Tokyo -- Toyota executives may get substantially smaller bonuses this fiscal year -- and possibly none at all -- because of harsh economic reality, sources said Sunday.

Citing informed sources, Kyodo reported that Toyota Motor Corp., Japan's biggest automaker, is considering cutting executives' salaries.

The cost-cutting actions will be taken up at a shareholders' meeting next June, the sources told the Japanese news agency. The moves come as Toyota is likely to revise further downward its group earnings projections for the current fiscal year ending March.

In fiscal 2007, Toyota paid a total about $11 million in bonuses to about 29 board members and a total of about $708,000 to seven auditors. In addition to the bonuses, the automaker paid a total of about $31.3 million in executives' salaries in fiscal 2007.

Doha, Qatar -- Qatar companies will have jobs for 37,000 Filipinos in the next few years, Philippines President Gloria Arroyo said during a visit to the Middle Eastern nation.

"I am glad to hear that there are 37,000 more job openings here for Filipinos," Arroyo said Saturday. "It just confirms the information we have from all over the world that employment among our workers is strong."

She made the comments at a meeting in Doha with chief executive officers and high-level executives of several companies that employ Filipino workers, The Peninsula reported Sunday.

Arroyo said the jobs in Qatar would make up for losses sustained by about 1,000 Filipino workers in other countries.

"For the few Filipinos who have lost their jobs -- so far our count is only 1,000, those that are confirmed, and around 500 who may lose their jobs -- the 37,000 jobs offered by these companies here in Qatar will make up for whoever loses or may lose their jobs," Arroyo said, noting the strong job-placement rate for Filipinos even with the global recession.

Washington -- Average U.S. gas prices have risen for two straight days following 68 consecutive daily declines, the motorist group AAA reported Sunday.

The national average price for a gallon of unleaded gas stood at $1.663 per gallon Saturday, up from Friday's average $1.66 per gallon, AAA's Daily Fuel Gauge Report indicated.

The last time prices got that low was Feb. 23, 2004, the group said.

Average gas prices have declined $2.19, or 57 percent, in the three months since pump prices began steadily falling, and are down 59.6 percent since their all-time high of $4.11 per gallon in July, the AAA said.

Copyright 2008 by United Press International.

Los Angeles -- Lower fuel prices and reduced demand for travel have U.S. airlines slashing some holiday ticket prices, say travel agents.

Travelers who can avoid flying at the most popular times and days are finding some of the lowest-priced plane tickets in years, said Tom Parson, chief executive of Bestfares.com.

"Forget the early bird getting the worm," Parsons said. "There is no reason to buy tickets in advance anymore."

Last month, the big U.S. airlines cut seat capacity by 7 percent, while passenger traffic fell 10 percent, meaning planes still had empty seats -- a trend expected to continue through December, Brian Ek, a spokesman for Priceline.com told the Los Angeles Times in a story published Saturday.

"We took a look at fares and found that depending on the route and travel dates, fares can be down as much as 10 percent over last year," Ek said.

Los Angeles -- Executives at Kohl's and Forever 21 say they will work quickly to convert the 46 Mervyns stores they jointly bought for $6.25 million.

Most of the stores are in California, where Mervyns for years had a strong retail presence before filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in July, the Los Angeles Times reported Saturday.

Their winning bid will give Kohl's, based in Wisconsin, access to "under-penetrated markets" and enable Forever 21, based in California, to begin big-box expansions, the Times reported.

"We got exactly the stores that we wanted," said Christopher Lee, senior vice president at Forever 21, which plans to take over 15 former Mervyns sites.

The new Forever 21 locations in California include Lakewood Center in Lakewood, Los Cerritos Center in Cerritos, Montebello Town Center in Montebello and the Mall of Victor Valley in Victorville.

Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates -- A Kuwaiti oil expert says OPEC needs to cut production by another 1.5 million to 2 million barrels a day to pressure prices back to a profitable level.

OPEC's decrease of 1.5 million barrels a day, which took effect Nov. 1, has proved insufficient, Musa Maarafi, who sits on Kuwait's oil advisory board, told the al-Kabas newspaper in a story published Saturday.

OPEC -- the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries -- is to meet in Algeria Dec. 17 to discuss further reductions, RIA Novosti reported.

Oil prices have neared $40 a barrel in recent weeks as recession has squeezed economies worldwide. The lower prices, down from a high of $174 a barrel, have restricted investment in extraction, said Maarafi, who wants to see oil back at $75 barrel.

Washington -- U.S. President-elect Barack Obama is considering a far bigger economic stimulus plan than before as job losses mount and the economy deteriorates, sources say.

Obama aides and advisers now see $600 billion spent on stimulus measures over a two-year period as "a very low-end estimate," with a final number likely to be between $700 billion and $1 trillion, The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday.

The U.S. unemployment rate is expected to hit 9 percent soon without aggressive intervention, officials say. That has prompted Obama's transition team to think bigger on a stimulus plan, with sources saying his economists have staked out $600 billion in the first year and $300 billion to $600 billion in the second, depending on economic conditions in 2010.

Washington -- Two more U.S. banks have been closed by federal regulators, bringing the number of failed institutions this year to 25, officials said.

The U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. says the two banks, Sanderson State Bank of Sanderson, Texas, and Haven Trust Bank, which operates four branches in Georgia, will reopen Monday under new ownership, CNN reported Saturday.

Sanderson State Bank had total assets of $37 million and total deposits of $27.9 million, while Haven Trust had total assets of $572 million and total deposits of $515 million.

CNN said Branch Banking & Trust, of Winston-Salem, N.C., has agreed to assume all of Haven Trust's deposits for $112,000.

Copyright 2008 by United Press International.

Minneapolis -- Delta Air Lines is offering voluntary buyouts to its U.S. employees but did not indicate how many jobs it wants to cut through the offer, officials said.

The offer is being extended both to Delta employees and workers with Northwest Airlines, which Delta purchased in October, Delta CEO Richard Anderson said in a Friday memo to employees obtained by the Star Tribune newspaper in Minneapolis.

"To deal with the effect of the recession, we are moving quickly and decisively to decrease systemwide capacity by 6 to 8 percent," Anderson said.

There will be two buyout programs available for employees from Jan. 15 to 31. One is targeted at employees with 10 or more years of service whose age and service years add up to at least 55. Another program is for ground workers and flight attendants who have at least five years of service, as well as for salaried employees who have a short tenure with either airline, the newspaper said.