30th of April 2005 News
الأخبار كما ظهرت في الصفحة الأولى لصحيفة نيويورك تايمز في ٣٠ أبريل ٢٠٠٥
GLAXO TO ACQUIRE CORIXA FOR $300 MILLION
Date: 30 April 2005
By Bloomberg News
Bloomberg News
GlaxoSmithKline, the European drug maker, said yesterday that it had agreed to purchase the Corixa Corporation for about $300 million to gain a component used in experimental vaccines. Glaxo agreed to pay $4.40 a share for Corixa, a 48 percent premium to Corixa's closing stock price on Thursday. The acquisition allows Glaxo to use Corixa's monophosphoryl liquid without paying royalties. The component is used in Glaxo's experimental Cervarix vaccine intended to prevent infections from the human papilloma virus. Shares of Corixa, which is based in Seattle, rose $1.13, or 37 percent, to $4.22 in after-hours trading.
Full Article
MOODY'S CUTS CREDIT RATING FOR EASTMAN KODAK
Date: 30 April 2005
By Bloomberg News
Bloomberg News
The credit rating of the Eastman Kodak Company was cut to a level below investment grade by Moody's Investors Service yesterday because of the cost of shifting to digital imaging and the effects of competition from Japanese rivals. The rating on $2.4 billion in debt was cut one level to Ba1 and given a negative outlook, Moody's said. Standard & Poor's cut Kodak's rating to junk on April 22, when the company reported its second straight quarterly loss. Kodak, based in Rochester, must contend with ''relentless competition'' from Japanese digital camera makers, as well as manufacturers of digital camera phones worldwide, Moody's said.
Full Article
CALPINE UPDATES OUTLOOK AND SHARES CLIMB 23%
Date: 30 April 2005
By Bloomberg News
Bloomberg News
The Calpine Corporation, seeking to allay concerns that it might be pushed into bankruptcy, updated its financial outlook yesterday and said that it had $800 million in cash at the end of March, setting off a 23 percent gain in its share price. The amount is enough, when combined with planned asset sales and other financing, to allow the company, a power producer, to make its required debt and interest payments this year, Wall Street analysts said. Calpine, based in San Jose, Calif, said it expected to report a first-quarter loss of 38 cents a share, wider than the loss of 17 cents a share a year earlier. Calpine shares rose 34 cents, to $1.79.
Full Article
VERIZON TO SHUT WI-FI ACCESS SPOTS IN NEW YORK CITY
Date: 30 April 2005
By Bloomberg News
Bloomberg News
Verizon Communications plans to shut public sites that provide high-speed wireless Internet access in New York City because of a lack of use. Verizon, which is based in New York, has begun shutting 380 so-called Wi-Fi hot spots in Manhattan and Brooklyn and will phase out the service over the next two months, the company said on Wednesday. The move lets Verizon concentrate on an expansion of a fee-based service provided by its mobile phone division, Verizon Wireless.
Full Article
U.S. Consumers Lift Spending; Confidence Off
Date: 30 April 2005
By Bloomberg News
Bloomberg News
Americans earned and spent more than expected in March, overcoming concerns about rising gasoline costs that eroded their confidence, the Commerce Department reported yesterday. The 0.6 percent increase in consumer spending came after a 0.7 percent gain in February that was larger than previously estimated.
Full Article
World Business Briefing | Europe: France: Ad Concern In Board Fight
Date: 30 April 2005
By Bloomberg News
Bloomberg News
Havas, the advertising company, urged shareholders to vote against Vincent Bolloré's demand for four board seats, saying he had not explained his intentions or strategy for the company. Havas said Mr. Bolloré, a French financier, had ignored the board's request for information on his demands. The shareholders will vote at the company's annual meeting on June 9.
Full Article
World Business Briefing | Europe: Italy: New Bid For Bank
Date: 30 April 2005
By Bloomberg News
Bloomberg News
The Italian bank Banca Popolare di Lodi plans to bid 6 billion euros ($7.7 billion) for Banca Antonveneta, challenging a bid by ABN Amro Holding. Lodi said it would offer shares and bonds valued at 26 euros ($33) for each Antonveneta share, compared with ABN Amro's cash offer of 25 euros. Lodi's bid is valued at closer to 23.6 euros based on the bank's closing share price Thursday. Lodi is trying to buy a bank with more than triple its market value to block what may be the first foreign takeover of an Italian lender. It has the approval of the Bank of Italy governor, Antonio Fazio, who can veto bank mergers and opposes foreign takeovers.
Full Article
World Business Briefing | Europe: Switzerland: Nestlé Executive Gives Up A Job
Date: 30 April 2005
By Bloomberg News
Bloomberg News
Peter Brabeck-Letmathe has stepped down as vice chairman of the Credit Suisse Group and a member of the bank's remuneration committee after criticism that his role as both chairman and chief executive of the food maker Nestlé leaves too little time for other duties. Mr. Brabeck-Letmathe, 60, submitted his resignation because of ''the volume of his responsibilities at Nestlé,'' Walter Kielholz, the Credit Suisse chairman, said at the company's annual meeting.
Full Article
World Business Briefing | Europe: Germany: Bayer's Profit Rises
Date: 30 April 2005
By Bloomberg News
Bloomberg News
The German drug and chemical maker Bayer said first-quarter profit rose 56 percent, helped by its plastics business. Net income surged to 652 million euros ($843 million), or 89 cents a share, from 419 million euros, or 57 cents a share, a year earlier, the company said. Bayer said profit at its plastics division tripled. Bayer's chairman, Werner Wenning, left, said that the current year was off to a good start but that the effect of high oil prices posed a risk.
Full Article
Catholic News Item Proves to Be Not So New at All
Date: 30 April 2005
By Andy Newman
Andy Newman
The reports spread quickly yesterday through Catholic news services and religious Web sites: Marymount Manhattan College had been declared no longer a Roman Catholic institution after inviting Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton to give the commencement address next month. The Cardinal Newman Society, a group that works to keep Catholic schools Catholic and had led protests against the scheduling of Mrs. Clinton as the speaker, announced the news in a press release, in which it applauded the archbishop of New York for ''courageously'' severing a ''wayward'' college.
Full Article
NEWS SUMMARY
Date: 01 May 2005
INTERNATIONAL 3-22 Iran Makes Nuclear Threat Iran threatened to move forward with its nuclear program, a move that comes after a similar threat from North Korea and just 48 hours before representatives of 189 countries will meet to review the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. 1 Vietnam Celebrates At the 30th anniversary of Saigon's fall, signs of change were everywhere, from parade floats carrying the logos of American credit card companies to the Vietnamese government reaching out to former enemies for trade and friendship. 3 U.S. Ally Has Abuse Record As evidence builds that the United States has sent terror suspects to Uzbekistan for detention and interrogation, Uzbekistan's treatment of its own prisoners continues to earn it admonishments from around the world. 1 Bombing Kills 15 in Iraq Bombing attacks killed more than 15 Iraqis in the capital and in the northern part of the country, and three civilians in Falluja were killed in rocket attacks, officials said. 22 Man Dies in Cairo Bombing A bomb killed an Egyptian man near a popular museum in the central area, and later two women attacked tourists on a bus in the south of the city, security officials said. 14 Nepal Lifts Emergency Rule The King of Nepal announced the lifting of emergency rule in his Himalayan kingdom but left a host of unanswered questions about whether basic rights would be restored. 16 Support for Sinn Fein Sinn Fein, the political wing of the Irish Republican Army, is poised to pick up seats in local and British parliamentary elections, a result that would seal its political dominance among Catholic voters in Northern Ireland, political analysts say. 24 NATIONAL 26-36 Defining Social Security By gingerly suggesting for the first time how he would cut Social Security in the future while protecting low-income workers, President Bush reopened a historic battle over what the program is about. 1 New Guantánamo Abuses A high-level military investigation into allegations of detainee abuse at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, has concluded that several prisoners were mistreated, perhaps illegally, as a result of efforts to devise innovative methods to gain information. 35 Crackdown on Molesters With a bill on a broad new crackdown on sex offenders awaiting Gov. Jeb Bush's signature, Florida will soon begin the nation's most aggressive monitoring of child molesters. 26 OBITUARIES 36-37 Mel Gussow A longtime cultural reporter and critic for The New York Times who championed playwrights of the post World War II period, he was 71. 36 NEW YORK/REGION 39-44 Ground Zero Security Fears Security concerns outlined last month by the New York Police Department have set off a serious reassessment of plans for the former World Trade Center site. People involved in the rebuilding effort say that the revisions that need to be made to the site's most prominent feature, the Freedom Tower, could delay the start of construction from several months to a year. 1 Chess 44 Cong. Vote 43 Weather 45
Full Article