Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:
- The Lilly Endowment, the fifth-largest US foundation, and the Wal-Mart(WMT) Foundation, the retailer’s charitable arm, were among the biggest donors to hurricane relief and recovery efforts.
- There are no conspiracy theories or political manifestos in Oliver Stone’s new movie “World Trade Center” that opens this weekend. It is a straightforward, old-fashioned tale of heroism, honor, friendship and family, themes that have brought the film praise.
- Ford Motor’s(F) Americas chief said demand for fuel-efficient vehicles is “more permanent” that the company had expected, prompting last month’s announcement that the company would further revamp North American operations. Ford may invest as much as $1 billion in Michigan to make factories more efficient and fund development of hybrid vehicles.
- Federated Dept. Stores(FD), the second largest US dept. store operator, said second-quarter net income more than doubled.
- Walt Disney(DIS) said third-quarter profit rose 39%, led by revenue gains at theme parks and its cable networks.
- Israel’s security cabinet today approved expanding Israel’s incursion into Lebanon as far north as the Litani River in a bid to stop rockets launched by Hezbollah from the region.
- France plans to open new kinds of accommodations for the homeless as it seeks to cut the growing number of people in tents in the streets of Paris.
- Crude oil is rising after the EIA said US gas and oil inventories fell more than expected.
- Shares of Cisco Systems(CSCO), the world’s biggest maker of computer-networking equipment, rose the most in more than four years after the company forecast full-year sales growth that exceeded analysts’ estimates.

Wall Street Journal:
- AMR’s(AMR) American Airlines, Delta Airlines and Continental Airlines have lowered leisure fares following a similar move by UAL Corp.’s United Airlines on Monday.
- A new US bill awaiting President Bush’s signature would let older taxpayers give up to $100,000 a year tax-free from their IRAs to a charity.
- Cinemark USA agreed to buy a rival movie chain, Century Theatres for an undisclosed price to expand its reach in western states.
- First Reserve Corp., a private-equity firm that buys energy companies, will today give details of a $7.8 billion fund, the largest ever pool for investing in the sector.
- US homes and industry could have a reliable source of power for decades to come if energy companies can find further shale-gas fields, such as Barnett Shale, near Forth Worth, Texas. Barnett Shale was a relatively insignificant field until the companies worked out how to extract gas from the rock. Now the field produces 1.3 billion cubic feet of gas a day, or 2.5% of US natural gas production. There are signs that the success may be repeated.

NY Times:
- The FDA may require medical-device manufactures and hospitals to adopt technology for tracking individual items, much like a 2004 rule for identifying drugs and vaccines.

USA Today:
- About 13% of children age 10-17 said they were sexually solicited on the Internet last year, down from 19% five years ago, citing a survey of 1,500 young people to be released today by the Univ. of New Hampshire.

Chronicle of Higher Education:
- Foreign students admitted to graduate schools in the US increased for the second straight year in 2006-2007 by 12% over the previous year.
- Graduate business study programs in the US saw an increase last school year, continuing a trend toward growth. The starting pay for those earning an MBA degree this year was up 4.2% to $92,360. Businesses said they plan to hire 18% more graduates this year than they did last year.

Tex Report:
- Exports of metallurgical coal from Australia to India in the first four months of the year fell 25% from a year ago.

Financial Times:
- Private-equity firms are being flooded with so much money that returns are almost guaranteed to go down as competition for takeovers boosts costs.