Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:
- North Korea said it detonated a nuclear bomb, hours after the Japanese and Chinese governments joined the UN Security Council in warning the communist country against proceeding with the test.
- Total SA, Europe’s largest oil refiner, unveiled France’s first pump station for flexible fuel, which is partly derived from organic matter, as the government promotes alternatives to crude oil.
- Google(GOOG) and YouTube boosted their rival video-sharing services by agreeing with three of the world’s largest record companies to add their music videos.
- President Bush condemned North Korea’s reported first nuclear test and call on the UN to take quick, decisive action.
- Thomas Lee, the billionaire buyout investor, plans to raise $400 million in an IPO for a fund to invest in hedge funds.
- Crude oil is rising $1.40/bbl. after OPEC said Saudi Arabia, Libya, Algeria, Kuwait, Venezuela and Nigeria will reduce output to stem a 23% plunge in prices.
- Goldman Sachs(GS) may receive a windfall of as much as $3.9 billion from Industrial & Commercial Bank of China’s record IPO.
- New Star Asset Management Group plc will sell an investment that tracks the hedge fund market and can be bought and sold like a company share. New Star will sell the Hedge ETS on the London Stock Exchange.
- Calyon, the investment-banking unit of Credit Agricole SA, France’s second-largest bank, said copper and aluminum prices will probably average lower than this year because of a “deceleration” in global economic growth.

Wall Street Journal:
- Toyota Motor(TM) will set between $10 billion and $13 billion in capital spending annually for the next few years to add manufacturing capacity, citing Mitsuo Kinoshita, a Toyota executive vice president.
- LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA introduced factory style techniques to speed up production of luxury items that were previously individually handcrafted.
- PNC Financial Services Group(PNC) is close to buying Mercantile Bankshares Corp. for about $6 billion in stock and cash, as the Pittsburgh-based bank seeks to expand in the US Northeast.
- Target Corp.(TGT) has told film studios it is concerned downloading services have obtained better terms for online movies than it gets for DVDs.
- Google(GOOG) is close to completing an agreement to buy online video site YouTube Inc. for about $1.65 billion in stock and may announce the purchase today.

NY Times:
- The Dolan family of NY offered to take Cablevision Systems(CVC) private in a $19.2 billion leveraged buyout, citing a letter written by founder Charles Dolan and CEO James Dolan to the company’s board.
- US conservative Christians in southeastern Virginia, a battleground for House and Senate races, say the disclosure of former Representative Mark Foley’s behavior with pages reinforced their reasons to vote for their two Republican incumbents in close re-election races, citing interviews.
- Cingular Wireless LLC and Tellme Networks are developing a directory service that will let callers make Internet-like searches of telephone directories using voice recognition technology.

Reuters:
- Chevron Corp.(CVX) may start producing crude oil from a joint development zone shared by Sao Tome and Principe, and Nigeria, within 3 years.

AFP:
- Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s genocide trial resumed today after an adjournment that began Sept. 26.
- Uganda will begin commercial oil production in three years, breaking its exclusive dependence on imports, citing President Yoweri Museveni.

Vedomosti:
- Starbucks(SBUX) will open its first Russian coffee shop next year.

Dagens Industri:
- Svenska Cellulosa AB, Europe’s biggest tissue maker, may invest in hydropower projects to secure its own electricity supply and counter high energy costs.

Iran Daily:
- Ayatollah Mohammad Kazemeini Boroujerdi, a prominent religious figure and his supporters, were arrested on Oct. 7 in Tehran, citing a senior security official. Boroujerdi is known for advocating “traditional religion” in which religion and politics are separated.

Independent:
- John Thain, the CEO of the NYSE(NYX), said long-term shareholders in big stock exchanges shouldn’t let themselves be pushed into disadvantageous mergers by hedge funds.

Interfax:
- Russia will raise gas output as much as 18% within 8 years as production begins at projects such as Shtokman and Kovytka, and increases at fields off Sakhalin Island, citing the Energy Minister.