But the president of the European Union insisted the bloc still had the momentum to keep expanding despite higher inflation and a credit crisis that may curb the region’s recent surge.

Retail trade in the nations that share the euro shrunk 1.4 percent from a year ago — the biggest annual drop since records began in 1997 — and 0.5 percent from October, the EU statistics agency Eurostat said Tuesday.

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The restructuring plan will cost $530 million, up from a previous estimate of $500 million, of which $460 million will have been taken through the fourth quarter of 2007. The remainder will be recognized by the end of 2009.

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ViaSat and Eutelsat are cooperating around ViaSat’s Ka-band SurfBeam networking system and a common wholesale business model to offer service through ISPs, telecommunication companies, and direct-to-home television providers, the US company said.

Eutelsat announced separately that it has selected EADS Astrium to deliver its first satellite operating exclusively in Ka-band frequencies.

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“Under the terms of the Memorandum of Understanding, SNIM and ArcelorMittal will jointly develop a large iron ore mining project, using the El Agareb Iron ore resource in Mauritania,” a statement from the company said.

Vehicle sales fell 7.6% to 3.434 million units, its fourth consecutive annual decline and the lowest level since 1972 when 3.406 million vehicles were sold, according to wire reports which cited data released by the Japan Automobile Dealers Association.

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As the plane was taxiing, the airline’s board was getting ready for a momentous decision. Maxjet, one of a new wave of business-class-only carriers plying the Atlantic, had for several weeks been running dangerously low on cash. Last-ditch efforts to find new investors had proved fruitless.

The only option was Chapter 11, the American bankruptcy procedure that gives troubled companies limited protection from creditors. The directors, led by chairman Ken Woolley, told chief executive William Stockridge to go to the American courts, a decision that in effect wiped out shareholders and ensured Maxjet’s flying days were over. The passengers from MY100 were the last it would ever carry.

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The price is 42% above Fast’s closing share price on 4 January and the shares have risen close to the offer level.

Fast’s board of directors have recommended that shareholders accept the offer and says that holders of 37% of its stock have already done so.

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The move comes at the direction of the court-appointed trustee who has the authority to affect the divestiture of Sparrows Point, Mittal said.

The deal was announced in August but delays have caused Esmark’s agreements with its partners in E2 Acquisition Corp. to lapse. This raised the possibility of a revised proposal for financing the $1.35 billion transaction. The closing date in the purchase agreement was Nov. 30, and that date was extended to Dec. 11.

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Around a foot (30 centimeters) of snow had fallen on parts of the Chicago area, with 10 inches (25 centimeters) in Vermont. The U.S. National Weather Service on Sunday posted winter storm warnings from Michigan and Indiana all the way to Maine. Meteorologists said 18 inches (46 centimeters) was possible in northern New England; more snow was still expected in parts of Michigan.

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A lawsuit has been filed in Weifang, a city in eastern China’s Shandong province, seeking 10m yuan ($1.4m; £0.7m) in damages.

Danone has claimed Wahaha has been illegally selling copies of its drinks, contrary to their joint venture terms.

Last week, Danone offered to suspend lawsuits against Wahaha.

Danone, which holds a 51% stake in the joint ventures, had filed a lawsuit in the US against Wahaha, accusing its partner of breach of contract by using the Wahaha brand on items sold outside of their joint venture.

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CNN Worldwide, a unit of Time Warner, said it would invest almost $10 million to add 15 or 16 correspondents to its staff of 150.

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Carlsberg called the new offer a “full and fair” price, pointing out that it valued the group at a considerable premium to its value as an independent entity.

The increased offer sent Scottish & Newcastle shares 3 per cent higher to 766p in early trade.

In a statement, the consortium said that its offer for S&N represented a premium of 41 per cent to the company’s share price of 531p in March 2007, before speculation began that an offer might emerge for the Scottish group.

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In early Asian trading on Monday, US light crude broke through $93 a barrel for the first time, hitting $93.20 before easing back slightly to $93.06.

London’s Brent also hit a new high of $89.90 a barrel, up $1.21.

Some analysts believe oil prices will hit $100 a barrel before the end of 2007 if current pressures persist.

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The price for November delivery fell back to $89 by noon, a level that still defied the predictions of many veteran oil analysts.

“The surge in oil markets to $90 . . . seems underpinned more by financial flows and political risk than by fundamental factors,” said a Lehman Brothers report issued today. “Although we expect a correction, several risks could push prices higher still.”

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In morning European trading, the euro bought $1.4319 — surpassing the mark of $1.4310 set Thursday — before settling back slightly to $1.4306.

The euro bought $1.4293 in late New York trading on Thursday. The British pound climbed to $2.0472 on Friday from $2.0448 in New York the day before, while the dollar slipped to purchase 114.88 Japanese yen from 115.65 on Thursday.

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The construction of the A380, able to carry up to 800 passengers, has been beset by persistent and costly delays.

It has also been overshadowed by allegations of insider trading against managers at parent company EADS.

Chief executive Thomas Enders said it would still be the “greatest challenge” for Airbus to meet future deliveries.

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A flight attendant for ATA Airlines recently asked a flier watching a movie midflight on the way to Hawaii to shut off his iPhone, not for the perfectly reasonable reason that the man was watching the inane Jennifer-Love Hewitt vehicle I Know What You Did Last Summer, but because you’re not allowed to use cell phones inflight. Casey, the iPhone user, told Consumerist that he tried several times to explain to the flight attendant that the iPhone was in “airplane mode,” with all the radios disabled. But the flight attendants did not accept that explanation, and continued to insist that FAA regulations prohibit talking on cell phones when the cabin door is closed, despite the fact that Casey wasn’t actually talking and the fact they were over the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

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Light, sweet crude for November delivery climbed 31 cents to $81.61 a barrel in Asian electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange by mid-afternoon in Singapore. The contract rose $1.04 to settle at $81.30 a barrel Wednesday in New York.

Oil prices often rise when oil supplies are threatened in Nigeria, Africa’s biggest oil producer and one of the top overseas suppliers to the United States.

“Employees of some of the companies providing labor workforce to Chevron, and belonging to the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers … initiated (a) strike” at six facilities, Chevron said in a statement, adding that production was unaffected.

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The China deal, not previously made public, has alarmed military analysts who note that Iraq’s security forces already are unable to account for more than 190,000 weapons supplied by the United States, many of which are believed to be in the hands of Shiite and Sunni militias, insurgents and other forces seeking to destabilize Iraq and target U.S. troops.

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In a highly critical statement that accused BAA of acting “against the public interest” in its running of Heathrow and Gatwick, the watchdog suggested a reduction in the allowed cost of capital from 7.75 per cent at the two airports to 6.2 per cent at Heathrow and 6.5 per cent at Gatwick. The cut comes despite furious lobbying by BAA and its Spanish parent Ferrovial, who argue that such cuts reduce the incentive for the proposed multibillion pound development schemes for the airports.

Stephen Nelson, chief executive of BAA, reacted furiously to the ruling. “We see little in the CC’s report which delivers the incentives to transform the airports,” he said. “Nor do we believe that the CC recognises the scale and nature of the challenges we face in seeking to deliver a step change in the passenger experience.”

The Civil Aviation Authority, which suggested the same cut earlier this year, will consider the CC’s ruling before issuing its firm price control recommendation by 20 November.

Mr Nelson’s comments echoed those made earlier this year by Rafael del Pino, the chief executive of Ferrovial. At a meeting with journalists in Madrid, Mr del Pino, who paid £16bn in a highly leveraged deal to take over BAA last year, said the CAA had “not given us the incentive” and that it could be forced to abandon the redevelopment plans.

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Private rents in 2006 were two-thirds the cost of a 100% mortgage on a two- or three-bedroom house, for a young household on average incomes.

For many years, renting a home was thought to be just as expensive as buying one.

But that position has been changed by the rapid rise in house prices.

Professor Steve Wilcox of York University, who carried out the analysis, said that in many areas, people who were unable to buy a house could still afford to rent in the private sector.

“Not too long ago, there was little difference between the costs of buying and renting,” he said.

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The threat raised the specter of a renewed dispute between Russia and Ukraine that could affect European supplies, and it came amid uncertainty over the results of tense parliamentary elections in Ukraine.

State-controlled Gazprom said it had informed European clients about the matter Tuesday. Company spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov said Ukraine has taken no action despite repeated requests and warned that, with consumption rising as winter approaches, “if the debt is not settled in October, Gazprom will be forced to begin decreasing deliveries of natural gas for consumers in Ukraine.”

The announcement triggered memories of a price dispute that saw gas supplies to the European Union drop briefly in early 2006 after Gazprom halted direct shipments to Ukraine.

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In a statement, Nasdaq President and Chief Executive Bob Greifeld said the deal will extend the company’s offerings and allow it to offer a second quote in the U.S. equities market.

“We believe a second exchange license in both equities, and in the future options, will provide market structure flexibility as we continue to deliver on our mission of being the number one trading platform in the transactions business,” he added.

The deal, slated to close by early next year, doesn’t include the BSE’s stake in the Boston Options Exchange. Nasdaq will, however, operate the exchange’s regulator services provider. Nasdaq and the BOE are discussing the exchange’s future regulatory structure. Nasdaq plans to launch its own options market in December. That effort is still awaiting approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission.

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The world’s largest fast-food chain has been talking openly for nearly a year about plans to add such drinks as lattes and cappuccinos following its success with premium coffee, introduced in 2006.

Crain’s Chicago Business, citing planning documents, reported that the rollout of the new coffee drinks will occur in 1,500 restaurants by the end of this year and in the rest of U.S. restaurants by the end of 2008. It said McDonald’s predicts the new drinks will add more than $1 billion a year to sales.

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Switzerland’s largest bank wrote down SFr4bn (£1.67bn) at its fixed-income business, took an axe to its executive team and announced 1,500 investment banking job cuts.

UBS said the write-downs would mean a loss of up to SFr800m for the third quarter. Credit Suisse, UBS’s biggest rival in Switzerland, also felt the pain but said it had a profitable third quarter and was still in line for record profits for the full year.

The quarterly loss will be UBS’s first since it wrote off its investment in Long-Term Capital Management in 1998.

The write-downs included $1bn (£489m) of direct investments in sub-prime mortgage-backed securities and $900m on securities due to be turned into collateralised debt obligations (CDOs), pools of assets that investors are now shunning.

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Memory chips are used to store information on products such as mobile phones and digital cameras.

Sony’s decision to agree a joint venture highlights the growing trend of chip makers sharing the large costs of design and manufacture.

The price of these processors has also been falling and this has squeezed the profits of manufacturers.

Samsung, the world’s largest supplier of memory chips, has been complaining about over-supply in the industry.

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The findings from AC Nielsen include all sales outlets. The firm’s previous figures showed a drop of 7%, but only covered sales in pubs and clubs.

AC Nielsen said July was an exceptional month and the combined drop of 7.3% in July and August was more indicative.

July’s weather was notably bad and last year the World Cup helped boost sales.

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BA’s decision to book a dozen Airbus A380 superjumbos along with 24 Boeing 787 Dreamliners in a much-anticipated order worth $8.2 billion (€5.8 billion) at list prices ends decades of Boeing’s dominance in providing planes to the carrier.

It is also a vote of confidence in Airbus’ previously troubled double-decker A380 — deliveries of the aircraft were delayed for two years because of wiring and other technical problems that cost the company billions of euros.

BA Chief Executive Willie Walsh said that the airline had opted for the A380 rather than Boeing’s newly revamped 747-8 for environmental and economic reasons.

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The Munich-based luxury automaker, which has a plant in South Carolina, said it would put “all cost structures to the test” and continue to standardize processes as it seeks to reduce costs per vehicle in development, production, sales and administration.

It said it was targeting a rise in productivity of at least 5 percent per year. “We will focus the entire organization on the return on capital,” CEO Norbert Reithofer said in a statement.

BMW said that, as a result of the planned productivity increase, it “expects to be able to achieve the growth planned for the period until 2012 with roughly the same level of personnel as today.”

BMW, which like other European exporters faces the risk of seeing its products become less competitive abroad as the euro trades at record high levels against the U.S. dollar, also said it would step up currency hedging to insulate itself from that risk.

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The 110-seat Superjet 100 has been developed by state-run business Sukhoi, in conjunction with Western partners including US giant Boeing.

Aiming to rival similar-sized models from Brazil’s Embraer and Canada’s Bombardier, the plane will undergo test flights later this year.

Sukhoi aims to make up to six planes a month for foreign airlines by 2010.

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The talks could lead to a showdown with Microsoft’s rival, Google, which is also keen to invest in Facebook, the Wall Street Journal says.

The newspaper says Microsoft wants to buy up to 5% of Facebook, for a price between $300m and $500m.

Microsoft and Google both declined to comment on the report.

Facebook already has a relationship with Microsoft, which is the exclusive provider of banner advertising and sponsored links on the site.

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The state of Bavaria is to build the high-speed railway line from Munich city centre to its airport, making it Europe’s first commercial track.

Maglev trains use electric-powered magnets that enable them to float above their tracks, allowing for much faster speeds than traditional rail services.

The 1.85bn-euro ($2.6bn; £1.3bn) project had faced financing problems.

However, the Bavarian state government said it had signed an agreement with rail operator Deutsche Bahn and industrial consortium Transrapid that includes the developers of the train – Siemens and ThyssenKrupp.

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But drivers should expect that direction to reverse course soon, said Trilby Lundberg, publisher of the Lundberg Survey, which tallies prices at about 5,000 stations every two or three weeks.

The modest drop in prices between the survey dates of Sept. 7 and Sept. 21 “is only a blip in the price climb,” she said.

That’s because, on a per-gallon basis, the price of crude rose nearly 12 cents per gallon during the two-week period. “High crude oil prices have replaced refinery problems as the big gasoline price-change factor,” she said.

So, why don’t drivers see that increase reflected in higher pump prices?

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For more than 50 years Iceland has been decreasing its dependence on fossil fuels by tapping the natural power all around this rainy, windswept rock of fire.

Waterfalls, volcanoes, geysers and hot springs provide Icelanders with abundant electricity and hot water.

Virtually all of the country’s electricity and heating comes from domestic renewable energy sources — hydroelectric power and geothermal springs.

It’s pollution-free and cheap.

Yet these energy pioneers are still dependent on imported oil to operate their vehicles and thriving fishing industry.

Iceland’s geographic isolation in the North Atlantic makes it expensive to ship in gasoline — it costs almost $8 a gallon (around $2 a liter).

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The 285,000 bpd refinery is owned by Motiva Enterprises LLC, Shell’s joint venture with Saudi Refining Co.

“The expansion project will increase the refinery’s crude oil throughput capacity to 600,000 bpd, making it the largest refinery in the U.S. and one of the largest in the world,” Shell, the world’s second-biggest non-government controlled oil group, said in a statement.

A spokesman for the group said the refinery expansion would cost $7 billion.

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SEOUL (Reuters) – Sprint Nextel Corp (S.N: Quote, Profile, Research), which recently said it would spend up to $5 billion on a mobile high-speed wireless standard by 2010, said it had awarded the New York WiMax market to Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (005930.KS: Quote, Profile, Research).

Samsung had previously been awarded the Washington, DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Providence, R.I. and Boston markets as part of Sprint’s push to use the mobile WiMax wireless standard.

“Those are very good markets that we’ve given to Samsung,” Barry West, president of Sprint’s high speed wireless unit, told Reuters on Monday after Samsung made the official announcement on the sidelines of the Samsung 4G Forum.

Samsung officials also sounded an upbeat note, with Choi Gee-sung, president of its telecommunications unit, saying the mobile WiMax business could turn profitable within the next 3 to 5 years.

Samsung in a news release separately predicted its handset sales would top 40 million units in the third quarter, after selling a record 37.4 million handsets in the second quarter.

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While Microsoft’s new operating system, Windows Vista, has come under sharp criticism from many users, another major Microsoft upgrade has gone more smoothly: Office 2007. And that’s despite the kind of look-and-feel changes that usually make consumers jumpy. If you’re pondering an upgrade, here are some of the pros and cons:

It looks different. The new Office has an entirely different appearance, moving functions onto a “ribbon” that fills the top of the screen with icons instead of the familiar drop-down menu choices. Whoa–that messes with nearly two decades of ingrained habits, and it takes getting used to. Plus, the new look is not yet universal across all the Office components. But once you’ve learned how to use the ribbon, Office is easier to use–especially for newcomers unfamiliar with prior versions of Office.
Most of us don’t need an upgrade. Besides a new look that makes Word, Excel and PowerPoint simpler, the programs pick up useful functions, such as seeing instantly how format options would alter a Word document. But the more powerful improvements are for big companies that use software to encourage “collaboration,” the sharing of ideas and work between employees. Home users don’t generally need that.

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Source: www.usnews.com

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The dollar declined against the euro on Tuesday after a reading of U.S. consumer prices suggested inflation was largely contained, backing a view that U.S. interest rates would lose their premium over European rates.

Against the yen, however, the dollar rose to a near three-month high after weak Japanese machinery orders reinforced expectations that the Bank of Japan would raise rates at a gradual pace.

“We’re one step closer to removing the inflation bias from the Fed statement with today’s CPI,” said Michael Woolfolk, senior strategist at The Bank of New York.

“This further supports the Fed’s case that slower U.S. growth will bring core inflation back into line with price stability without resorting to higher interest rates. That’s good for stocks and bonds and bad for the dollar,” he added.

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Source: www.reuters.com

(CBS/AP) German-based DaimlerChrysler AG said Monday it will sell almost all of money-losing Chrysler to a private equity firm for $7.4 billion, backing out of a troubled 1998 takeover aimed at creating a global automotive powerhouse.

Eighty percent of Chrysler Group, burdened by high pension and health costs and declining market share in the United States, will be sold to Cerberus Capital Management, which is taking a huge risk by agreeing to take on billions of dollars in pension and retiree health care costs at Chrysler.

Chaired by former U.S. Treasury Secretary John W. Snow, Cerberus has steadily been building strength in the automobile business. It led a consortium that bought a majority stake last year in General Motors Acceptance Corp., the financial arm of GM, and plans to invest in ailing auto parts giant Delphi.

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Source: www.cbsnews.com

“They bring some financial discipline that I think this industry has needed,” David Cole of the Center for Auto Research told auto reporter Jeff Gilbert of CBS radio station WWJ. “Unfortunately, that’s often very painful.”

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — DaimlerChrysler moved to undo the most expensive and one of the least successful mergers in auto industry history Monday as it agreed to essentially pay to dump the money-losing Chrysler unit which it paid $37 billion for nine years ago.

DaimlerChrysler (Charts) announced it will sell an 80 percent stake in its U.S. brand to Cerberus Capital Management, a private equity investment firm that will pay $7.4 billion.
But the German automaker, which will be renamed simply Daimler, will not actually get most of the money that Cerberus is paying for the once proud automaker. Instead Cerberus will contribute $5 billion to the Chrysler auto operations it will now control, with just over another $1 billion going to Chrysler’s finance arm.

While Daimler will receive the remaining $1.4 billion of Cerberus’ capital contribution to the sale, Daimler expects to have to cover another $1.6 billion in Chrysler losses before the deal closes. So Daimler estimates that it will end up paying out about $650 million to close the deal, and that its earnings for 2007 will take a $4 billion to $5.4 billion profit hit due to charges related to the transaction.
Crucial cars for Chrysler

What Daimler gains from the deal is closing the door on ongoing losses and liability for future health care costs, for Chrysler’s unionized employees and retirees, estimated to be as high as $18 billion.

Shares of DaimlerChrysler were up 2.7 percent in late trading Frankfurt and up nearly 2 percent in late morning trading in New York, although that is off from earlier gains soon after the announcement. Even coming off the highs of the day, shares of the company have risen nearly 30 percent in the three months since it announced it was looking to sell Chrysler.

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Source: money.cnn.com

(AP) Gasoline prices have surged to a record nationwide average of $3.07 per gallon, nearly 20 cents higher than two weeks earlier, oil industry analyst Trilby Lundberg said Sunday.

The previous record was $3.03 per gallon on Aug. 11, 2006.

Just two weeks ago, the U.S. average for a gallon of gas was $2.87, but the Lundberg Survey of 7,000 stations nationwide on Friday showed an increase of about 19.5 cents to $3.07. That’s up 88.4 cents since Jan. 19, Lundberg said.

The nationwide average for mid-grade gasoline was $3.18 and premium was $3.28.

The nation’s lowest average pump price was $2.80 per gallon in Charleston, S.C., while the highest was $3.49 in San Francisco.

The recent increases are due mostly to refinery problems, Lundberg said, noting there have been at least a dozen additional partial shutdowns in the U.S. and internationally that cut refining capacity.

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Source: www.cbsnews.com

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Shares of Yahoo Inc. soared as much as 19 percent to their highest level in nearly a year on Friday after two newspaper reports said the company and Microsoft Corp. preliminary merger talks to take on common foe Google Inc.

But the stock pulled back after contradictory reports said the two companies may work out a joint venture or another form of cooperation that would stop short of a full merger. A source close to the situation confirmed that any talks had cooled.

The Wall Street Journal initially said on Friday that the two companies had engaged in merger talks in recent months, but it said later that those talks were no longer active.

The New York Post reported that Microsoft had made an offer to buy Yahoo a few months ago, but Yahoo spurned the advances.

The paper, which put a price tag of $50 billion on a Yahoo takeover, said discussions continue between the two companies.

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Source: www.reuters.com

(CBS/AP) The nation’s unemployment rate edged up to 4.5 percent in April as cautious employers added the fewest new jobs in more than two years, signaling that the labor market is starting to feel some of the strain of the sluggish economy.

The fresh employment picture provided by the Labor Department on Friday showed that payrolls grew by just 88,000 last month as job losses spread beyond manufacturing and construction and into retailing and financial services. Workers’ paycheck also grew more slowly.

The new tally of jobs added to the economy was the fewest since 65,000 jobs were added in November 2004. The rise in the unemployment rate, however, was slight compared with March’s 4.4 percent rate — which had matched a five-year low. Taken together the figures suggest the labor market may be cooling a bit — but not collapsing — as the national economy makes its way through a soft patch.

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Source: www.cbsnews.com

NEW YORK — Dow Jones & Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal, said Tuesday it received an unsolicited bid from Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. to buy the company for $5 billion, but the family that controls the company said it would oppose the deal.

Dow Jones said its board had received the offer from News Corp. to buy the company at $60 a share, either in cash or a combination of cash and News Corp. stock. News of the offer, which was first reported on CNBC, sent Dow Jones’ shares soaring, and also lifted those of other newspaper publishers.
However Dow Jones said later Tuesday that the Bancroft family, the company’s controlling shareholders, intended to vote shares representing just over 50 percent of the voting power of Dow Jones against the deal.

That put the ball back in Murdoch’s court, leaving open the possibility that he could raise his offer, or that other bidders for the company could possibly emerge.

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Source: www.foxnews.com

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish Prime Minister, has appealed for national unity in a television address tonight. The speech was recorded on Saturday, a day after the army threatened to intervene in the presidential poll process.

The Turkish stock market plunged 8 per cent this morning and the Turkish lira lost 4 per cent of its value in response to the political tensions gripping the country.

The prospect of an Islamist becoming president of the traditionally secularist nation has sent up to a million Turks out to protest on the streets of Istanbul, and alarmed the country’s military enough to issue a warning that it is “the absolute defender of secularism”.

It has also shaken the financial markets, unnerving the foreign investors who have returned to Turkey as it rebuilt its economy after the crash of 2001.

“We are carefully watching market developments. The economic system is strong,” said Abdullatif Sener, the Minister of State for the Economy and Deputy Prime Minister.

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Source: www.timesonline.co.uk

Turkish financial markets were in turmoil today as the Turkish lira fell sharply and the stock market plunged following a weekend of political uncertainty that unsettled investors.

A tense stand-off between the Islamist-rooted government and the secularist Turkish army over presidential elections risks unnerving foreign investors who have returned to the high-growth country since a financial crisis in 2001, analysts said.

“Turkish markets will obviously be driven by politics this week,” said economist Claire Dissaux at Calyon, an investment bank.

The leading index on the Turkish stock exchange, which groups the 100 biggest Turkish companies, fell 8 percent at the opening on Monday before rising slightly off its lows.

In midday trading, it showed a loss of 6.23 per cent.

The Turkish currency, the lira, opened 4 per cent weaker against the euro and lost about 4.4 per cent against the dollar, its biggest fall since a broad selloff hit emerging country markets in May and June last year.

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Source: www.timesonline.co.uk

(CBS) Since Germany’s Kaiser grocery stores were transformed from supermarkets to “senior markets,” their customers have become their best commercial. CBS News correspondent Richard Roth reports from Berlin.

From the shoppers who love the new step at the dairy case, putting everything in easy reach, to the lady who adores the new relaxation zone.

The makeover widened the aisles with non-skid floors and brightened the lighting.

Price labels got larger and packaging got smaller — for the smaller household, the sign says.

For smaller print, the store has magnifying lenses hanging from shelves and shopping carts. And the carts been redesigned with built-in seats for weary shoppers — a feature Adam Koenig says he likes, but doesn’t need.

“I am retired, but not tired,” he laughs.

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Source: www.cbsnews.com

www.121time.com, an online store offers customized and personalized certified Swiss watches

AMSTERDAM – Looking for the perfect watch? The Internet has a wealth of resources to find just the right accessory for your wrist — new, gently used, antique, or custom-made.

With the variety and vintages of watches available and the intense interest shown by watch collectors and enthusiasts, finding an ideal timepiece on the Web has never been easier at well-known sites like Amazon.com or eBay.

But smaller watchmakers are tapping into the Web with a novel proposition for buyers: a custom-designed watch, built-to-order and delivered in 10 days.

Operating without retail outlets in a town on the outskirts of the Swiss watchmaking city of Geneva, 121TIME has built an online store — www.121time.com — offering customized and personalized certified Swiss watches.

“We are special,” said Daniel Morf, one of 121TIME’s co-founders. “Technology now enables the consumer to create his or her own watch.”

In the Netherlands, although it is not as well known for watches as Switzerland, a watchmaker called Blancier also invites Web users to design their own watches at www.blancier.nl, with a choice of 7 different movements, an equal number of bezels and 9 dials.

Building your own products is not new to the Web. Shoe maker Nike Inc. allows buyers to customize and order shoes and apparel through its NIKEiD Web site nikeid.nike.com.

But in watchmaking, like with other jewelry, most people want to be able to hold the product in their hands to see how it feels, so Web-based watch design has only recently taken root.

In terms of sales, 121TIME’s are minuscule compared to the 13.7 billion Swiss francs ($11.36 billion) worth of watches exported last year by iconic Swiss watchmakers such as Rolex, Patek Philippe, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Panerai, Omega, Vacheron Constantin and Swatch.

Morf and 121TIME co-founder Frederic Polli say they have sold about 10,000 watches since 2001.

With prices in the range of roughly $300 to $1,000, it doesn’t translate into much, but the two say their Web platform allows them to expand the business and sell to a global market, avoiding distribution deals that inflate watch prices.

Read full article.

Source: www.ciol.com

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — The dollar tumbled to a record low against the euro Friday after a weak reading on economic growth in the United States unnerved currency investors.

The euro bought $1.3682, the highest since the currency was launched eight years ago. The European currency pared some of those gains and was last trading at $1.3641, up from $1.3604 late Thursday.

The dollar was little changed against the yen. The greenback bought ¥119.58, versus ¥119.54 the previous session.

A weaker-than-expected reading on U.S. economic growth hurt the dollar, as investors bet money would be moving out of the United States to areas with higher growth.

Bond prices rose initially but then fell back and were little changed late in the afternoon.

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Source: www.cnn.com

The superhot ‘$100 laptop,’ which costs $176, is at the heart of a feverish dance for influence by PC giants Intel and Microsoft. It may be coming to the United States, says Fortune’s David Kirkpatrick.

NEW YORK (Fortune) — Nicholas Negroponte, founder and chairman of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) non-profit group, on Thursday revealed big news about his laptop for the poor children of the world. His biggest revelations at a Cambridge press and analyst briefing: The laptop will run Windows, and the group is seriously considering selling it in the United States.

The briefing also underscored that this is likely to be one cool computer. The machine, which OLPC aims ultimately to price at $100, is called the XO.

In a side conversation, Negroponte had a surprising explanation for his new focus on the United States. While demand here has been strong – governors of 19 states have expressed interest for students in their states, and even Governor Jeb Bush of Florida has visited OLPC in Cambridge twice – the project has up to now aimed primarily at giving computer power and net access to children in developing countries.

But now Intel’s longtime animosity to the project has taken on new intensity, and that has consequences. Negroponte asserts that in the last couple of weeks, as the final deadline of May 30 approaches for countries to make firm commitments for XOs (ideally in lots of a million at a time), Intel (Charts, Fortune 500) has been methodically going to the expected launch countries and offering unusually attractive terms for its own much-less-sexy Classmate PC.

The Classmate is essentially a standard but simplified desktop that like the XO is decorated in green plastic, but less fetchingly. Negroponte claims Intel is pricing it at $180, significantly below its cost of production, and for lots of only 10,000. In an e-mail, Intel spokesman Bill Calder responds that the Classmate’s price is generally higher and he’s not sure what Negroponte is referring to.

But if Negroponte is right, the price is telling, because at present the XO will cost countries about the same amount – $176 to be exact says Negroponte. (The $100 price is OLPC’s target once it is making these things in the tens of millions, which he ambitiously believes is possible by the end of 2008.) Intel’s Calder confirms that it has recently done a “big deal” with Pakistan, one of OLPC’s seven “launch” countries, which also include Argentina, Brazil, Libya, Nigeria, Thailand and Uruguay.

But Calder adds: “The notion that we were somehow going to ‘his’ likely launch countries caused some perplexed looks, if not outright laughter here. We’ve been in these markets since like, forever.”

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Source: www.cnn.com

A solicitor has become the first British citizen to be targeted by the Russian authorities in connection with the collapse of Yukos, the oil company.

Tim Osborne, 55, a member of the Law Society and senior partner of Wiggin Osborne Fullerlove, is unable to carry on some of his usual work after being publicly accused of a criminal offence by the Russian Government.

The lawyer, who has received no official communication about the allegation, was accused under articles 160 and 174 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation of embezzlement, misappropriation of assets and money-laundering.

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Source: www.timesonline.co.uk

(Fortune Magazine) — This is about superlatives. A car, the Bugatti Veyron, that is unlike any other production car on the planet. And an entrepreneur, Sam Nazarian, CEO of SBE Entertainment, who is out to transform nightlife as we know it.

First things first: the wheels. In a risky corporate move, the VW Group revived the Bugatti marque in 1998 and started down the road to building the ultimate production car – in looks, in technical refinement, in exclusivity. Founder Ettore Bugatti, who died in 1947, became legendary for crafting amazingly advanced high-performance cars that behaved well on the street and were nothing short of art on wheels. His motto: “Nothing is too expensive, nothing is too beautiful.”
Callaway sits in the Bugatti Veyron, outside The Abbey in West Hollywood

Nazarian (with Callaway) owns L.A. clubs like the Abbey, Area and Hyde.

Fortune’s Sue Callaway test drives the new Bugatti Veyron with nightlife impresario Sam Nazarian.
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To date, VW’s Bugatti has taken 135 orders, and delivered 52 of the 300 Veyrons that will be made. And true to Ettore’s vision, the two-seater makes good on all promises, from bespoke componentry to highest-caliber craftsmanship. And cost: $1.4 million.

I wanted to know who buys such a thing and what it’s like to own one. So I hitched a ride with Nazarian, who just took delivery of a gorgeous red and black version. If you don’t spend time on the Left Coast, you may not have heard of Nazarian – yet. A son of Qualcomm co-founder Younes Nazarian, Sam is 31, ambitious, and on a tear. He’s building a network of high-end restaurants, clubs, real estate developments and hotels designed by Philippe Starck.

He also has a movie production company; his latest project, “Mr. Brooks,” starring Kevin Costner, Demi Moore, and William Hurt, is due out in June. And he’s doing it all with Bugatti speed. (To put that into perspective, the car goes zero to 62 in 2.5 seconds, faster than many current Formula One cars.)

“In terms of hotels, I want to build the Four Seasons of our generation – a chic, tasteful experience,” he explained. “And I want your room key to give you VIP access to our clubs and restaurants.”

Nazarian and I took a Saturday-night tour of his white-hot spots. As we carefully climbed into the low-slung Veyron, he laughed. “It’s like high heels – putting them on is tough, but you look great once you’re in – or so I’ve heard.”

I was engrossed in admiring the machine-turned center console surround, the yards of creamy Austrian leather, the START button calling my name. Alas, Nazarian drove first.

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Source: www.cnn.com

(AP) Taxpayers who couldn’t electronically file 11th-hour returns using Intuit Inc.’s TurboTax, ProSeries and other software won’t be penalized for delays caused by the company’s overtaxed servers, the IRS said Wednesday.

“We will do everything we can to assist taxpayers affected by the situation,” said IRS spokesman Bruce Friedland. “If people couldn’t e-file last night, we encourage them to file as soon as they can.”

A record number of returns from individual taxpayers and accountants on Tuesday choked the Mountain View-based company’s computers, leading to delays in customers receiving confirmation that their returns had been submitted successfully, Intuit spokeswoman Julie Miller said.

As the midnight filing deadline approached, the problem got worse.

Usually, it takes only a few minutes after hitting the submit button for TurboTax users to get a confirmation. By Tuesday evening, it was taking hours. Returns are not transmitted to the government until Intuit processes them and sends a notice to the taxpayer.

The company’s server farm near San Diego processed more than a million returns on Tuesday alone, twice the amount during the peak filing day last year, Miller said.

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Spurce: www.cbsnews.com

Nokia Siemens Networks, the joint venture between Nokia and Siemens which began trading yesterday, added a further note of caution this morning to its forecast for the mobile and fixed line market, predicting “very slight” growth in 2007.

The network equipment maker had earlier forecast “slight” growth in euro terms. But, citing signs of a slowdown in spending in some regions in recent months, it pared down its outlook for the year ahead.

In a statement, the Helsinki-based firm said: “The companies now expect very slight market growth for the mobile and fixed infrastructure and related services market in euro terms in 2007.”

Nokia shares opened lower after the comments, falling 1.7 per cent to €16.94 by 0712 GMT, compared to a DJ Stoxx technology index down 1 per cent. Siemens stock was down 0.9 per cent.

Hannu Rauhala, analyst at Finnish bank OKO, told Reuters: “It is a negative indication when a big player says that market growth will slow down. It is worthwhile to compare this to Ericsson, it still has a positive outlook on the market. We will see what Ericsson will say about the matter.”

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Source: business.timesonline.co.uk

The crisis in America’s subprime mortgage market claimed its largest victim yet as New Century Financial today filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and said it would fire 3,200 workers, more than half of its workforce.

Second only to HSBC in the US subprime mortgage market, New Century is the biggest player in the sector to be overcome by soaring default levels.

Its shares fell 10 per cent today having already lost 97 per cent of value in recent months.

The California-based group extended about $60 billion in loans last year. Its largest creditors include Wall Street giants Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank, Bank of America, Lehman Brothers, UBS, Citigroup and Countrywide Financial.

Riding America’s housing boom, sub-prime lenders specialised in providing loans to customers with poor credit ratings.

Hit by surging default rates, at least 30 lender have sought buyers or halted operations in the past year, according to Bloomberg. HSBC was last month forced to issue a profit warning over its subprime business in the US.

The Centre for Responsible Lending said last month that one in five mortgages taken out by high-risk creditors in the US in 2005 and 2006 will end in repossession, “exceeding the worst foreclosure experience in the modern mortgage market, which occurred during the ‘oil patch’ disaster of the 1980s”.

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Source: www.timesonline.co.uk

Pirelli was in exclusive talks yesterday with AT&T, the American telecoms giant, and America Movil to sell two thirds of its controlling share-holding in Telecom Italia.

A deal would end months of negotiations with multiple parties to sell the stake.

It will also provide Marco Tronchetti Provera, Pirelli’s chairman and former Telecom Italia chairman, with a much sought-after exit from his holding after quitting the embattled telecom group last year.

A&T and America Movil, of Mexico, are involved in talks to buy a third each of Olimpia, a holding company that controls 18 per cent of Telecom Italia and which is 80 per cent owned by Pirelli, the Italian tyre and property group. The deal could value Pirelli’s stake at about €9.5 billion (£6.5 billion).

The deal would value each Telecom Italia share at €2.82 minus the undisclosed net debt of Olimpia. That is expected to be way below the €4 that Mr Tronchetti Provera originally paid for his holding in 2001 but could be a third above the company’s €2.14 closing price on Friday. The offer is subject to due diligence and is valid until April 30, Pirelli said.

For AT&T, the move is a bold step to snap up a direct stake in a European telecoms operator. The US telecoms group, which employs 300,000 and has annual revenues of $117 billion (£59 billion, has its own internet protocol (IP) network across Europe but has no partnerships with European carriers.

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Source: www.timesonline.co.uk

BMW, the German carmaker, opened its first factory in India yesterday to meet a rising demand for Western luxury brands in the world’s second fastest-growing economy.

The 89,000sq ft (8,300sq m) kit-assembly plant near Madras will make 1,700 cars a year on a one-shift operation but that could be doubled if the premium market expands as expected.

The first 3-series models, made from imported parts, except for the seats, are already rolling off the production line and will be followed by the 5-series in May.

The more expensive 7-series BMWs — favoured by the Indian elite, including Manmohan Singh, the Prime Minister — will continue to be imported alongside X5s and X3s.

Only 257 BMWs were sold in India last year but the company claims that it has already eclipsed that figure in preorders for the locally assembled cars.

The luxury car market in India, where urban drivers sit in traffic jams and rural roads are often too potholed to navigate, is only 0.03 per cent of all cars sold.

But analysts expect that market — cars costing more than €120,000 (£81,500) — to grow by 212 per cent by 2013.

BMW’s €20 million investment in India is conservative, but directors, wary of overcapacity, point to South Africa as a template.

In 1973 the 3-series sedan production run there was 3,000; today it is 55,000, a third of which is exported.

Norbert Reithofer, chief executive of BMW, said: “Our flexible approach keeps us on the safe side. Production has to follow the market. If we need more capacity we will have it.

“We want Asia to be the fourth mainstay of our business after the US, Europe and Japan. India is an important step.”

BMW sold 136,000 cars — BMWs, Minis and Rolls-Royces — in Asia last year and is targeting 150,000 in 2008.

The company has assembly plants in Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia and a joint-venture production facility in China, the second biggest 7-series market after the US.

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Source: Timesonline.co.uk

The world’s biggest theft of credit card details has left 45 million customers exposed to fraud.

Everyone who paid with credit or debit cards at any branch of TK Maxx between January 2003 and June 2004 is at risk.

Customers of the fashion chain’s 210 stores in Britain have already had their card details used to make fraudulent transactions.

The company admitted that details of credit and debit cards used in its shops had been stolen by sophisticated computer hackers and warned its customers last night to monitor their credit and debit card statements for suspicious transactions.

The company confirmed that information had been stolen from 45.6 million cards used in Britain and North America between December 31, 2002, and November 23, 2003. It did not know how many had been stolen for transactions made between November 24, 2003 and June 28, 2004.

Sherry Lang, a spokeswoman for the American company TJX, which owns TK Maxx, told The Times: “These figures only relate to what we do know. There is a lot more we do not know and may never know. We have identified two [computer] files that were removed from our UK system but we still do not know precisely what was in them.” The company said that it did not know which customers’ details had been stolen, but that banks had indicated that they had “preliminary evidence of possible fraudulent misuse” of the card details.

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Source: www.timesonline.co.uk

suffered the first major casualty from its surprise appointment last month of Brady Dougan as chief executive with the abrupt departure of Leonhard Fischer, a member of its executive board.

The move is doubly galling, as the bank had only recently secured Mr Fischer’s loyalty after squeezing him into a new top job by pushing the incumbent aside.

The rest of this article is for FT.com subscribers only.

Vodafone’s Kuwaiti partner, MTC, will today go head to head with Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, the Saudi billionaire, in a $5 billion (£2.5 billion) race to provide mobile services in Saudi Arabia.

The two players are among seven who will compete in a public auction in Riyadh, for a new mobile licence for the Saudi market.

Fierce competition for the licence, for which MTC is the front-runner, is expected to see the winning bid top $5 billion. Price expectations have been further raised by the failure of Orascom, the Egyptian operator, to qualify despite offering a rumoured $5.5 billion.

Other bidders at the ceremony, which will take the unusual form of operators’ offers being released from sealed envelopes, include the Indian operators, Bharti and Reliance.

Prince Alwaleed’s Kingdom Holding Co is part of a consortium bidding with Turkcell, Turkey’s main mobile group.

A combination of Saudi Arabia’s relatively low mobile penetration compared with other Gulf nations, and its young population has made it a natural target for growth-seeking mobile operators.

Mobile penetration in the kingdom — a mobile monopoly until just two years ago — stands at just under 70 per cent, while the average revenue per user spend is about $33 a month.

The licence is likely to be the last mobile licence to be auctioned off in the country and is expected to trigger further rapid mobile growth.

MTC is expected to be the most aggressive bidder because of the synergies a licence for the country could offer.

The Kuwaiti group, which has 27 million active customers, already offers services in five markets bordering Saudi Arabia — Iraq, Bahrain, Sudan, Kuwait and Jordan. Its presence in neighbouring countries will also enable it to conduct a rapid rollout of the service if it wins the licence, it promises.

The group, which has been Vodafone’s partner since 2002, lost out in the bid for Saudi’s second mobile licence.

Representatives from each of the bidding companies will attend the Riyadh ceremony. It will be overseen by the country’s reglator, the Communication and Information Technology Commission (CITC).

It will open the envelopes and submit the results to its board before naming the successful bidder.

Orascom, the Egyptian mobile operator, and MTNL, an Indian player, failed to qualify for the bidding

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Source: www.timesonline.co.uk

The Californian firm intends to take a 49% stake in a partnership with the internet portal Tom Online, which is controlled by the billionaire Li Ka-Shing, who is Hong Kong’s richest man.

Source: Andrew Clark in New York
Tuesday December 19, 2006
The Guardian

CLL is the most common leukaemia in adults in the US and most of western Europe, with 8,100 to 12,500 new cases in the US every year.

The treatment, Genmab’s most promising drug, is also undergoing Phase II clinical trials – the intermediate stage in drug development – for rheumatoid arthritis.

If the drug works in cancer and various auto-immune and inflammatory diseases, the total value of the deal could exceed £1.1bn.

It is the biggest deal ever signed by a biotech company. Genmab shares surged 24% to hit an all-time high of 424 Danish kroner (£38).

Under the terms of the agreement, Genmab will receive a licence fee of £52m as well as milestone payments of up to £800m. GSK, Europe’s biggest drugmaker, will invest £183m to buy 4.5m shares in Genmab.

In addition, the Danish biotech firm is to receive double-digit royalties on global sales of the drug. It will be responsible for development costs until 2008 after which development costs will be shared equally between GSK and Genmab. GSK will foot the bill for manufacturing and marketing the drug.

Genmab believes the drug, which is expected to be submitted to regulators for approval by 2008, could generate well over $2bn in annual sales. Some analysts have pencilled-in potential sales of up to $5bn in cancer and arthritis.

The deal is the second clinched by GSK in the rapidly growing antibody area in less than a fortnight, following its purchase of the drug firm Domantis for £230m. It forms part of the drug giant’s efforts to build up its portfolio of cancer drugs, which includes Tykerb for breast cancer and the Cervarix cervical cancer vaccine.

“This alliance puts the tremendous strength of GSK’s development, sales and marketing expertise behind HuMax-CD20,” said Genmab’s chief executive, Lisa Drakeman.

“We are looking forward to our collaboration and working together to maximise the value of this product that has the potential to benefit so many patients with different diseases.”

The treatment is a human antibody which binds to the CD20 antigen on the surface of white blood cells, recruiting the body’s natural defences to attack and kill these cancer and disease-producing cells.

Genmab is a biotech firm that specialises in developing human antibody therapies and treatments for cancer, rheumatoid arthritis and other inflammatory conditions.

It also has partnerships to develop drugs with other companies, including the Swiss pharmaceuticals giant Roche.

Source: Julia Kollewe
Tuesday December 19, 2006
Guardian Unlimited