IN BRIEF

Palm cancels plan for portable computer

Palm, trailing Research In Motion in the market for e-mail devices, canceled plans to sell a portable computer as the company refocuses on mobile phones.

Palm, based in Sunnyvale, California, wants to offer a "consistent user experience," Chief Executive Officer Ed Colligan said Wednesday in a statement on the company's Web site. Palm was almost ready to ship the device, called Foleo, he said.

The company, whose Treo e-mail phone has lost market share to Research In Motion's BlackBerry and Apple's iPhone, unveiled the Foleo on May 30 and said it would go on sale for $499 this summer. The computer was meant to be used with a mobile phone.

WASHINGTON

Coca-Cola sets new recycling goal

Coca-Cola Co. announced Wednesday that it will help build a $45 million recycling plant in South Carolina as it set a new goal to recycle or reuse every plastic bottle it sells in the United States.

The company did not set a target date for meeting that goal and acknowledged it has a long way to go. About 10 percent of its plastic bottles are recycled now, the company said.

The 30-acre plant, to be built in Spartanburg, S.C., would produce about 100 million pounds of food-grade recyclable plastic per year. That's the equivalent of nearly 2 billion 20-ounce bottles or about 10 percent of the plastic used for U.S. production each year, the company said.

SEATTLE

Boeing delays testing on new 787 jetliner

Flight testing on Boeing Co.'s new 787 jetliner has been delayed until mid-November or mid-December, months later than originally planned. But company executives insisted Wednesday they remain on track to deliver the first plane on time next spring.

Mike Bair, vice president and general manager of the 787 program, said it's taking the company longer than anticipated to get the first plane ready because of complications with final assembly and finalizing flight-control software.

That's pushed the start of test-flying well into the fall, he said. The company's earlier forecast called for it to begin during a monthlong window in late August.

BP compromised safety, lawyer argues

BP Plc knowingly compromised safety and maintenance to maximize profit at its Texas refinery, leading to a deadly 2005 explosion, a lawyer for workers injured in the blast told a jury.

"They could've run this plant safely, if they'd chosen to do so," attorney Brent Coon said Wednesday in his opening statement at a trial in state court in Galveston, Texas. "The evidence will show they chose the cheap route."

The explosion at BP's largest refinery killed 15 people and injured hundreds. It led to more than 3,000 lawsuits, a record $21 million fine by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration and a finding by the U.S. Chemical Safety Board that BP endangered workers by cutting costs.

A jury of four men and eight women on Wednesday began hearing the first cases to come to trial since the accident.

NEW YORK

Sirius sees closing deal with XM

Sirius Satellite Radio said in a regulatory filing on Wednesday that it still expects to close its deal to merge with XM Satellite Radio Holdings by year's end.

However the combination of the only two U.S. satellite radio companies still faces significant regulatory hurdles, including approval by both the Department of Justice as well as the Federal Communications Commission.

Sirius also said it complied with a request for additional information from the Department of Justice about the proposed combination.

Blair Levin, a regulatory analyst with Stifel Nicolaus, said in a note Wednesday that it was unlikely DOJ officials had yet delved into the kind of detailed discussions that might signal which way they were leaning, and it may be mid- to late October before they develop a view on the deal.

CHICAGO

Ace Hardware discovers shortfall, plans restatement

Ace Hardware Corp. discovered an approximately $154 million shortfall on its books while preparing to convert from retailer-owned cooperative to for-profit corporation and likely will have to restate its financial results for the last five years, President and CEO Ray Griffith said Wednesday.

Ace has called off the conversion plan and hired an audit consulting firm to help rectify an accounting problem which appears to date to 2002, Griffith told The Associated Press. The company may have to forgo returning profits to store owners this year as a result, he said.

He said no money or inventory is missing but the Oak Brook, Ill.-based company has not been able to determine the source of what he characterized as a "significant accounting error."

Ace notified the dealers who own its 4,600 stores of the problem in letters Wednesday from Griffith and its board of directors.

NEW YORK

Treasury prices rally; yields lower

Treasury prices rallied Wednesday, sending yields to multimonth lows on weaker than expected home sales data and labor reports that raised concerns about turmoil in credit markets slowing the broader economy.

The benchmark 10-year Treasury note closed 0.59 points higher at 102.28 with a yield of 4.47 percent, its weakest level since March 14 and down from 4.56 percent at Tuesday's close.

The 30-year long bond gained 0.88 points to 103.5 with a 4.78 percent yield, down from 4.84 percent on Tuesday.