Toyota quadruples April-December profit

Toyota said Tuesday net profit in the nine months to December quadrupled while it also lifted its full-year earnings outlook, reflecting the car giant's recovery from Japan's 2011 quake-tsunami.
The world's number one automaker credited a sales boost in debt-struck Europe as well as the United States and Asia for the rise, and a weaker yen.
Toyota did not release its latest figures for China, the world's biggest vehicle market, where a diplomatic row between Tokyo and Beijing sparked a consumer boycott of Japanese goods late last year.
But Senior Managing Officer Takahiko Ijichi said that September and October China sales tumbled by about half, although he added: "By December, (sales) recovered to a 20 percent decline from a year earlier."
Toyota previously said it expects to sell 200,000 fewer vehicles in China in the second half of its fiscal year to March and take a 30 billion yen ($325 million) hit to its bottom line. It sold 900,000 vehicles in China in 2011.
The results come after Japan's three biggest automakers -- Toyota, Nissan and Honda -- last month posted record sales for 2012, confirming Toyota had recaptured the title of the world's biggest automaker from US giant General Motors. The Japanese company lost the title in 2011.