Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:
- Saudi Arabia and the rest of OPEC can do little to lower record crude oil prices as banks, hedge funds and investors pile into “overheated futures markets,” said Saudi Arabia’s oil minister.
- The number of US workers filing initial jobless claims for unemployment benefits fell last week to a 10-week low of 296,000, a figure that was distorted by this year’s early Easter holiday, the Labor Dept. said.
- Shire Pharmaceuticals said it will buy US biotech company Transkaryotic Therapies for $1.6 billion to acquire treatments for a rare illness and anemia.
- Anheuser-Busch said Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway has become a “significant shareholder” of the company.
- Manufacturing in the Philadelphia region unexpectedly expanded at a faster pace this month as orders and shipments accelerated. The benchmark 10-year T-note fell the most in a month on the news.

Wall Street Journal:
- China’s 60 million retail investors, many of whom lost their life savings after stock markets declined, are stepping up pressure on the government to tighten market regulation.
- US high school students are taking summer trips to Senegal to work on AIDS projects and special courses to bolster their resumes years before they apply to college.
- Altria Group is nearing a deal with the Chinese government to allow Marlboro cigarettes to be made and sold in China.
- Sony will be closely watched by rivals when the company starts selling a new line of rear-projection televisions based on a light-reflecting semiconductor chip later this year.
- The FCC faces opposition form the broadcasting industry to tougher enforcement of rules against profanity and sexual content.
- News Corp. plans to offer television spots on its Fox channel that can be digitally changed to include content familiar to particular viewers.

NY Times:
- Clothing sellers in NY’s Garment District are unable to predict costs and maintain steady supplies because of potential tariffs on imports from China factories.

NY Post:
- DoubleClick is close to being bought by the San Francisco buyout firm Hellman & Friedman for about $1.2 billion.

AFP:
- France will continue to push the European Union to lift its arms embargo against China and doesn’t object to the Chinese government’s Taiwan anti-secession law.

Xinhua News Agency:
- China’s government will spend $15 billion of foreign reserves to bail out Industrial & Commercial Bank of China to help boost the lender’s core capital adequacy ratio to 6%.