In Tuesday's Americas papers

20 November 2007 11:00  [Source: ICIS news]

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Front Page

Wealthy nations in Gulf rethink peg to dollar
For many years, oil-rich Persian Gulf states have pegged their currencies to the dollar. Now that link is stoking a bad bout of inflation in their red-hot economies and putting policymakers in a dilemma: break the dollar peg and risk undermining the US currency, or keep it and face growing local discontent.

Economy conspires to dog Cerberus
On the morning of 12 November, Cerberus Capital Management chairman Stephen Feinberg summoned bankers for United Rentals to his Park Avenue office to tell them he wanted to renegotiate his company's $4bn buyout of the equipment rental company. He asked for an audience with the board of United, according to people familiar with the matter, a request that was later denied.

Tyson dealt blow on no-antibiotic label
The US Department of Agriculture has told Tyson Foods that it can no longer label its products as "raised without antibiotics," a blow to one of the nation's largest chicken producers.

Money & Investing

Citi's leadership hunt
Citigroup had a Prince, but now it needs a king. As the bank hunts for a CEO to succeed Charles Prince, it is becoming clear that finding the right candidate to steer Citigroup through financial market tumult and reinvigorate an institution that has fallen behind its rivals will be difficult - and that is weighing on the stock price.

Nasdaq woos NYSE companies
Seizing on perceived market-making woes at the New York Stock Exchange, the Nasdaq Stock Market is rushing out a service to give "colour" on trading to NYSE-listed companies.

Eton Park to swallow smaller fund R6
Eric Mindich's $10bn Eton Park Capital Management LP is acquiring the portfolio of debt-oriented hedge fund R6 Capital Management and hiring the firm's executives.

THE NEW YORK TIMES

Front Page

Khmer rouge figure in open court
The head of the Khmer Rouge's largest and most notorious torture centre appeared in court Tuesday in the first public session of the long-delayed UN-backed tribunal probing the regime's reign of terror in the 1970s.

Baghdad starts to exhale as security improves
Five months ago, Suhaila al-Aasan lived in an oxygen tank factory with her husband and two sons, convinced that they would never go back to their apartment in Dora, a middle-class neighborhood in southern Baghdad.

Business Day

Companies bolster sales abroad to offset weakness
If the fortunes of the Power Curbers Company were tied solely to business in the US, these would be grim days at its factory on the fringes of this Piedmont town. The small, family-owned company makes machines that turn concrete into curbs, and with the American construction industry in distress, domestic sales are expected to drop at least 10% this year.

New worries about credit drive down stock markets
Stock markets plummeted yesterday on a fresh round of questions about Citigroup and the financial sector. The Dow Jones industrial average fell more than 200 points, to reach its lowest close since the depths of this summer’s subprime woes.

THE WASHINGTON POST

Front Page

UN to cut estimate of AIDS epidemic
The UN's top AIDS scientists plan to acknowledge this week that they have long overestimated both the size and the course of the epidemic, which they now believe has been slowing for nearly a decade, according to UN documents prepared for the announcement.

In cyclone's wake, tales of tragedy and horror
Azahar Ali huddled with his family, reading from the Koran, as the cyclone roared in. First the power went out, he recalled, then screaming winds blew out the windows and ripped off the roof. The sea rushed in, washing him and his family away.

Business

Bills would let judges remake mortgages
Congress is considering legislation that would allow bankruptcy court judges to rewrite loan terms for people at risk of losing their homes, a change that supporters say could save half a million borrowers from foreclosure through early 2009.

Energy Department criticised over new standards for residential furnaces
As families face record heating bills, the Energy Department issued new requirements yesterday for residential furnaces, although critics say the rules will do little to save consumers money or bring more efficient equipment onto the market.

GLOBE AND MAIL, Canada

Front Page

'Vacuum' sparks BC taser inquiry
British Columbia is launching a full-scale inquiry into the death of Robert Dziekanski at the hands of the RCMP, saying the authorities have failed to tell the public how a 40-year-old Polish man emigrating to live with his mother instead ended up dead on the floor of Vancouver's airport.

Crown built case on lies, Pickton defence argues
Defence lawyer Adrian Brooks savaged the Crown's case against Robert Pickton yesterday, charging that it was built on a web of lies from drug-addicted witnesses motivated by money and alleged confessions that were not confessions at all.

Business

Buyers of barred cars can drive home, but no farther
Michael Hill saved $15,000 on a Toyota Sienna minivan, but he can't drive it around Calgary because it's sitting on a dealer's lot 320 kilometres away in Kalispell, Mont.

Competition bureau to examine eco-friendly clothing claims
The Federal Competition Bureau is examining the entire industry of eco-friendly materials and how they are touted in the wake of a controversy at Lululemon Athletica that pounded its stock yesterday after the yoga wear retailer was forced to drop its seaweed-related health benefit claims from a line of its clothing.

BUENOS AIRES HERALD

Front Page

OPEC in disarray over dollar
OPEC heads of state pledged to provide "adequate, timely and sufficient" oil supplies to the market at a meeting in Riyadh yesterday, but the summit ended with a sharp political division over the weak dollar.

Running the Senate
Committee rulings determine the issues debated on the Senate floor, and the heads of committees act as virtual gatekeepers for parliamentary debate. Controlling key committees guarantee for President-elect Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner that bills of interest to the presidency will reach the Senate quickly.

Ninety-plus miners killed
A methane blast ripped through a coal mine in eastern Ukraine early yesterday, killing at least 63 miners in the ex-Soviet nation’s worst mining accident in years.

By: Staff Reporter
+44 20 8652 3214

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