Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:
- Merrill Lynch(MER) and BNP Paribas, two of the 22 primary dealers that trade government bonds directly with the Federal Reserve, pushed back their forecasts for when the central bank will cut interest rates.
- Crude oil futures rose after the US government reported that supplies had their biggest one-week decline since July.
- President Bush said Iraq’s stability remains crucial to US security and vowed to adjust tactics to achieve this goal.
- Shares of Mills Corp.(MLS) climbed as much as 20% after Gazit-Globe Ltd., a Tel Aviv-based real-estate developer, bought a 9% stake in the company for $110 million.
- President Vladimir Putin said he’ll be able to step down when his term ends in 2008, after taking Russia’s economy to new heights that will secure the country’s future.
- Billionaire investor Carl Icahn won his two-month campaign to take control of ImClone Systems(IMCL), ousting the biotech’s interim CEO and engineering his own election as chairman.
- Blackstone Group LP bought a stake in United Biscuits to gain brands including McVitie’s cookies and Jacob’s crackers.

Wall Street Journal:
- Loral Space & Communications(LORL) may put its Skynet satellite-services unit up for sale by the end of 2007.
- The UK-based pharmaceutical company, GlaxoSmithKline Plc(GSK), pushed its Requip drug to about $500 million in sales in a little more than a year by marketing a formerly obscure malady called restless-leg syndrome to doctors and directly to consumers.
- Three quarters of carmakers are failing to achieve European Union objectives for cutting carbon dioxide emissions, citing a study by the European Federation for Transport and Environment.
- US shoplifters are using technology that is helping them steal more goods more easily and making the crime harder to detect.
- Interpublic Group(IPG) won Wal-Mart Store’s(WMT) $580 million advertising account.

NY Times:
- Home Depot(HD) is selling products that have little to do with home improvement as the US housing market slows.
- Some US hospitals are offering primary medical care to chronically ill patients without insurance because preventative treatment costs less than emergency visits.

AFP:
- North Korea has sent “signals” that it is ready to return to six-nation talks on ending its nuclear weapons program, citing Russian President Putin.

Vedomosti:
- International Paper(IP) agreed to acquire at least 25% of Ilim Pulp, Russia’s biggest paper producer.

Boersen:
- AP Moeller-Maersk A/S’s oil reserves may be boosted 12% after exploration off the coast of Colombia indicated the region may hold as much as 700 million barrels of oil, citing Petrobras Energia SA.

Globe and Mail:
- Power Financial, which controls Canada’s biggest mutual fund company and third-largest insurer, is considering a bid for Putnam Investments.

Interfax:
- BP Plc(BP) raised by 20% its estimate of proven oil reserves in three offshore fields in the Azeri sector of the Caspian Sea, which the UK company is developing with partners.