In Thursday's Americas papers

03 May 2007 13:06  [Source: ICIS news]

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Front Page

 

What does it take to excel at poker?

Poker aficionados are making the case that the game is a matter of skill, rather than luck, and they hope their arguments will help roll back a law that bans the use of credit cards for online wagers.

 

GIs stay as hop fades in Tarmiyah

Few of the US troops in Tarmiyah expect to change the Iraqi city, where support for the insurgency is strong and hostility to the US presence is often overt. Instead they persevere for each other.

 

Climate change may spur allergies

There's growing scientific evidence that global climate change is linked to the dramatic rise in allergies and asthma in the Western world.

 

Money and investing

 

Bond investors feel sub prime pinch

Moody's downgraded in the past two weeks more than 30 bonds issued in 2006 and backed by sub prime mortgages.

 

Murdoch picked adversaries well versed in family affairs

Murdoch has enlisted Allen & Co and Centerview Partners to advice on his bid for Dow Jones. Both firms have experience with family-controlled public companies.

 

Big bank’s loan push: illegal immigrants

The nation's big banks, including JP Morgan, Citigroup and Wells Fargo, are pitching mortgages to illegal immigrants.

 

THE NEW YORK TIMES

Front Page

 

Iraqi blocs opposed to draft oil bill

Kurdish and Sunni Arab officials expressed deep reservations on Wednesday about the draft version of a national oil law and related legislation, misgivings that could derail one of the benchmark measures of progress in Iraq laid down by President Bush.

 

GOP contenders ponder what to say Bush

As they gather Thursday night at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library for their first debate, the Republican presidential candidates are thrilled at the chance to associate themselves with Reagan. But they may not be able to escape the challenge created for them by the current president.

 

Business Day

 

First the bid, now the jockeying

That is the course Rupert Murdoch will pursue after the board of Dow Jones & Company said late yesterday that it would not consider his $5bn (€3.6bn) bid for the company because the Bancroft family, its controlling shareholder, was opposed to the offer.

 

A corner deli with international appeal

On an unseasonably warm Sunday afternoon in mid-March, hundreds of food lovers packed a tent on Detroit Street in front of Zingerman’s Delicatessen here, lining up for samples to celebrate the deli’s 25th anniversary.

 

THE WASHINGTON POST

Front Page

 

Democrats back down on Iraq timetable

President Bush and congressional leaders began negotiating a second war funding bill yesterday, with Democrats offering the first major concession: an agreement to drop their demand for a timeline to bring troops home from Iraq.

 

Ex-Aide to Gonzales accused of bias

The Justice Department has launched an internal investigation into whether Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales's former White House liaison illegally took party affiliation into account in hiring career federal prosecutors, officials said yesterday.

 

Business

 

Royal Ahold sells US foodservice to private-equity firms

Royal Ahold, a Dutch supermarket operator and owner of Giant Food, yesterday agreed to sell Columbia-based US Foodservice to two private-equity firms for $7.1bn (€5.2bn) in a deal that would end a transatlantic partnership troubled by financial scandal.

 

White house panel investigates inspector general for Iraq

The inspector general who uncovered cases of waste, fraud and abuse in the US-led reconstruction effort in Iraq is under investigation by a presidential panel, according to the White House.

 

GLOBE AND MAIL, Canada

Front Page

 

Hockey Canada stands by Doan

Shane Doan is our captain and will continue to be our captain, Hockey Canada group's president says amid controversy over 2005 comments about French Canadians.

 

Sideline meetings overshadow Iraq conference

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will meet Syria's foreign minister Thursday in the first high-level talks between the two countries in years, a US official said.

 

Business

 

Russia's Norilsk makes competing offer for LionOre

Swiss miner Xstrata PLC is facing some new competition in its bid to take over Toronto Miner LionOre Mining International Ltd.

 

Canada's big banks to set up rival to TSX

Canada's six largest banks are banding together to create a new stock trading platform that will compete directly with TSX Group Inc. and potentially redefine the way the country's large institutional investors trade equities.

 

BUENOS AIRES HERALD

Front Page

 

Truck hijacker a psycho

A psychiatric test of a man who on Saturday stole a truck and crashed it near President Nestor Kirchner’s home in Santa Cruz province in an incident that Kirchner described as deliberate, said that the driver suffered from psychosis, contradicting a previous report that said that he understood the criminal nature of his actions.

 

No sign of fidel Castro

Students carry the Cuban flag during massive May Day celebrations in Havana yesterday. In the inset, acting President Raul Castro waves to the crowd. But his brother Fidel Castro did not put in an appearance.

 

Chávez takes hold of Orinoco Basin oilfields

President Hugo Chavez’s government took over Venezuela’s last privately-run oilfields yesterday, intensifying a power struggle with international companies over the world’s largest known petroleum deposit, the Orinoco Basin tarbelt.

 

($1 = €0.73; $1 = C$1.11)

By: Staff Reporter
+44 20 8652 3214

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