Gotta Love October ...

Corporate America set another profit record this summer. Overall, the nation's 500 largest companies are on pace to report operating profits for the quarter ending September 30 that are almost 14 percent higher than the same period last year. (AP)

…companies have posted double-digit year-over-year gains for a record-setting 18 consecutive quarters, says Standard & Poor's analyst Howard Silverblatt.(AP)

Oct. 19 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating whether directors who sit on more than one company board may have spread the practice of backdating stock-option grants.
The oil cartel OPEC has decided to cut production by 1.2 million barrels a day, the United Arab Emirates' oil minister said Friday. (AP)

BERLIN (Reuters) - Sting said contemporary rock music is so stagnant that he prefers to sing 16th century English ballads.

Oct. 19 (Bloomberg) -- The United Nations is hitting Kim Jong Il where it hurts, cutting off trade in the luxury goods favored by the North Korean dictator and his entourage. Kim, his family and members of North Korea's ruling class fancy Mercedes-Benz cars, Hennessy cognac and French wines, says Michael Breen, author of ``Kim Jong Il: North Korea's Dear Leader.'' They buy the goods abroad and bring them back to a country locked in poverty where annual per capita income is $914.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's internet service providers (ISPs) have started reducing the speed of Internet access to homes and cafes based on new government-imposed limits, a move critics said appeared to be part of a clampdown on the media.

BEIJING (Reuters) - Internet users in southwest China who spread malicious rumors online face fines of up to 5,000 yuan ($630) and possible detention, state media reported on Wednesday in the latest crackdown on dissent.

(CBS) NEW YORK Airport workers are finding themselves subject to surprise screenings as the government issues new security tactics at airports nationwide. The changes are a direct response to this year's foiled plot to blow-up America-bound airplanes.

Almost 5,000 bottles of Lafite-Rothschild, Petrus, Margaux and other rare vintages laid up in Paris City Hall during Chirac's tenure as mayor are going under the hammer this week, marking a sign of either fiscal restraint or waning French prestige, depending on your perspective. (Bloomberg)