Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:
- The wave of sectarian violence in Iraq that was sparked by the bombing of a Shiite mosque last week has abated, the top US general in Iraq said.
- Google(GOOG), criticized going into a meeting with analysts yesterday for being too secretive, appeased Wall Street with a more open tone and upbeat predictions for the search engine’s efforts to dominate the ad industry.
- Intel(INTC) cut its first-quarter revenue forecast on market share loss.
- Warren Buffett has produced below-average returns since 2001 and lost money for his shareholders over the past year.
- General Electric(GE) CEO Immelt will take his 2005 bonus, worth as much as $5.99 million in shares instead of cash after the company’s stock trailed the market for the first time in three years.
- President Bush said America is entering a new phase of its partnership with India in a speech concluding his three-day trip to the country.
- Dana Corp.(DCN) filed for bankruptcy for its US operations, becoming the fourth major US auto-parts maker to seek protection in the past 13 months as Ford(F) and GM(GM) cut production.

Wall Street Journal:
- Leaders of Hamas, the governing party of the Palestinian Territory, will today visit Moscow in one of the clearest signs yet that Russia is trying to assert itself in the Middle East.
- The US Justice Department is investigating four of the largest music companies for possible collusion in settling online music prices.
- Morningstar Inc.(MORN), the US research firm known for its mutual-fund rankings, plans to introduce a service today that can be used to compare exchange-traded funds.
- Mexican shoppers are flocking to Federated Dept. Stores(FD) and JC Penney(JCP) outlets along the border in Texas, creating a retail boom in the region.
- Walt Disney’s ABC(DIS) refused to air KFC’s new television commercial which invites viewers to slowly replay the ad to find a secret message, because of a ban on subliminal advertising.
- The NYSE has asked the SEC for permission to introduce trading of new bonds, as it tries to capture more of the $5 trillion corporate bond market.
- IBM(IBM), Sun Microsystems(SUNW), Oracle Corp.(ORCL) and the American Library Assoc. have joined to promote a common format for storing and creating documents.

Business Week:
- Texas Instruments(TXN) is likely to benefit “significantly” over the next three years from a US mandate that requires televisions made from 2009 onward to be digital.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:
- US Steel(X) is in negotiations to buy AK Steel(AKS), which would create the world’s sixth-largest steel producer.

NY Times:
- Wal-Mart(WMT) is seeking to increase the dominance of its grocery business by playing a role in the creation of food and beverage products.
- The European Union is a union in name only, given the way France, Spain and Italy have reacted to possible cross-border company investments.

AP:
- Khaled Mashaal, the political leader of Hamas, said today in Moscow that the militant Palestinian group won’t change its position on refusing to recognize Israel.

Financial Times:
- Aviva Plc, the British insurer which announced a 29% rise in operating profit yesterday, might consider acquisitions, perhaps in the US, to keep profit growing.