In Thursday's Americas papers

17 May 2007 13:00  [Source: ICIS news]

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Front Page

 

Stasi past doesn’t crimp agent’s style

Axel Hilpert, an ex-agent of the feared Stasi secret police, will play host to this year's G8 meeting at the resort he co-owns. Stasi agents are often barred from public service, but Hilpert shows they are now accepted as business partners for the new Germany.

 

Farms latest target in Venezuelan upheaval

Chávez is taking his revolution to farms in the Venezuelan countryside, seizing millions of acres of land. The government bills land reform as a way to make Venezuela self-sufficient, but so far, the effect has been to undercut food production.

 

Wolfowitz exit wouldn’t end woes

Wolfowitz began talks with World Bank board members over terms of his resignation. The bank still faces tough succession decisions, including on the tradition of the US picking its chief.

 

Money & Investing

 

SunTrust without Coke?

SunTrust Banks has sold 9% of its $2.3bn (€1.7bn) stake in Coca-Cola. The move is meant to appease investors, but may make the bank more vulnerable to a takeover.

 

Pimco's gross: living down a ‘big mistake’

William Gross's decision to stock up on securities that would benefit from a rate cut has left his bond fund trailing behind the competition, but observers and clients say it would be a mistake to count him out.

 

Blue chips increase 103.69

A drop in energy prices and a new wave of corporate deal making helped power the Dow Jones Industrial Average to its eighth record close over the past 12 trading days.

 

THE NEW YORK TIMES

Front Page

 

Wolfowitz said to push for deal to quit

Paul D. Wolfowitz wants to be cleared of wrongdoing before he resigns as the World Bank’s president.

 

Unity fractures as Palestinians battle in Gaza

At least 19 Palestinians were killed in fighting between Fatah and Hamas as rage rises on both sides.

 

Business Day

 

Paying more for a printer, but less for ink

In some ways, the world of electronics is a great big game of Us vs. Them, filled with imbalances of power that the little people can’t do anything about. Through learned helplessness, we’ve come to accept that the gadget we buy today will be passé in a year period. Calling technical support is going to be a nightmare — tough rocks.

 

Chrysler sale unavoidable, Zetsche says

On Monday evening at Chrysler’s offices in Auburn Hills, Mich., Dieter Zetsche held what is likely to be his last, and most poignant, session of “Ask Dr. Z.”

 

THE WASHINGTON POST

Front Page

 

Wolfowitz hangs on as ouster hits wall

The Bush administration spent much of yesterday trying to broker a graceful end to the ethics controversy consuming the World Bank, offering the resignation of embattled president Paul D. Wolfowitz, senior administration and bank officials said. But Wolfowitz said he would not leave, insisting on a measure of vindication.

 

Justice weighed firing 1 in 4

The Justice Department considered dismissing many more US attorneys than officials have previously acknowledged, with at least 26 prosecutors suggested for termination between February 2005 and December 2006, according to sources familiar with documents withheld from the public.

 

Business

 

SEC faces some crucial questions

In the coming weeks, the Securities and Exchange Commission must decide a series of critical issues worth billions of dollars to the business community: from how far to cut back accounting rules to whether it should side with investment banks or shareholders in a Supreme Court case.

 

Lobby's co-CEO quit after probe

Wall Street's largest and most important trade association yesterday acknowledged for the first time that one of its co-chief executives resigned abruptly earlier this year after an internal investigation uncovered loose financial management by him.

 

GLOBE AND MAIL, Canada

Front Page

 

Bureaucrat made $7,000 on trusts, Mounties say

A top Finance Canada official whose career is now on the line because of accusations he traded on inside information about Ottawa's income-trust plans reaped no more than $7,378 (€5,459) in profit from the transaction, the RCMP allege.

 

Ottawa set to empower land-claims panel

Ottawa is putting the finishing touches on plans to defuse growing native tensions by giving a federal commission the power to order redress for historic treaty violations.

 

Business

 

Cerberus readies BCE bid

Cerberus Capital Management LP, fresh from its deal to purchase ailing auto maker Chrysler, is planning a run at buying BCE Inc., creating a potential for a three-way bidding war for Canada's largest phone company.

 

Inflation higher than expected in April

That's after a 2.3% gain in March, Statistics Canada said Thursday. The core rate of inflation, which strips out the eight most volatile items in the index, quickened to a 2.5 % annual rate from 2.3%. Analysts had expected an inflation rate of 2.1% and a core rate of 2.4 %

 

BUENOS AIRES HERALD

Front Page

 

Moral majority founder Falwell dies

US evangelist Jerry Falwell, who founded the Moral Majority as a conservative political force in 1979 to redraw public policy in the US along evangelical Christian lines, died yesterday. He disbanded the Moral Majority in 1989 but it was resurrected as the Moral Majority Coalition after Bush won re-election in 2004.

 

Reuters board backs Canadian buyout bid

Thomson Corp. passed the first major hurdle to its £8.7bn ($17.1bn/€127bn) takeover of Reuters Group PLC yesterday with the approval of the company’s editorial watchdog, but the deal now faces intense scrutiny from competition regulators and unions unhappy about expected job cuts.

 

Irate passengers set Constitucion on fire

About 20 people — among them 10 policemen — were injured and 16 were arrested as about 100 riot police yesterday deployed tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse scores of passengers who pelted them with sticks and stones in Buenos Aires City’s Constitución train station, angry after train services were cancelled due to technical reasons.

 

($1 = €0.74; $1 = C$1.1)

By: Staff Reporter
+44 20 8652 3214

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