Business highlights

TOKYO — The reception of Nintendo’s Wii video game console has been enthusiastic — too enthusiastic, apparently, for the straps that are supposed to keep the game controllers in the hands of players.

After widespread reports of controllers flying out of the hands of overly energetic players to cause a Wii bit of damage to TV sets, walls and bystanders, Nintendo is recalling 3.2 million straps to replace them with tougher stuff.

The console’s motion-sensitive remote controller can be swung like a tennis racket, golf club or sword, depending on the game. But soon after the Wii went on sale last month, the excesses of overzealous players became apparent.

Nintendo will now allow customers to exchange the old straps, which have a 0.024 inch diameter, for a beefed up strap that has a diameter of 0.04 inch, company spokesman Yasuhiro Minagawa said.

Little progress on currency talks, disputes with China

BEIJING — U.S. and Chinese officials pledged Friday to work on reducing China’s swollen trade surplus, but ended two days of closely watched talks with little progress on currency and other disputes that are straining ties.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said China would pursue currency flexibility, long-sought by Washington.

But he seemingly came away with little more than Beijing’s standard statement that it will relax currency controls and enact market-opening reforms at its own pace.

U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, a member of Paulson’s high-profile delegation, also urged Beijing to take faster action on its currency.

He said a stronger yuan would boost living standards and help ordinary Chinese as well as promoting global economic stability.

The two sides promised to launch discussions on opening China’s service industries wider to foreign competition and on cooperating in environmental protection and developing cleaner energy sources.

Vioxx victorious in second case in less than a week

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Merck & Co. won its second Vioxx trial in less than a week Friday when jurors rejected the claims of a man who blamed the once-popular pain medication for a heart attack in 2001.

The jury of eight women and four men needed only 1 1/2 hours of deliberations to side with the drug manufacturer in the lawsuit filed last year by Gary Albright, 57, of Chelsea.

A federal court jury in New Orleans ruled for Merck on Wednesday.

Another trial continues in Los Angeles, and Merck spokesman Kent Jarrell said six more lawsuits are set for trial between now and June, with the next slated to start in New Jersey on Jan. 16. The company is sticking by its plan of defending each of thousands of claim over Vioxx rather than settling the suits.