing the settlement, which a federal judge has tentatively approved, and seeking sanctions against the firm, Carella, Byrne, Cecchi, Olstein, Brody & Agnello in Roseland, N.J.

The parties settled the claims in In re Schering-Plough/Merck Merger Litigation, 2:09-cv-1099, last July, and Carella Byrne and Merck reached the agreement for the $3.5 million fee in talks with a court-appointed mediator last November. A final approval hearing is set for March 24.

Cravath Swaine & Moore can continue its representation of Air Products & Chemicals in the company's bid to acquire competitor Airgas, despite Airgas' claims of conflict, Delaware Chancery Court Chancellor William B. Chandler III ruled Friday afternoon.

Cravath had represented both companies for years and Airgas alleged the firm had confidential information about Airgas that could be used in assisting Air Products in its $5.1 billion takeover bid.

The ruling in Air Products v. Airgas comes nearly two weeks after Judge Eduardo C. Robreno of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania said it wasn't appropriate for him to decide whether Cravath could represent Air Products in Delaware litigation, deferring the decision to Chandler. Robreno said he would stay the Pennsylvania action, Airgas v. Cravath Swaine & Moore, until Chandler rules and then revisit Airgas' damages claims against the firm for alleged breach of fiduciary duty.

BEIJING – China's central bank governor acknowledged Saturday that Beijing is using its controversial exchange-rate controls to cope with the global economic crisis and said it will be cautious about retreating from the policy.

Gov. Zhou Xiaochuan's comments come as Beijing faces rising pressure to ease controls that Washington and other trading partners say keep its yuan undervalued, swelling its trade surplus. President Barack Obama says he will press for an end to currency systems that he says depress export prices and hurt American companies.