Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:
- Protective Life(PL) agreed to buy JPMorgan Chase’s insurance business for about $1.2 billion in cash.
- AU Optronics(AUO), the world’s third-largest maker of liquid-crystal displays for computers and televisions, posted profit in the fourth quarter that beat estimates after demand for flat-panel televisions soared.
- Al Michaels, play-by-play announcer on ABC’s “Monday Night Football” since 1986, won’t be working on the show when it moves to cable-channel ESPN this year.
- Nortel Networks(NT) may pay more than $2.4 billion in cash and stock to end shareholder lawsuits stemming from the company’s accounting fraud.
- Crude oil is little changed and gasoline is falling to a one-month low after the EIA reported that US motor-fuel stockpiles surged to the highest in 11 months.

Wall Street Journal:
- The US Senate Finance Committee is probing whether Fannie Mae(FNM) and Freddie Mac(FRE) might have inappropriately used their charitable foundations and other non-profit entities to dodge campaign-financing laws to lobby Congress.
- Wal-Mart Stores(WMT) plans to revamp some stores to appeal to wealthier customers, citing John Menzer, vice chairman of US stores.
- A US Bankruptcy Court judge ordered an ethics probe into whether lawyer David Boies’ firm should have disclosed partners’ links to companies used by the firm’s client, Adelphia Communications.
- The US is providing drugs to 471,000 AIDS patients in the developing world, marking a big expansion in the country’s aid program.
- Nuance Communications(NUAN), whose speech-recognition software is used by clients including Verizon Wireless(VZ) and Wal-Mart Stores(WMT), agreed to buy Dictaphone(DCTA) for $357 million.
- Democrats in the US Senate plan to use a parliamentary tactic to force Republicans to boost taxes by as much as $30 billion in return for a two-year extension of lower capital-gains and dividend taxes.
- PanAmSat Holding(PA), which is being bought by Intelsat Ltd., will become the first satellite operator to distribute programming it owns in the US.

NY Times:
- Univision Communications(UVN), the no. 5 US television network and the no. 1 US Spanish-language network, may sell itself.

USA Today:
- The Bush administration will announce a new anti-drug initiative that includes urging more US states to set up databases that can track people who get multiple prescriptions of frequently abused medications such as OxyContin.

Tex Report:
- Taiwan’s coal imports fell 35% in January to 3.75 million metric tons from the same month a year ago.

Aviation Week & Space Technology:
- Boeing(BA) will start to build an extended and more fuel-efficient version of its single-aisle 737 aircraft.

Interfax:
- Foreign oil companies in Turkmenistan plan to raise output 30% this year to 3 million tons, citing unidentified officials from the oil and gas ministry.