WASHINGTON — Employers added 132,000 jobs, paychecks grew solidly and the unemployment rate stayed at a low 4.5 percent in June, fresh evidence that the once listless economy is regaining energy.

The new snapshot of conditions across the country, released by the Labor Department on Friday, showed that companies have a decent appetite to hire and that there are opportunities for job seekers willing to pursue the hunt.

For the national economy, the modest pace of hiring is consistent with business activity that is picking up speed, but not too much, and suggests consumers will have the financial wherewithal to withstand the sting of high gasoline prices. All that bodes well for the country's economic health.

———

CHICAGO MERC UPS BID FOR CBOT

CHICAGO — The Chicago Mercantile Exchange's parent company moved closer Friday to winning its nine-month campaign to acquire the Chicago Board of Trade, sweetening its offer by 7 percent and winning over the largest shareholder just three days before the vote.

The move pushed the bid by Chicago Mercantile Exchange Holdings Inc. over $11 billion, up from the $8 billion initially proposed last October amid rising stock prices that have helped escalate the deal's value.

It's the third time the world's largest futures and options exchange has raised its offer to fend off IntercontinentalExchange Inc., which jumped into the bidding unasked in March.

———

GAS PRICES ON THE RISE

NEW YORK — Retail gas prices rose overnight Friday for the first time in more than a month as the closure of a Kansas refinery sent prices in the center of the country sharply higher. Oil futures, meanwhile, surged $1 a barrel to another 10-month high.

The average national price of a gallon of gas inched up 0.3 cent to $2.952, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. Retail prices, which typically lag futures, had fallen steadily since their late May peak of $3.227 a gallon.

Analysts have long argued that the slide was due to end and that prices were likely to start following futures prices higher. Futures have rallied in recent weeks on concerns about domestic refining capacity.

———

CANADIAN DOLLAR AT 30-YEAR HIGH

NEW YORK — The Canadian dollar climbed to a 30-year high against the U.S. currency Friday, bolstered by higher oil prices, a strong economy and a looming interest rate hike.

Canada's currency advanced as high as 95.53 U.S. cents Friday, pushing past the 95 U.S. cents mark for the first time since May 1977. It has risen 10.8 percent so far this year.

One of the strongest performers in currency markets Friday, the Canadian dollar rose after Statistics Canada reported that the economy created 35,000 new jobs in June, about double what economists expected.

The job spurt left unemployment levels at a three-decade low of 6.1 percent for the fifth consecutive month.

———

HUNTSMAN CALLS RIVAL BID SUPERIOR

SALT LAKE CITY — Huntsman Corp.'s board considers a rival $6 billion cash offer from an affiliate of a private-equity firm superior to the bid that the chemical maker accepted last week from a Dutch company.

Apollo Management's Hexion Specialty Chemicals Inc. of Columbus, Ohio, said Friday that it had been informed of Huntsman's assessment. Hexion offered $27.25 per share earlier this week.

Huntsman had previously accepted a $25.25 a share offer — about $5.6 billion — from Basell, a Dutch holding of U.S. industrialist Len Blavatnik's Access Industries.

———

DANA CLOSER TO BREAKING OUT OF BANKRUPTCY

TOLEDO, Ohio — Auto parts maker Dana Corp. took a huge step Friday toward moving out of bankruptcy, striking a deal that will free it from paying for health care for retirees.

The company expects to save more than $100 million per year by shifting the responsibility of retiree health care to a union-controlled trust fund and establishing a two-tier wage system. Dana will put a one-time payment of $800 million into the trust fund and says retirees and the unions should not need to put any more money toward the plan.

The proposal could provide Detroit's Big Three automakers with a roadmap on how to bring long-term health care costs under control and help them compete against Toyota and Honda.

———

CHINA DRUG OFFICIAL GIVEN DEATH SENTENCE

BEIJING — A former department head at China's drug regulation agency was sentenced to death Friday on bribery charges, as U.S. regulators ordered a recall of three more Chinese-made products deemed dangerous to children.

The developments were the latest in widening concerns about the safety of Chinese goods both at home and abroad.

Cao Wenzhuang, a department director at the State Food and Drug Administration, was given the death sentence with a two-year reprieve on charges of accepting bribes and neglecting official duties, said his lawyer, Gao Zicheng.

While the sentence was unusually harsh given the charges, such suspended death sentences are usually commuted to life in prison if the convict is deemed to have reformed.

———

SONY APOLOGIZES FOR VIDEO GAME SCENE

LONDON — Sony issued a public apology Friday for a violent video game that features a bloody shootout inside an Anglican cathedral, but it did not address the Church of England's demands that the company withdraw the game.

The church has demanded that Sony Corp. stop selling the game "Resistance: Fall of Man," which includes a gunbattle between an American soldier and aliens inside a building that resembles Manchester Cathedral in northwest England.

The entertainment giant said in an apology, published Friday in The Manchester Evening News, that company officials had met with church community leaders and Sony acknowledged the game had caused offense. The company said it now considered the matter closed.

———

BURGER KING SWITCHING TO TRANS-FAT-FREE OIL

MIAMI — Burger King said Friday it will use trans-fat-free cooking oil at all its U.S. restaurants by the end of next year, following in the footsteps of other leading fast-food restaurants.

The world's second largest hamburger chain said it was already using zero trans-fat oil in hundreds of its more than 7,100 U.S. restaurants nationwide.

Burger King is known for its flame-broiled burgers, but uses cooking oil for its french fries and most of its chicken products.

In tests, consumers determined that more than a dozen items cooked in the new oil, such as french fries and hash browns, tasted the same or better than products cooked in the trans-fat oil, the company said.