Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:
- Vonage Holding(VON), a pioneer of Internet phone service, was sued by Verizon Communications(VZ) for infringing seven patents related to its VoIP technology.
- Copper is falling, leading a slump in metal prices, on speculation that rising global interest rates will slow demand for commodities used in cars, appliances and homes.
- Confidence among US homebuilders fell this month to the lowest since 1995.
- Crude oil is falling on speculation that tensions between the US and Iran may ease as the Islamic republic shows signs of curbing its nuclear program.
- The US dollar rose to an eight-week high against the yen and climbed versus the euro on growing speculation that the Fed will raise rates at least twice more this year.

Wall Street Journal:
- US charitable donations rose about 6% last year to $260.3 billion, the biggest increase since 2000. Donations to humanitarian services rose 32% to $25.4 billion, marking the single biggest increase in any one category. Donations by corporations soared 22.5% to $13.8 billion.
- AT&T and EchoStar Communications(DISH) plan to start an Internet-based television service next month.
- US companies that have changed 401k retirement program providers in the past two years are more often choosing mutual-fund companies over banks and financial-planning firms.

NY Times:
- Nestle SA plans to announce today that it agreed to buy weight-loss company Jenny Craig(JCGI) for $600 million.
- Hasbro(HAS) plans to extend its Playskool toy brand into infant-care products as sales of action figures and board games fell.

NY Post:
- Revenue at the top 10 cable networks tripled in the last decade to an average of slightly less than $1.5 billion last year.

Albany Times:
- NY State my offer a $1.2 billion package of incentives to Advanced Micro Devices(AMD) to attract a computer chip plant.

Financial Times:
- AstraZeneca’s(AZN) Crestor cholesterol treatment is not as effective as Vytorin, produced by Merck(MRK) and Schering-Plough(SGP), citing a study presented yesterday at the Intl. Symposium on Atherosclerosis in Rome.
- Iran is ready to limit uranium enrichment provided a suspension of the work isn’t a condition for talks on a US-backed plan to resolve the dispute over the nuclear program.