Business Top Stories from Associated Press (AP)

WASHINGTON (AP) , Vice President Joe Biden has asked Ecuador to turn down an asylum request from National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden, the country's president said Saturday. Rafael Correa, in a weekly television address, offered little sympathy for the Obama administration's view that Snowden is a criminal who should be swiftly returned to the U.S.

FURNACE CREEK, Calif. (AP) , Associated Press photographer Chris Carlson is no stranger to heat. He grew up just outside Palm Springs, Calif. On Friday, he returned to his desert roots, leaving his home near Los Angeles and driving to the hottest place on earth on one of the hottest days of the year. Below, he describes what it is like to be in triple digit heat in Death Valley: ___

MENLO PARK, Calif. (AP) , Facebook is pulling ads from pages that contain violence or sexual content. The social network said that on Monday, it will expand its definition of pages and groups that are too controversial to carry advertisements.

JOHANNESBURG (AP) , Paying tribute to his personal hero, President Barack Obama met privately Saturday with Nelson Mandela's family as the world anxiously awaited news on the condition of the ailing 94-year-old anti-apartheid leader.

ST. GEORGE'S, Grenada (AP) , Legislators in Grenada have approved a bill that makes it a crime to offend people through websites such as Facebook and Twitter. The measure was approved as part of an electronic crimes bill passed late Friday in the tiny eastern Caribbean island.

LONDON (AP) , One of two suspects shot by police following the slaying of a British soldier in London last week has been released from the hospital and taken to a police station for questioning, police said Tuesday.

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) , Indiana will likely stop defending a law that stripped Medicaid funds from Planned Parenthood after the Supreme Court declined to hear the case Tuesday, an attorney who represents the nation's largest abortion provider said.

NEW YORK (AP) , Broadway got two pieces of bad news Tuesday: The total box office take dipped ever so slightly this past season and the number of ticket buyers dipped 6 percent. Both were blamed in part on Superstorm Sandy.

WASHINGTON (AP) , The storm engulfing the Internal Revenue Service could provide a boost for lawmakers who want to simplify U.S. tax laws , a code that is so complicated most Americans buy commercial software to help them or simply hire someone else to do it all.

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) , Ethiopia started to divert the flow of the Blue Nile river to construct a giant dam on Tuesday, according to its state media, in a move that could impact the Nile-dependent Egypt.

NEW YORK (AP) , After decades of decline, independent bookselling has become a growth industry. For the fourth year in a row, membership has increased in the American Bookseller Association, the independent stores' trade group. According to CEO Oren Teicher, the association now includes 1,632 members , some operating in multiple locations , up 65 from last year.

HAVANA (AP) , Cuban authorities said Tuesday that they will begin offering public Internet access at more than 100 cyber-salons across the island, though home Web service remains greatly restricted. ...

CLEVELAND (AP) , Jim Brown has come back to the team he helped lead to its last NFL championship. Brown will return in an unspecified role with the Cleveland Browns, who will formally reunite with the Hall of Famer at a news conference on Wednesday.

WASHINGTON (AP) , In the months leading up to the killing of Osama bin Laden, veteran intelligence analyst Robert Cardillo was given the nickname "Debbie Downer." With each new tidbit of information that...

Americans gathered at memorials, museums and monuments and the president laid a wreath at Arlington National Cemetery to honor fallen service members on Memorial Day, as combat in Afghanistan approaches 12 years and the ranks of World War II veterans dwindle.