Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:
- Shares of PartyGaming Plc, the world’s largest Internet poker company, dropped after Betonsports Plc and its CEO were indicted by a US grand jury.
- Gold declined in NY and London on speculation that conflict is easing in the Middle East.
- Natural gas fell for a second day in NY as forecasters predicted hot weather across the country would ease later this week, reducing consumption of the power-plant fuel.
- US 10-year Treasuries fell for the first day in almost two weeks after a report showed producer prices increased in June by more than economists forecast.

Wall Street Journal:
- US tea sales reached $6.2 billion last year, having quadrupled since the early 1990s, and there are 2,000 tea houses across the country, compared with 200 a decade ago.
- General Motors(GM) top North American sales and marketing executive says eliminating discounts in favor of permanent low prices has helped the automaker stabilize its market share.
- UnitedHealth Group(UNH) remains a high-quality company whose stock investors remain keen to snap up.
- Some US venture capitalists no longer bet on start-up companies with bright ideas but on businesses that are to be had cheaply after going through hard times.

NY Times:
- A Chicago alderman wants the city to be the first to outlaw restaurants’ use of cooking oils that contain so-called trans fats in order to improve the city’s health.
- US researchers say they are making rapid strides in the field of artificial intelligence as they try to simulate the human brain 50 years after the term was coined.
- Pfizer’s(PFE) research chief says the company and other drugmakers are on the verge of a new age of discovery that will make debilitating illnesses such as cancer and diabetes more manageable.
- General Dynamics(GD) will offer new cockpit systems in its Gulfstream business jets that give pilots computer-generated views of terrain regardless of weather.
- The US Justice Department’s attorney for the Eastern District of NY is looking at possible overcharging in the stock-lending business, along with use of so-called finders’ fees, as part of an inquiry into short-selling practices.

AP:
- The NAACP is calling on black consumers to stop shopping at Target(TGT) until the company answers the civil rights group’s survey questions.

Daily Telegraph:
- UK home prices are likely to rise almost 50% between now and 2011, meaning the average home would cost almost $546,000 in five years’ time, according to Oxford Economic Forecasting, a research group.

Yediot Aharonot:
- Four out of five Israelis support fighting Hezbollah until it withdraws from the Lebanese border and 58% say the terrorist organization must be destroyed.

Sky News:
- The Israeli assault on Lebanon will end within a few weeks, an Israeli army official said.