JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) -- Railroad giant CSX said it has asked two nominees of activist hedge fund shareholders TCI and 3G Capital to join its board, but said it will await a vote review and court action before seating its two remaining members.

Jacksonville, Fla.-based CSX Corp. said Friday that nominees Gilbert H. Lamphere and Alexandre Behring will join the board immediately.

Lamphere is managing director of private investment firm Lamphere Capital Management and a former director at Canadian National Railway Co.and Behring is 3G managing director.

"We look forward to welcoming our new board members and working together to continue delivering record performance for all our shareholders," said Michael Ward, CSX chairman.

Ward said the continuing legal fight over control of the board being waged by CSX against TCI and 3G was not hurting the company and pointed to a second-quarter earnings rise of 19 percent.

"That's not an issue," Ward said after the meeting.

The vote to elect two other hedge fund board candidates, TCI Founder Chris Hohn and Timothy T. O'Toole, managing director of the London Underground, remains too close to call.

Ward said the most recent preliminary draft report of an independent inspector of elections shows that the candidates competing for those seats have a difference in votes that is now less than one-fifth of 1

TOKYO (AP) -- Honda Motor Co. reported record profit for a fiscal first quarter Friday as sales growth in new markets offset the damage from a stronger yen and soaring material costs.

The results came a day after U.S. automaker Ford Motor Co. reported its worst quarterly loss ever.

Honda, Japan's No. 2 automaker, earned a better-than-expected 179.6 billion yen ($1.68 billion) in the April-June quarter, up 8.1 percent from the same period the previous year. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial had forecast 131.3 billion yen ($1.2 billion) in quarterly profit.

Sales for the quarter dipped 2.2 percent from a year ago to 2.867 trillion yen ($26.79 billion), largely because the rising yen eroded the value of overseas earnings. If the yen's value had held at levels of a year ago, sales would have jumped about 7 percent, Honda said.

Riding on its reputation for making cars with good mileage, the Tokyo-based manufacturer of the Civic and Accord compacts has racked up solid results despite worries among the world's automakers about a U.S. slowdown and rising steel prices.

Honda sold more vehicles worldwide than in any other fiscal first quarter at 962,000 vehicles, up 1.7 percent on year.

Cost-cutting, the decrease of auto discounts in North America and a lift from equity-related income from

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) -- General Electric Co., which owns businesses ranging from light bulbs to NBC television, on Friday said it will restructure into four businesses from six, a move that Chief Executive Officer Jeff Immelt says will focus the company on growth.

Immelt has been under pressure to shake up GE since it shocked investors with disappointing first-quarter earnings. GE's share price has since dropped nearly 22 percent.

Friday's move follows GE's recent plan to consider spinning off its iconic lighting and appliance businesses, a brand familiar to Americans for generations.

The new structure includes GE Technology Infrastructure, led by Vice Chairman John Rice, which includes Healthcare, Aviation, Transportation and Enterprise Solutions.

GE Energy Infrastructure, headed up by John Krenicki, includes Energy, Oil & Gas and Water.

GE Capital, led by Vice Chairman Mike Neal, brings together all the financial service businesses, including Commercial Finance, GE Money, industry verticals and Corporate Treasury.

NBC Universal, headed by Jeff Zucker, will remain unchanged.

In the reorganization, GE's Commercial Finance, GE Money, GE Industrial and GE Healthcare were folded