Wednesday, August 10, 2005

news

LONDON -- Prime Minister Tony Blair said he will seek the enactment of new deportation measures for use against people who foster hatred and advocate violence, following last month's bombings of London's transportation system. Clerics who preach hate and Web sites or book shops that sponsor violence would be targeted, Mr. Blair said, and foreign nationals could be deported under the new measures. (WSJ)

The Securities and Exchange Commission has told Scott DeSano, the former head of Fidelity Investments' powerful stock-trading desk that it is considering civil charges against him in the agency's investigation of gifts allegedly lavished on Fidelity employees by Wall Street firms, according to people familiar with the matter. (WSJ)

August 9, 2005 -- Two former Citigroup executives are accused of diverting tens of millions of dollars back to the company instead of passing them along to the firm's mutual fund investors. (NY POST)

Aug. 5 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. employers added 207,000 workers in July, more than forecast, suggesting companies are gaining confidence as the economy picks up steam in the second half. The unemployment rate held at 5 percent.

Federal prosecutors have stepped up their criminal investigation of Milberg Weiss, the nation's largest class-action law firm, granting immunity to two former partners as they intensify their scrutiny of a third, prominent litigator William S. Lerach. (WSJ)

Next week sees the anniversary of the Netscape initial public offering – an event that triggered Wall Street’s dotcom mania. Netscape’s browser made the internet a more conducive place for the non-technical user and spurred the creation of companies such as eBay, Yahoo and Amazon.com, which have all had 10th birthday parties of their own – although most dotcom companies never made it this far. (FT)

Web search engine Baidu.com, billed as China's answer to Google Inc., quadrupled to more than $120 a share in its debut Friday after raising its price for a second time and boosting the number of shares sold to the public. (WSJ)

Aug. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Crude oil rose to a record, nearing $63 a barrel in New York, as surging fuel demand strains refineries and after a terror threat against the U.S. embassy in Saudi Arabia heightened concern about Middle East supplies.

TOKYO — Postal privatization minister Heizo Takenaka said Monday that Japan faces a huge loss due to the upper house's rejection earlier in the day of bills aimed at privatizing state-run postal services. "For the future of Japan and the nation's economy, it's a considerably huge loss," he told reporters. (JapanToday.com)

Citing U.S. military and intelligence officials, NBC said American soldiers intercepted a large shipment of high explosives last week, smuggled into northeastern Iraq from Iran. The officials told the network the shipment contained dozens of recently-manufactured "shaped charges" -- especially lethal weapons designed to concentrate and direct a more powerful blast into a small area. (NBC)

The letter, written to Jordanian leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi by a fighter calling himself Abu Zayd, was discovered by U.S. forces during a raid on an insurgent safe house in Mosul on July 27, He complains that the Mosul leadership of the Al Qaeda in Iraq branch is incompetent, lacks training, and does not collaborate. (FOX NEWS)

When Mrs. Clinton first came to us and said she wanted to be a New Yorker, she asked New York to put out a welcome mat and we did," the Westchester County district attorney said in a statement. "But now she wants us to re-elect her even though she won't promise to serve out her term and wants to use us as a springboard to the presidency. She's asking us to become her doormat." (ALBANY, N.Y. -- Jeanine Pirro, a high-profile prosecutor in the New York City suburbs, said Monday she will seek the Republican nomination to challenge Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton next year.)

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