Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:
- President Bush called 2005 a “year of progress” in Iraq and said the US will reduce the number of its troops there by “several thousand” because Iraqis are taking more responsibility for their own security.
- Samsung Electronics will release its first high-definition DVD player in North America this week, giving a boost to Sony Corp.’s(SNE) Blu-ray version of the audio and visual technology.
- Copper is rising to a record in London amid concern a strike planned to start today at mines owned by Chile’s Codelco will limit supplies of the metal used in wiring and plumbing.
- US Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito was given the highest professional rating of “well qualified” by an American Bar Association panel.
- The US dollar had the biggest two-day decline against the euro in four months after the Fed suggested its is closer to halting its interest-rate increases.

Wall Street Journal:
- Hewlett-Packard(HPQ) will announce today a new consumer-electronics range at a trade fair in Las Vegas.
- Film studios and cable television companies are discussing the possibility of offering movies on demand the same day they are released on DVD.
- Allstate(ALL), P&G(PG) and Pfizer(PFE) have cut spending on television ads as viewers have declined in number.
- Oracle(ORCL), Halliburton(HAL) and Schlumberger(SLB) are among companies likely to benefit as businesses boost spending this year.

NY Times:
- New Orleans residents are working together to start so-called charter schools that get less state funding and have more autonomy on curriculum and hiring than traditional public schools.

NY Post:
- NY democratic Attorney General Eliot Spitzer once threatened the head of the state Lobbying Commission, citing a handwritten note dated Dec. 21, 1999.

Daily Telegraph:
- Cuban President Fidel Castro ordered the assignation of US President John F. Kennedy in 1963, citing evidence presented in a documentary to be shown on German television later this week.

Guardian:
- The Iranian government has set up a network in Europe to help buy the expertise and materials needed to develop a nuclear bomb.