Briefs

Toyota on the road to No. 1 automaker

TOYOTA, Japan -- Steadily, relentlessly, quietly. Toyota is closing in on dethroning General Motors, the longtime king of the world's automakers. On Friday, Toyota set a global sales target of 10.4 million vehicles for 2009 -- a number that would put the Japanese company far ahead of the current industry record of 9.55 million vehicles that GM sold in 1978. And it may not even take that long for the Japanese automaker to take the industry crown Detroit-based General Motors Corp. has worn for 76 years. Toyota has already beaten GM in global vehicle sales for the first half of this year, selling 4.72 million vehicles compared to GM's 4.67 million vehicles.

2007 vehicles boost gas mileage levels

WASHINGTON -- New vehicles are expected to set new records for average gas mileage in 2007, driven by improved technology and demand for fuel-efficient vehicles, the government reported. Vehicles from the 2007 model year are projected to average 26.4 miles per gallon overall, a gain of 1 mpg over the previous year and above the previous record of 26.2 mpg in 1987. The increases are attributed to higher demand for hybrids and more fuel-efficient vehicles because of high gas prices.

Google begins hosting news

SAN FRANCISCO -- Google Inc. on Friday began hosting material produced by four news services on its own Web site instead of only sending readers to other destinations. That could diminish Internet traffic to other media sites where those stories and photos are also found -- a development that could reduce the online advertising revenue of newspapers and broadcasters. Google negotiated licensing deals with the news services.

German spying plan controversial

BERLIN -- German officials on Friday defended a proposal to use "Trojan horse" software to secretly monitor potential terror suspects' hard drives, amid fierce debate over whether the measures violate civil liberties.