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Only two of 13 small SUVs are getting passing grades in front-end crash tests done by an insurance industry group.

Popular models such as the Honda CR-V, Ford Escape and Jeep Wrangler received only “marginal” or “poor” ratings from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

Subaru’s 2014 Forester was the only vehicle to get a “good” rating. The 2013 Mitsubishi Outlander Sport received an “acceptable” rating.

The IIHS tested crashes that cover only 25 percent of a vehicle’s front end. The group’s tests are more stringent than the U.S. government’s full-width front crash test.

IIHS is a nonprofit research group funded by auto insurance companies. It develops crash tests to cut deaths, injuries and property damage from car and truck crashes.

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Confidence among U.S. homebuilders rebounded this month, reflecting improved sales trends during the spring home-selling season and the strongest outlook for sales over the next six months in more than six years.

The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo builder sentiment index climbed to 44 this month from 41 in April. It was the first increase since December.

Measures of customer traffic and current sales conditions also improved from April’s reading.

Readings below 50 suggest negative sentiment about the housing market no fax payday loans. The last time the index was at 50 or higher was in April 2006.

Concerns over rising costs for land, building materials and labor have dimmed builders’ confidence in recent months.

Regardless, steady job creation, near record-low mortgage rates and rising home values have spurred sales this year.

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Dell board members say they need more details from investor Carl Icahn if he wants them to seriously consider his latest challenge to Michael Dell’s $24.4 billion plan to take the computer maker private.

Icahn and prominent Dell shareholder Southeastern Asset Management said last week they want to keep Dell Inc. publicly traded and give shareholders $12 in cash or more shares.

But a Dell board special committee says that proposal comes with many unanswered questions. They say they need more details on financing and who will run Dell, among other items.

An investment group led by company founder Michael Dell offered earlier this year to pay $13.65 per share to take the Round Rock, Texas, company private. Icahn and other shareholders say that price is too low.

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A one-time fitness trainer who laced his ex-girlfriend’s drink with an anti-anxiety drug while visiting her apartment, then sexually assaulted her, has been jailed for six years.

Fabrice Demodenga, 32, a repeat petty thief and credit-card fraudster, rekindled a friendship with his former girlfriend, who made it plain she didn’t want to have sex, Justice Katherine Corrick said Monday.

Instead, he arrived with condoms and a plan to secretly give her the anti-anxiety drug lorazepam.

“Mr. Demodenga engaged in a calculated invasion of (the victim’s) integrity made worse by the fact he was a guest in her home,” Corrick said.

Demodenga pleaded guilty midtrial in Ontario Superior Court to administering a noxious substance, sex assault and theft.

On May 21, 2011, Demodenga picked up his ex-girlfriend at a subway station and went to her apartment. She had repeatedly told him he could not spend the night. They ordered pizza and were going to watch a movie on TV. Demodenga brought four vodka coolers.

After a while the victim began to feel dizzy and unwell. She recalls him telling her how beautiful she was and kissing her body. Then she remembers her pants and underwear were off. She recalls Demodenga having sex with her, but stopping when she asked him to.

Suddenly she passed out on the floor. When she woke up the next morning, she noticed her bag had been moved payday loans. An envelope with $250 was missing. While Demodenga was in the shower, she checked his bag and found the money along with five of her personal cheques, which she quietly retrieved.

She went to work, but vomited two or three times. She visited a hospital and had a urine test, which was positive for benzodiazepine.

Demodenga has told a psychiatrist he had crushed a tablet of lorazepam — a benzodiazepine drug — and put it in her pizza, but the judge found he had spiked her drink.

The victim said she has flashbacks of the assault and sometimes feels like killing herself. “I continue to feel dirty, gross(ed) out and disgusting in my skin,” she wrote in a statement.

Forensic psychiatrist Dr. Scott Woodside diagnosed Demodenga as having an anti-social personality disorder and polysubstance dependence disorders involving alcohol, cocaine and benzodiazepines.

He is the father of two boys, 1 and 10, who live with their respective mothers. The Congo-born man told Woodside he has a refugee claim in Canada and is engaged to be married.

Crown prosecutor Eadit Rokach called for a 6

Belden’s profit in the first quarter that ended March 31 was $22.2 million, or 49 cents a share, down from $24 million, or 52 cents a share, a year ago. 

Its revenue increased 15.4 percent to $507.5 million in the first quarter. 

The Clayton-based maker of cable, connectivity and networking products raised its fiscal 2013 full-year guidance for adjusted income from continuing operations per share to between $3 unsecured personal loans.49 and $3.69.

“As expected, our two industrial platforms performed well in the quarter, and they more than offset demand weakness in our European and enterprise markets,” president and CEO John Stroup said in a statement.

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The Bank of England will extend by one year its plan to provide cheap loans to companies and consumers and make credit available for small companies, enhancing a nine-month-old program to aid the economy.

The Funding for Lending Scheme will now last until January 2015, and will make lending to small companies more attractive and open to non-bank lenders, the BOE and the Treasury said in London today. The government says its program has lowered borrowing costs by about 100 basis points and provided 13.8 billion pounds ($21 billion) between its creation and December.

Record unemployment in the Netherlands is compounding Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said he wants to see a

Cyprus’ president said Friday he will ask the European Union to provide more help for the crisis-hit country, which has to pay for most of its expected 23 billion euro ($30 billion) bailout.

President Nicos Anastasiades said he will send letters to European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and EU Council chief Herman Van Rompuy calling for “a change of EU policy” toward Cyprus by offering additional assistance.

News of the letters sparked speculation among investors that the country was pushing for more money from its international creditors _ the European Commission, European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund _ under its bailout package.

However, government spokesman Christos Stylianides said this request for help _ which will also be directed to the European Parliament and to the Irish EU presidency _ would not seek more bailout cash. Instead, Cyprus would ask to tap more of the EU’s structural and social cohesion funds, which are used to support economic development and invest in infrastructure.

Stylianides said Cyprus would also ask for a bigger EU contribution to jointly funded infrastructure projects.

“The government will move on all levels and hopes to secure significant, additional sources of funding for growth and social cohesion,” he said.

Last month, Cyprus and its international creditors agreed a 17 billion euro bailout package for the country so it could rescue its banking sector and prop up its economy. That figure was based on an estimate that independent auditors had come up with last November. The euro countries and IMF would contribute 10 billion euros, with Cyprus making up the rest _ mostly by overhauling its banks.

However, since then, the bailout package has increased to 23 billion euros, with Cyprus’s share burgeoning to 13 billion euros, according to a draft document by its creditors. The 6 billion euro increase is because of a worsened economic outlook and the ailing banks’ higher than expected financing needs.

Stylianides blamed the previous, left-wing administration for dragging its feet and not swiftly finalizing a bailout deal _ something that resulted in the economy and the banks being drained of money.

But he said the extra 6 billion euros that Cyprus must fork out could be covered by the measures already agreed to in the bailout deal.

The bailout deal called for imposing losses of between 37.5 percent and 60 percent on deposits over 100,000 euros in the Bank of Cyprus, the largest lender. Depositors in Laiki, the second-largest bank, face losses of up to 80 percent. Cyprus’ increased financing needs suggest the losses may be on the higher end of those ranges.

The government spokesman said 10.6 billion euros will come from the restructuring of the banks. The rest of the money will come from taxes, a rollover of public debt held by domestic investors, privatizations, possibly a sale of some of the central bank’s gold reserves and better terms on a 2.5 billion euro loan Russia had granted in 2011.

As part of its bank restructuring, and to prevent a run on the country’s banks, Cypriot authorities have imposed a series of capital controls _ the first that any country has applied in the eurozone’s 14-year history.

Late Thursday night, the country’s central bank lifted all restrictions on payments up to 300,000 euros to re-energize cash-starved domestic businesses which had difficulty paying suppliers and employees. Moreover, the daily limit on transactions outside of Cyprus not requiring prior approval is raised from 5,000 to 20,000 euros, while the 1,000 euro limit on travelers taking cash with them on trips abroad has been doubled.

However, a daily cash withdrawal limit of 300 euros remains in place, as well as a ban on cashing checks. Bank-to- bank transfers are limited to 2,000 euros per person per month and 10,000 euros for businesses. The decree also introduced a new restriction on opening new accounts in banks where customers had never done business before.

Meanwhile, the Cyprus Central Bank announced Friday that Deloitte Financial Advisory would carry out an independent audit of the country’s banks to see if they are doing enough to combat money laundering. The Council of Europe’s anti-money laundering body Moneyval has already carried out a parallel audit.

Cypriot authorities agreed to the audit requested by its creditors amid allegations _ mainly from Germany _ that the country’s banks were being used to launder dirty Russian money. Cypriot authorities strongly denied the allegations.

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CHARLESTON, S.C. • The Boeing Co. is expanding in South Carolina, announcing it will invest $1 billion and create 2,000 new jobs over the next eight years.

Company spokeswoman Candy Eslinger on Tuesday confirmed the expansion at the company’s $750 million 787 assembly plant in North Charleston. The first 787 made in South Carolina rolled off the assembly line a year ago.

News of the expansion was first reported by The Post and Courier.

Eslinger says that the company is committed to the investment to qualify for economic development incentives being proposed this week in the state General Assembly.

The newspaper reported House Speaker Bobby Harrell and state Sen. Hugh Leatherman plan to introduce legislation Tuesday providing $120 million to offset Boeing’s upfront expansion costs, like site preparation and utility expenses.

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