Business Top Stories from Associated Press (AP)

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) , Samsung Electronics Co. said Wednesday it expects 10 percent growth in PC sales by volume this year as it bets on new PCs that are hybrids of laptops and tablets to lift sluggish PC demand.

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (AP) , A surfer was killed Tuesday by a shark off a beach at coastal Vandenberg Air Force Base following a summer of shark sightings along the Central California coast...

MIDLAND, Mich. (AP) , The Dow Chemical Co. will eliminate about 2,400 jobs and close roughly 20 manufacturing facilities as part of a restructuring plan aimed at coping with slowing economic growth in Europe and elsewhere. The manufacturing giant said Tuesday that the job cuts amount to 5 percent of the company's workforce worldwide.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) , South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix reported a small net profit in the third quarter Wednesday thanks to a foreign exchange gain that partly offset lower sales of computer memory chips. SK Hynix Inc. said it posted 2 billion won ($1.8 million) in net profit for July through October on revenue of 2.4 trillion won.

BEIJING (AP) , China's manufacturing improved this month, adding to signs an economic recovery might be taking shape after a sharp slump in the world's No. 2 economy. A preliminary version of HSBC's monthly purchasing managers' index rose to a three-month high of 49.1 points on a 100-point scale, the bank said Wednesday.

LOS ANGELES (AP) , Britney Spears' self-styled manager took the stand in his defamation lawsuit against her parents Tuesday, claiming he acted to protect her from paparazzi and others during a critical period in her life. Sam Lutfi told jurors how he met Spears at a nightclub in May 2007 and said she struck up a conversation by asking him if she could have his hat.

NEW YORK (AP) , A New Jersey woman who worked for the NBA as a senior account executive filed a $3 million gender discrimination lawsuit against the league Tuesday, saying it forced her and two other women with young children out of their jobs.

WASHINGTON (AP) , The presidential candidates sparred over China during a debate on foreign policy Monday but as usual the focus was less on the Asian giant's rise as a world power than its impact on the American economy.

WASHINGTON (AP) , Voters didn't always get the straight goods when President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney made their case for foreign policy and national security leadership Monday night before their last super-sized audience of the campaign. A few of their detours into domestic issues were problematic too.

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) , A Chinese factory supervisor who caused an uproar by tearing up a poster of Cambodia's late King Norodom Sihanouk was transferred Tuesday to a city court where she could face formal charges for insulting the monarchy and inciting public disorder.

LONDON (AP) , BBC reporters put their own bosses in the hot seat over their role in expanding pedophilia scandal Monday, airing footage from a previously-unseen expose of one of the BBC's most popular entertainers and quizzing senior management about why they canned the bombshell program.

BOSTON (AP) , A congressional committee on Monday sought a decade's worth of records from a company at the center of a deadly meningitis outbreak as new state documents detailed problems an outside firm hired to do an assessment found there in 2006.

CARACOL, Haiti (AP) , Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton encouraged foreigners to invest in Haiti as she and her husband Bill led a star-studded delegation gathered Monday to inaugurate a new industrial park at the center of U.S. efforts to help the country rebuild after the 2010 earthquake.

MINGALADON, Myanmar (AP) , The landscape of Mingaladon township on the northern outskirts of Myanmar's main city tells a story of economic upheaval. Skeletons of factories for a new industrial zone rise from thick green rice paddies local farmers say were seized by one of Myanmar's most powerful companies.

WASHINGTON (AP) , Arlington National Cemetery on Monday made available to the public a massive electronic database detailing the gravesites of the roughly 400,000 people buried there. Cemetery officials built the database over the last two years to verify the accuracy of their records brought into question by reports of misidentified graves.