Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:
- Crude oil fell below $60/bbl. to a six-month low after BP Plc(BP) started work to restore production at Alaska’s Prudhoe Bay, the largest US oil field, and Iran said it favors talks on the country’s nuclear program.
- BP Plc(BP) began work to resume production on a portion of the eastern side of the Prudhoe Bay oilfield in Alaska, which has been shut since early August because of leaks and corroded pipelines.
- Altria Group’s(MO) Philip Morris USA and other cigarette makers must face a class-action lawsuit on behalf of “light” cigarette smokers nationwide, a judge ruled.
- Goldman Sachs(GS) and Morgan Stanley(MS), the Wall Street giants that sell more of everything from stocks and bonds to risk-analysis software to the burgeoning hedge fund industry, may be the biggest winners after Amaranth Advisors LLC said it lost $6 billion on natural gas speculation.
- Fed Bank of Dallas President Fisher said the central bank will take “appropriate action” to reduce inflation should the slowing economy fail to do so.
- US Treasuries are rising again, pushing the 10-year T-note to a seven month high, as a continuing fall in commodity prices lessons inflation concerns.

Wall Street Journal:
- MasterCard Inc.(MC) and Visa USA are starting to fine merchants who don’t follow rules that seek to guard transactions from fraud artists.
- Four US airlines are battling for the right to fly a new daily route to China that has the potential to be highly profitable.
- Wal-Mart Stores(WMT) is confronting a cultural clash in cities such as Boston where critics see the retailer as the epitome of pedestrian suburban values.
- The US Treasury Dept. and IRS are to introduce regulations to stop transactions intended to avoid US taxes when involving foreign companies.
- US health saving accounts plans that require employees to pay as much as $5,250 a year in medical costs out of their own pockets before insurance applies have forced many employers to become medical experts.
- Venezuela’s President Chavez has created his own version of Dante’s inferno with its nine concentric circles of evil, Alvaro Vargas Llosa wrote. Poverty in Venezuela has risen from 43% in 1999 when Chavez took over to 53% in the most recent survey, citing Venezuela’s Instituto Nacional de Estadistica.
- Luxury fashion houses such as Dolce & Gabbana, Versace and Marc Jacobs are using secondary, lower-priced labels to help boost sales.

NY Times:
- In Iraq, the so-called generator man, who owns and operates the neighborhood power plant, has become probably the most vilified figure in Iraqi society after Saddam Hussein.

NY Daily News:
- The rate of crimes in the New York City subway system is the lowest in 37 years, averages seven felonies a day, citing Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly.

Washington Post:
- Iraq will need a US military presence for a “long time” to prevent “foreign interference” in its affairs, citing Iraqi President Jalal Talabani.

AP:
- The US Department of Homeland Security will announce a nearly fourfold boost in annual funding to safeguard New York and New Jersey’s port perimeters.

Washington Times:
- A Hollywood producer is suing former President Bill Clinton, saying he cheated him out of a multi-million-dollar Internet venture.

Advertising Age:
- Advertising rates for Howard Stern’s radio program on Sirius Satellite Radio(SIRI) have fallen by at least two-thirds from when he was on free radio.

El Universal:
- Venezuelan poverty leaves about 70% of the population without a bank account, citing a poll by Caracas-based research firm Datanalisis.