Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:
- The trial of ousted dictator Saddam Hussein resumed today as a second witness testified that she was stripped naked, beaten and electrocuted by Iraqi officers repeatedly.
- Kirk Kerkorian may seek more influence at GM after losing $400 million on his recent investment.
- US Democrat John Murtha said on NBC’s “Today” show that the US should leave Iraq immediately.
- US Treasuries are rising substantially today, pushing the 10-year T-note up by the most in almost three weeks, after a government report showing labor costs fell last quarter more than initially estimated eased concern inflation will accelerate.

Wall Street Journal:
- Hyundai Motor, Toyota Motor, Nissan Motor and other Asian automakers are competing to hire automotive engineers and engineering students in the Detroit area as they try to develop more products for the US market.
- Sun Microsystems, Cisco Systems and other software and parts makers are using startup companies as laboratories to come up with new ideas for products that they hope will generate sales growth.
- Johnson & Johnson ranked first and Coca-Cola second in Reputation Quotient’s annual ranking of companies with the best reputation.
- The US Dept. of Energy and a group of companies including American Electric Power and Consol Energy have signed an agreement to build a coal-fired plant that removes carbon dioxide and other pollutants.
- E*Trade Financial plans to introduce a credit card today that allows customers to transfer balances from air-mile credit cards at low interest rates while keeping the reward points that go with those accounts.
- Time Warner and Microsoft are likely to conclude by the end of the month an agreement to set up an online advertising service that will compete with Google.
- Verizon Communications, AT&T, Sprint Nextel and other US phone companies are developing and offering consumers new gadgets and services that combine landline, wireless and Internet access.

NY Daily News:
- New York is the source of about half of all pirated DVDs sold in the US, citing the Motion Picture Association of America.

NY Times:
- Time Warner’s talks with Microsoft and Google involving its AOL unit may not lead to the sale of an AOL stake.
- Pay by Touch, a closely held maker of fingerprint-based payment technology, said it expects to announce the acquisition of rival BioPay LLC today for $82 million in cash and stock.

Interfax:
- Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov rejected US criticism of the country’s plans to sell anti-aircraft missile systems to Iran.

Reuters:
- Representatives from broadcast and cable-tv networks including CBS and NBC met privately this week to consider regulators’ concerns about indecent programming.

Kyodo News:
- Japan plans to extend the current mission of its Self-Defense Forces in Iraq for another year, citing the government’s new mission plan.