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Clear Channel spin-off moving to L.A.
Dec 22 2005 11:42PM (CT)
HOUSTON (AP) - An entertainment promotions business is leaving Houston for Los Angeles after splitting from Clear Channel Communications Inc., according to regulatory filings.
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Albertson's won't sell entire company
Dec 22 2005 10:18PM (CT)
BOISE, Idaho (AP) - Albertson's Inc. is no longer considering a sale of the entire company, officials said late Thursday after CVS Corp. and other potential suitors withdrew from talks.
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Reliant, FERC settle over energy crisis
Dec 22 2005 7:55PM (CT)
WASHINGTON (AP) - The U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said Thursday it has accepted a $512 million settlement with Reliant Energy Inc., California utilities and commission staff to resolve claims stemming from the 2000-01 Western energy crisis.
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Maytag shareholders OK sale to Whirlpool
Dec 22 2005 7:48PM (CT)
NEWTON, Iowa (AP) - Maytag Corp. shareholders on Thursday approved the company's sale to rival appliance-maker Whirlpool Corp., marking the end of independence for the iconic home appliance maker that failed to overcome cheaper competitors and a waning of its trademark image for dependability.
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Jury awards $172M to Wal-Mart employees
Dec 22 2005 7:47PM (CT)
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) - A California jury on Thursday awarded $172 million to thousands of employees at Wal-Mart Stores Inc. who claimed they were illegally denied lunch breaks.
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Allergan poised to tighten grip on market
Dec 22 2005 7:44PM (CT)
LOS ANGELES (AP) - For years, Botox-maker Allergan Inc. has been fighting the battle to relieve age-conscious men and women of their forehead wrinkles and crow's feet _ without much competition.
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EU threatens Microsoft with penalties
Dec 22 2005 7:40PM (CT)
BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - The European Union on Thursday threatened to fine Microsoft Corp. up to 2 million euros ($2.37 million) a day for failing to obey its 2004 antitrust ruling, accusing the company of intransigence in sharing information with competitors.
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Union mulls bid for Knight Ridder papers
Dec 22 2005 6:34PM (CT)
NEW YORK (AP) - A union representing newspaper employees said Thursday it had retained two advisory firms to consider bidding for as many as nine newspapers owned by Knight Ridder Inc., which has been forced by its largest shareholders to explore a sale.
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Venture capitalists embrace solar energy
Dec 22 2005 6:30PM (CT)
NEW YORK (AP) - When Rusty Schmit landed his first job 25 years ago as an engineer for Motorola Inc., he was given a choice: specialize in weapons or solar power.
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Iconix follows acquisition strategy
Dec 22 2005 6:25PM (CT)
NEW YORK (AP) - The maker of Candies _ those high-heeled, slide-on shoes that teenage girls in the late 1970s had to have _ has transformed itself to model the cutting edge, if not of haute couture, then of fashion finance.
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DOT to deny airline alliance request
Dec 22 2005 6:22PM (CT)
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - The Transportation Department signaled it would deny an antitrust exemption sought by the SkyTeam airline alliance, which includes Northwest Airlines Corp. and Delta Air Lines Inc.
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Russell cuts 2005 sales, profit forecast
Dec 22 2005 6:21PM (CT)
ATLANTA (AP) - Russell Corp., maker of athletic apparel, uniforms, footwear and equipment, said Thursday it won't meet its previous revenue and earnings expectations for 2005 because of damage from Hurricane Katrina and not enough sales of discounted items to make up for lower returns on those items.
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Nymex to alter General Atlantic deal terms
Dec 22 2005 6:21PM (CT)
NEW YORK (AP) - Under pressure over a proposed sale of a stake to private-equity firm General Atlantic, the chairman of the New York Mercantile Exchange pledged Thursday to alter the terms of the deal and seek to address other concerns among members of the exchange.
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Lucent seeks to keep stock split option
Dec 22 2005 6:18PM (CT)
MURRAY HILL, N.J. (AP) - Lucent Technologies Inc. will ask shareholders to continue its authority to implement a reverse stock split.
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Ford employees OK health care agreement
Dec 22 2005 6:12PM (CT)
DETROIT (AP) - Ford Motor Co. hourly workers Thursday narrowly approved an agreement between the automaker and the United Auto Workers that requires active employees and retirees to pay more for their health care, Ford and the union said.
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Research in Motion atock up on 3Q results
Dec 22 2005 6:09PM (CT)
TORONTO (AP) - Shares of Research in Motion Ltd. soared Thursday, after the maker of the BlackBerry wireless messaging device released better than expected third-quarter results.
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Lucent ordered to pay Winstar creditors
Dec 22 2005 6:08PM (CT)
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) - A federal bankruptcy judge has ruled that Lucent Technologies Inc. must pay $224 million, plus other costs, to the creditors of the now-defunct Winstar Communications Inc., finding that Lucent induced the smaller company to purchase unneeded telecommunication equipment.
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American Greetings 3Q profit down 79 pct.
Dec 22 2005 6:05PM (CT)
CLEVELAND (AP) - American Greetings Corp., the world's biggest publicly traded maker of greeting cards, said Thursday its third-quarter profit slid 79 percent, hurt by a sales shortfall and a large charge to write down the value of its operations.
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ConAgra 2Q profit down 32 pct. to $163.1M
Dec 22 2005 5:56PM (CT)
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - ConAgra Foods Inc., one of the nation's largest packaged-foods companies, said Thursday its second-quarter profits fell 32 percent because it largely failed to pass higher costs on to consumers.
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Barrick Gold to buy Placer Dome for $10.4B
Dec 22 2005 5:55PM (CT)
NEW YORK (AP) - Toronto-based Barrick Gold Corp., the world's No. 3 gold producer, agreed on friendly terms to acquire Placer Dome Inc. after raising its offer for the Vancouver gold producer to $10.4 billion, the companies said Thursday. That deal prompted Vancouver-based gold producer Goldcorp Inc. to buy certain mining assets from Barrick for just under $1.49 billion in cash.
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Hedge-fund managers sued over late trading
Dec 22 2005 5:44PM (CT)
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday filed civil charges against two former San Francisco hedge-fund managers, accusing them of making thousands of illegal trades that cheated mutual funds out of $49 million between 2000 and 2003.
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GE to buy Arden Realty for $3.2B in cash
Dec 22 2005 5:43PM (CT)
STAMFORD, Conn. (AP) - General Electric Co. has agreed to buy commercial real-estate investment trust Arden Realty Inc. for about $3.2 billion in cash in one of its largest U.S. real estate deals.
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UPS pilots to seek release from mediation
Dec 22 2005 5:42PM (CT)
ATLANTA (AP) - The union representing UPS Inc. pilots said Thursday it will ask for release from federal mediation so it can strike, citing three years of contract negotiations with the world's largest shipping carrier that have failed to reach an agreement.
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General Mills posts small 2Q profit jump
Dec 22 2005 5:16PM (CT)
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - Cereal and snack-foods maker General Mills Inc. on Thursday reported a small increase in second-quarter earnings but said sharply rising commodity costs would constrict its full-year profit.
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Experts: NYC transit strike cost unknown
Dec 22 2005 5:12PM (CT)
NEW YORK (AP) - Shops without shoppers. Work without workers. For three days, a transit strike in the city that never sleeps forced much of its hard-charging economy to take a fitful nap. But how much damage did the strike actually inflict on the economy? Probably not nearly as much as city officials claimed, say analysts, noting that even the best guess is just that _ a guess.
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Thursday's commodities roundup
Dec 22 2005 5:06PM (CT)
NEW YORK (AP) - Gold shone Thursday at the New York Mercantile Exchange, settling above the key $500 an ounce level amid short-covering and buying interest ahead of the long holiday weekend.
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Fairmont Hotels board rejects Icahn offer
Dec 22 2005 4:34PM (CT)
TORONTO (AP) - The Fairmont Hotels & Resorts Inc. board has unanimously rejected financier Carl Icahn's $1.2 billion bid to take control of the company, calling the offer "inadequate."
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Refco seeks OK on payments for key staff
Dec 22 2005 4:24PM (CT)
WASHINGTON (AP) - Refco Inc., the commodities broker that collapsed amid a fraud scandal, asked a judge to authorize $1.4 million in payments to 32 employees it considers essential for "winding down" its operations.
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Cavan Maritime withdraws $100 million IPO
Dec 22 2005 4:23PM (CT)
WASHINGTON (AP) - Cavan Maritime Ltd., a dry-bulk shipping company, Thursday withdrew a planned initial public offering worth up to $100 million, saying the offering wouldn't be in shareholders' best interest.
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U.S. weekly oil, gas rig count up by 12
Dec 22 2005 4:20PM (CT)
HOUSTON (AP) - The number of rigs actively exploring for oil and natural gas in the United States increased by 12 this week to 1,475.
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Calpine asks judge to void 8 contracts
Dec 22 2005 4:04PM (CT)
NEW YORK (AP) - Calpine Corp. asked a federal judge to void eight power-supply agreements as part of the company's bankruptcy proceedings, including a massive, politically sensitive contract that serves the California utility Pacific Gas & Electric Co.
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Koch execs to take Georgia-Pacific roles
Dec 22 2005 3:48PM (CT)
ATLANTA (AP) - Two Koch Industries Inc. executives will take key leadership roles at Georgia-Pacific Corp. after Koch's $13.2 billion acquisition of Georgia-Pacific is completed Friday.
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Italy antitrust body probes Berlusconi
Dec 22 2005 3:47PM (CT)
ROME (AP) - Italy's antitrust authority said Thursday it has opened an investigation to determine whether Premier Silvio Berlusconi violated conflict of interest rules when his government approved subsidies to Italians who buy digital television decoders.
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Northwest won't generate money until 2009
Dec 22 2005 3:27PM (CT)
NEW YORK (AP) - Northwest Airlines Corp., which filed for bankruptcy protection in September and has lost almost $4 billion since 2001, likely won't generate "significant" money until 2009 or 2010 even though it needs to spend billions to upgrade its planes, according to an investment banker hired by the carrier to advise it through its bankruptcy.
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German lawmakers seek Ackermann resignation
Dec 22 2005 3:17PM (CT)
BERLIN (AP) - The chief executive of Germany's biggest bank was under fire from lawmakers Thursday, with some calling openly for his resignation after a court ordered his retrial over big payments to executives in a takeover battle.
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Reuters, AP unions reach contract deals
Dec 22 2005 3:08PM (CT)
NEW YORK (AP) - Unions representing U.S. employees at two major news agencies, Reuters and The Associated Press, have reached tentative agreements on new employment contracts.
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Norway oil company strikes oil in Iraq
Dec 22 2005 2:59PM (CT)
OSLO, Norway (AP) - A small Norwegian oil company said Thursday it struck oil with its first well in a Kurdish area of Iraq in a project that angered some Iraqis.
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Humana sees large enrollment in Medicare
Dec 22 2005 2:58PM (CT)
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - Humana Inc. said Thursday it expects enrollment in its Medicare prescription drug plans to surpass 1 million people when the new benefit begins Jan. 1.
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Ariz. ends probe into Taser safety claims
Dec 22 2005 2:55PM (CT)
PHOENIX (AP) - The Arizona Attorney General's Office has closed an informal inquiry into safety claims made by Taser International Inc. after the stun gun maker voluntarily changed how it marketed the weapons, state officials said Thursday.
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CVS confirms talks for Albertson's division
Dec 22 2005 2:22PM (CT)
BOISE, Idaho (AP) - Drugstore chain CVS Corp. said Thursday it has been in discussions with Boise-based Albertson's Inc. regarding the purchase of the supermarket chain's Sav-on and Osco drugstores.
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Delta asks for extension to file plan
Dec 22 2005 2:08PM (CT)
ATLANTA (AP) - Citing in part the time it will take to further cut costs, Delta Air Lines Inc., the nation's third-largest carrier, asked a bankruptcy court judge Thursday to give the company a six-month extension to file its reorganization plan.
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Ex-HealthSouth exec sentenced in scandal
Dec 22 2005 1:58PM (CT)
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) - A former HealthSouth executive has been sentenced to a year and a day in prison for his role in the massive accounting fraud at the rehabilitation and medical services chain.
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Northwest gets OK for two jet-finance deals
Dec 22 2005 1:05PM (CT)
NEW YORK (AP) - Northwest Airlines Corp. got approval for two financing deals Thursday that will help the company add new planes and cut the costs of existing planes.
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U.S. M&A volume up 38 percent in 2005
Dec 22 2005 12:44PM (CT)
DENVER (AP) - Global merger-and-acquisition volume increased 38 percent to $2.9 trillion in 2005 from the previous year, according to a report.
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U.S. leading economic indicators up in Nov.
Dec 22 2005 12:17PM (CT)
NEW YORK (AP) - A widely watched measure of future economic activity rose in November as fewer people filed for jobless benefits, suggesting the nation's economy may grow moderately into the spring, a private research group said Thursday.
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P&G sues co. for alleged copycat products
Dec 22 2005 11:48AM (CT)
CINCINNATI (AP) - Procter & Gamble Co. on Thursday sued a Texas-based company selling products that P&G says look remarkably similar to some of its leading brands.
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SEC sues execs who led National Century
Dec 22 2005 11:19AM (CT)
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Securities and Exchange Commission has sued former executives of National Century Financial Enterprises Inc., charging them with defrauding investors who bought the company's securities before it collapsed in 2002.
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Ukraine won't accept blackmail from Russia
Dec 22 2005 9:22AM (CT)
KIEV, Ukraine (AP) - Ukraine's foreign minister warned Russia on Thursday that Kiev will not be blackmailed by its former imperial master in an escalating gas dispute.
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Boeing CFO elected to Dow Chemical board
Dec 22 2005 9:02AM (CT)
MIDLAND, Mich. (AP) - James A. Bell, chief financial officer of aerospace company Boeing Co., has been elected to the board of Dow Chemical Co., the nation's largest chemical company said Thursday.
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Volvo in GE deal to produce engine parts
Dec 22 2005 8:12AM (CT)
STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - Volvo AB said Thursday its Aero unit had signed a 10-year deal worth 2 billion kronor ($251 million) with General Electric Co. to manufacture components for the world's largest aircraft engine.
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Co. ordered to improve ops after error
Dec 22 2005 7:59AM (CT)
TOKYO (AP) - Japan's financial watchdog on Thursday ordered Mizuho Securities Co. to improve its operations, after the company placed large, erroneous sell orders due to a typing error last week that led to huge losses and shocked the nation's stock market.
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easyJet beefs up its European fleet
Dec 22 2005 7:35AM (CT)
LONDON (AP) - Budget airline easyJet PLC said Thursday it will spend 505 million pounds ($890 million) to beef up its fleet with 20 new Airbus A319 planes.
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EU clears Oracle to acquire Siebel
Dec 22 2005 7:20AM (CT)
BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - The European Commission on Thursday cleared Oracle Corp.'s proposed $5.85 billion acquisition of business-software rival Siebel Systems Inc., the last regulatory hurdle for the deal.
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OPEC likely to cut oil output in 2Q of '06
Dec 22 2005 6:38AM (CT)
BEIJING (AP) - The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries is likely to reduce its crude-oil production after the high-demand Northern Hemisphere winter, the group's president said Thursday.
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GM stock falls on Kerkorian sale of shares
Dec 22 2005 6:18AM (CT)
DETROIT (AP) - General Motors Corp. shares, which have lost more than half their value since the beginning of the year, fell an additional 4 percent Wednesday as investors fretted about billionaire Kirk Kerkorian's decision to sell part of his stake in the automaker.
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Federal gov't releases salmon plan
Dec 22 2005 6:07AM (CT)
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) - Five years after Atlantic salmon were declared endangered on eight Maine rivers, federal regulators have released a recovery plan aimed at restoring salmon runs from the Kennebec River to the Canadian border.
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U.S. beef exporters woo Japanese consumers
Dec 22 2005 5:57AM (CT)
TOKYO (AP) - American beef producers unveiled plans Thursday for a public relations blitz to win over Japanese wary of mad cow disease but said it will take at least three years to reach the shipment levels seen before the 2003 import ban.
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RIM 3Q earnings up on subscriber growth
Dec 22 2005 5:35AM (CT)
TORONTO (AP) - Research in Motion Ltd., the maker of the BlackBerry wireless messaging device, released better than expected third quarter results on Wednesday _ quelling some fears that an ongoing patent dispute that threatens to shut down the popular service in the United States is significantly hurting the business.
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China becomes net exporter of cars, trucks
Dec 22 2005 5:20AM (CT)
BEIJING (AP) - China says it has become a net exporter of cars and trucks for the first time, with new Chinese competitors such as Geely Group and Chery Automotive starting to win market share in Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
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Japanese gov't remains upbeat on economy
Dec 22 2005 4:49AM (CT)
TOKYO (AP) - Japan's economy is entering a period of self-sustained recovery and is close to escaping deflation due to increasing consumer demand, the country's top economics official said Thursday.
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FedEx 2Q earnings beat Wall Street views
Dec 22 2005 1:29AM (CT)
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) - FedEx Corp. said Wednesday its second-quarter profit jumped 33 percent, easily beating Wall Street's predictions and its own. FedEx stock rose to a new 52-week high on the earnings report.
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WaMu commercial group head leaving company
Dec 22 2005 12:07AM (CT)
SEATTLE (AP) - The president of Washington Mutual Inc.'s commercial group is leaving the savings and loan next year, the company said Wednesday, as it announced plans to move its single-family residential mortgage lending units under one management team.
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