World Business Briefing | Australia: Job Growth Slows, Easing Inflation Concerns
Date: 12 January 2006
By Bloomberg News
Bloomberg News
Employment in Australia rose less than expected in December, adding to signs that growth was slowing. Employment increased by 2,100 last month, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said. The jobless rate was unchanged at 5.1 percent from November. The median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey of 18 economists was for a 9,000 gain in jobs and an unemployment rate of 5.1 percent. The report reinforces expectations that the Reserve Bank of Australia will keep interest rates unchanged as slowing jobs growth eases its concern that wage increases may stoke inflation. About 10 million of Australia's 20 million people have jobs.
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Tenet Healthcare Agrees to Settle Fraud Lawsuits
Date: 13 January 2006
By Bloomberg News
Bloomberg News
Tenet Healthcare, the hospital chain, said yesterday that it had agreed to settle shareholder suits accusing it of fraud by paying $215 million, including $1.5 million from two former executives. The net cost to the company, after insurance pays a portion, will be about $140 million, Tenet said. The costs will be recorded in the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31.
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World Business Briefing | Asia: South Korea: Profit Drops At Steel Maker
Date: 13 January 2006
By Bloomberg News
Bloomberg News
Posco, one of the world's largest steel makers, said that profit fell 68 percent in the fourth quarter as steel prices declined and the company took charges to trim the work force. Net income slumped to 382 billion won ($397 million) in the three months ended Dec. 31, according to the company, which is based in Pohang. Mittal Steel, Arcelor and Baoshan Iron and Steel joined Posco in either cutting prices or output because of a glut of exports from China, producer of a third of the world's steel. Asian prices of hot-rolled steel fell 35 percent last year and may extend their slide this year, analysts said.
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Starbucks to Add Movie Products
Date: 13 January 2006
By Bloomberg News
Bloomberg News
The Starbucks Corporation said yesterday that it would begin promoting movies and selling DVD's and soundtracks at its coffee shops to expand its entertainment offerings. The first movie promotion at Starbucks will be ''Akeelah and the Bee,'' a film about a spelling bee, produced by Lions Gate and starring Laurence Fishburne and Angela Bassett, to be released in April. Starbucks will have spelling-related trivia games in its stores and promotions for the movie on its cardboard cup sleeves.
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World Business Briefing | Europe: France: Carrefour Has 7% Rise in Quarterly Sales
Date: 12 January 2006
By Bloomberg News
Bloomberg News
Carrefour, Europe's largest retailer, said fourth-quarter sales rose 7.1 percent as the company cut prices and opened stores. Sales climbed to 23.3 billion euros ($28.3 billion), the retailer said. Excluding currency movements, sales gained 4.1 percent. Carrefour has cut about 700 million euros ($850 million) from prices over the last two years. Since taking the helm in February, José-Luis Duran, the company's chief executive, has accelerated store openings and revamped the retailer's own-brand business to help win customers in France. The company opened 387 stores in the fourth quarter, the bulk of which were discounters.
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Refco Seeks to Remove Ex-Chief From Board
Date: 12 January 2006
By Bloomberg News
Bloomberg News
Refco yesterday asked a federal court in New York to remove its former chief executive, Phillip R. Bennett, from its board to ''increase the confidence'' of the company's creditors and customers. Mr. Bennett has not participated in board activities since he disclosed a hidden debt of $430 million on Oct. 10. He was arrested the next day, and in November he pleaded not guilty to federal fraud charges. Refco filed for bankruptcy protection on Oct. 17.
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Chief Retiring at Networking Systems Maker
Date: 12 January 2006
By Bloomberg News
Bloomberg News
The 3Com Corporation, a maker of networking systems, said yesterday that its chief executive, Bruce L. Claflin, would retire as soon as a successor was named. The company, based in Marlborough, Mass., also reaffirmed its plan to reach break-even, excluding some expenses, in its fiscal quarter that will end in February 2007. 3Com has not posted a profit in five years.
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World Business Briefing | Europe: France: Villepin Says France to Sell $36 Billion in Assets
Date: 12 January 2006
By Bloomberg News
Bloomberg News
The French prime minister, Dominique de Villepin, proposed selling as much as 30 billion euros ($36.4 billion) of assets and containing spending to meet European Union debt limits and erase the budget deficit by 2010. Mr. Villepin said France would use 5 billion to 10 billion euros a year from 2007 to 2009, from sales of stakes in companies like Électricité de France, to reach the European Union debt ceiling of 60 percent of gross domestic product, from a projected 66 percent this year, under a plan released in Paris. ''Debt reduces our ability to finance our social model and prepare the future,'' Mr. Villepin said. ''It makes the country vulnerable to higher interest rates and puts a weight on future generations. It's not fair.'' A government-appointed panel last month said France needed to break a ''culture of spending'' that has sent the nation's debt soaring. The committee recommended freezing public spending, refraining from tax cuts and reducing the number of civil servants. The debt has climbed from 21 percent of G.D.P. a quarter-century ago.
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A Unit Chief to Leave S.E.C.
Date: 12 January 2006
By Bloomberg News
Bloomberg News
Alan L. Beller, who led a surge of rule-making at the Securities and Exchange Commission as head of its corporation finance division, will step down in February and return to private business, the agency said yesterday. Mr. Beller, 56, has helped guide early initiatives of the S.E.C.'s chairman, Christopher Cox, including a rule being proposed next week that would force companies to disclose more information on top executives' compensation.
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News Summary
Date: 13 January 2006
INTERNATIONAL A3-10 U.S. and Europeans Say Iran Talks Are at Standstill The United States and the leading nations of Europe declared an end to negotiations with Iran over dismantling its suspected nuclear weapons program and demanded that Iran be referred to the United Nations Security Council for sanctions. A1 Israeli officials, with Iran's president calling for Israel to be ''wiped off the map,'' have special reasons for concern now that Iran says it will resume enriching uranium. A8 Israel Rejects a Political Hamas Ehud Olmert, Israel's acting prime minister, told President Bush that Middle East peace efforts could not progress if Hamas won a voice in the Palestinian government. A8 Stampede Kills 345 in Mecca A stampede in Mecca killed 345 people on pilgrimage, the Saudi Interior Ministry said, the deadliest such event since 1990. The Saudi Red Crescent Society said as many as 1,000 had been injured. A4 General in Abuse Case to Retire Maj. Gen. Geoffrey D. Miller, a former commander at the detention center in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, who also set up interrogation operations at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, has declined to testify further about interrogation practices and will retire, Army officials said. A3 Merkel in U.S. to Mend Fences Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany made her first official visit to the United States. A10 Turk Who Shot Pope Is Freed Mehmet Ali Agca, the man who shot Pope John Paul II, was released from a prison in Istanbul. Turkey's justice minister sharply criticized Mr. Agca's release, which was ordered by a local court. A6 Spain Arrests Terror Suspect Spain announced that the police had arrested the suspected ringleader of an Islamic militant group accused of running a recruiting network for the insurgency in Iraq. The arrest provides another illustration of how Islamic radicals have established elaborate networks in Spain. A3 NATIONAL A12-16 Alito's Testimony Ends;Democrats Are Critical Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. completed his testimony at his Supreme Court confirmation hearings to a blast of opposition from Democrats, who signaled they would not support him. They also indicated, however, that they saw little chance of blocking his confirmation. A15 U.S. Nears 300 Million The Census Bureau officially pegged the resident population of the United States at closing in on 297,900,000. The bureau estimates that the population is growing by one person every 14 seconds. The total is expected to top 300 million late this year. A1 Bush Visits New Orleans President Bush spent his brief visit to New Orleans in a meeting with political and business leaders on the edge of the Garden District, a neighborhood that was largely untouched by the floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina and saw little devastation. A12 DNA Test Confirms Guilt Thirteen years after Roger K. Coleman went to the electric chair declaring, ''an innocent man is being murdered tonight,'' a new DNA test has found that he was almost certainly the source of genetic material found in the body of his murdered sister-in-law, Virginia officials announced. A14 Alaskan Land Opened to Drill The Interior Department has decided to open up 389,000 acres of Alaskan lakes, tundra and shoreline to oil exploration, reversing a compromise that was intended to protect the habitat. A16 States React to Medicare Plan California, Illinois and Pennsylvania announced that they had joined more than a dozen other states in taking emergency action to help low-income Medicare beneficiaries struggling to fill prescriptions under Medicare's new drug program. California said it would temporarily cover drug costs for low-income people entitled to both Medicare and Medicaid. A16 NEW YORK/REGION B1-6 City Missed Chances To Save Life of Girl, 7 A day after the bruised body of a 7-year-old girl was found in a blood-stained Brooklyn apartment, city officials revealed new and harrowing details of her short life, as well as repeated missed opportunities to save it, with Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg saying, ''We, as a city, have failed this child.'' A1 Subway Phone Plan Delayed A plan to create a wireless phone network for 277 underground stations in New York City's subway system has become mired in disagreements about the project's cost, feasibility and worthiness. B1 Peace Plan for Italy and Met The Italian government has relayed a formal proposal to the Metropolitan Museum of Art that would grant the museum special access to long-term loans in exchange for the return of 20 works of Greek and Roman art that the Italians say were illegally removed from their country. B1 Neediest Cases B4 WEEKEND E1-34; E35-42 ESCAPES F1-12 SPORTSFRIDAY D1-6 Skier Apologizes for Comments Bode Miller, in a rare gesture of conformity, bowed to pressure from international and United States ski officials and apologized for his comments that suggested he had skied under the influence of alcohol. In his statement, Miller neither admitted nor denied that he raced while drinking. D1 OBITUARIES B7 Mimmo Rotella The Italian artist who was one of the last surviving members of the influential French Nouveaux Réalistes group, he was 87. B7 BUSINESS DAY C1-13 Wal-Mart's Health Spending In a closely watched effort to shift the rising cost of health care from a state to its largest corporations, the Maryland legislature passed a law that would require Wal-Mart Stores to increase spending on employee health insurance. A1 Guidant Battle Intensifies Boston Scientific increased its bid for Guidant by $332 million, to $25 billion. C1 Lord & Taylor to Be Sold Federated Department Stores said it would seek a buyer for Lord & Taylor, acquired five months ago as part of its acquisition of May Department Stores. C1 Contractors' Site Shut Down The General Services Administration has shut down a Web site for government contractors after a computer industry consultant reported that he was able to view and modify corporate and financial information submitted by vendors. C1 Toyota Shows the Way As General Motors and Ford struggle to remake themselves and rejoin the car wars, one company is proving what a successful American carmaker can look like: Toyota. C1 Business Digest C2 EDITORIAL A20-21 Editorials: Iran and the bomb; pro-choice senators and Judge Alito; Governor Codey's legacy; call it fiction. Column: Thomas L. Friedman. Crossword E42 TV Listings E33 Weather D7
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