In Wednesday's Americas papers

30 July 2008 12:00  [Source: ICIS news]

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Front Page

US, Iraq move closer to reaching a security deal
The Bush administration's embrace of a flexible timeline for pulling US troops from Iraq has accelerated negotiations between Washington and Baghdad over a long-term security pact, officials from both sides said.

SEC extends short-selling rules
The Securities and Exchange Commission voted to extend the temporary rules it put in place to restrict short-selling of a handful of financial stocks. The SEC commissioners didn't take additional steps opposed by Wall Street to expand the number of stocks affected by the rules or make them permanent.

Lone Star's splash
Lone Star Funds' $6.7bn dive into mortgage-backed assets dumped by Merrill Lynch shows how ready some investors are to move into this market when the pickings are right.

Money & Investing

Displaced-worker aid is proposed
A policy paper commissioned by the chief executives of the nation's largest financial-services companies recommends a huge expansion in programs to assist workers displaced by international trade, with the $22bn price tag financed through tax increases.

IRA rollover ads criticised by Senator
As a flood of baby boomers head into retirement, mutual-fund companies have begun a marketing blitz to encourage people to roll over their workplace 401(k) plans into Individual Retirement Accounts run by the fund firms.

Fraud suit against UBS is dismissed
A New York Supreme Court judge dismissed a lawsuit alleging UBS, the prime broker of collapsed hedge fund Wood River Partners, fraudulently earned more than $100m by misusing knowledge of the fund's trades.

THE NEW YORK TIMES

Front Page

CIA outlines Pakistan links with militants
A top Central Intelligence Agency official traveled secretly to Islamabad this month to confront Pakistan’s most senior officials with new information about ties between the country’s powerful spy service and militants operating in Pakistan’s tribal areas, according to American military and intelligence officials.

Karadzic arrives in Hague for trial despite violent protest by loyalists
Long one of the most-wanted fugitives in the world, Radovan Karadzic, the Bosnian Serb leader blamed for inciting his followers to join him in a brutal ethnic war, was delivered Wednesday to a prison cell in The Hague for eventual trial by a United Nations war crimes tribunal.

Business Day

After 7 years, talks on trade collapse
World trade talks collapsed here on Tuesday after seven years of on-again, off-again negotiations, in the latest sign of India’s and China’s growing might on the world stage and the decreasing ability of the US to impose its will globally.

Energy prices are bright sliver in grim economy
The sharp drop in energy prices since the beginning of the month is turning into a rare bright spot in a bleak economic landscape. For the moment, at least, fears of a prolonged energy shock seem to have subsided a bit.

WASHINGTON POST

Front Page

Karadzic extradited to the Hague to face war crimes charges
Radovan Karadzic, the former Bosnian Serb leader facing genocide and other charges for his role in the 1992-1995 Bosnian war, was flown here early Wednesday to face a UN war crimes tribunal after the Serbian government ordered his extradition, officials in Belgrade said.

McCain charge against Obama lacks evidence
For four days, Senator John McCain and his allies have accused Senator Barack Obama of snubbing wounded soldiers by canceling a visit to a military hospital because he could not take reporters with him, despite no evidence that the charge is true.

Business

Trade talks crumble in feud over farm aid
International talks aimed at ushering in a new era of free trade collapsed in Geneva yesterday during a bitter split between developed and developing countries over the future shape of global commerce.

Children targets of $1.6bn in food ads
One in three children in this country are overweight. But, until now, it was unclear how much the nation's largest food and beverage companies spent influencing kids to eat unhealthy foods.

GLOBE AND MAIL, Canada

Front Page

Karadzic in UN custody
Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic sat in a UN jail cell Wednesday after being flown to the Netherlands in the dead of night to face charges of genocide against Muslims and Croats during the Balkan wars of the 1990s.

Ottawa drafts new deal for provinces
The Harper government is prepared to let Quebec negotiate a unilateral labour-mobility deal with France, and is willing to provide each province with similar autonomy on economic issues, the Prime Minister's Quebec lieutenant, Lawrence Cannon, has announced.

Business

Oil slides to near $122/bbl
Oil prices held steady Wednesday in Asia near $122/bbl after sliding overnight on expectations that this year's surge in energy costs is undermining US gasoline demand.

Global shares rise on US glimmers of hope
World stocks rose on Wednesday as worries about oil receded, US consumer confidence stabilised and corporate earnings bolstered investor sentiment. The US dollar was barely changed against a basket of major currencies, and euro zone government bond prices rose.

BUENOS AIRES HERALD

Front Page

Minimum wage set at 1,240 pesos
The National Wage Council yesterday agreed that the minimum wage be increased to 1,200 pesos as from next week and to 1,240 pesos as from next December. 

Travel plans sunk by plane chaos
Thousands had their travel plans interrupted by long departure delays and flight cancellations for the third successive day at the Jorge Newbery metropolitan airport yesterday. Tired and irritable travelers gathered round the information screens at the airport waiting for news of their flights. 

Female suicide bombers unleash carnage in Iraq
Three female suicide bombers killed 32 people and wounded 92 when they blew themselves up among Shiite religious pilgrims here yesterday. In the northern oil city of Kirkuk a suicide bomber killed 25 people and wounded almost 200 at a protest against a disputed local elections law.

By: Staff Reporter
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