Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:
- Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, unable to fulfill US goals in Iraq and Afghanistan during his tenure, is stepping down and will be replaced by former CIA Director Robert Gates, President Bush said.
- Ethanol production in Japan may more than double by 2020 to 502 million gallons.
- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said oil prices should not fall under $50 a barrel and pledged to work with OPEC and non-OPEC states to keep prices from sliding further.
- Brazil’s 60% share of the world’s trade in ethanol is being challenged by China, according to Cargill, the largest US agricultural company.
- US ethanol production may rise to 15 billion gallons a year by 2013, allowing for every gallon of gasoline in the country to contain 10% of the alternative fuel, the Clean Fuels Development Coalition said.
- Kuwait may build a refinery in Louisiana, the second-largest crude-oil processing state in the US, as it seeks to invest more of its oil earnings outside the Middle East, the country’s oil minister said.
- Japan’s support for the US in Iraq won’t be affected by the outcome of the mid-term US elections, Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said.
- Pakistan’s security forces will combat and crush the threat of terrorism threatening the country, President Pervez Musharraf told military commanders.
- Australia’s central bank raised its benchmark interest rate to the highest in almost six years to curb inflation, risking an economic slowdown as households grapple with record debt.
- A Cezanne still-life sold for $37 million and a Modigliani portrait of a boy fetched $31.1 million at Sotheby’s(BID) impressionist and modern art sale last night in NY, highlighting the largest single auction since 1990.
- Shares of drugmakers including Pfizer(PFE) and health-insurance providers such as Humana(HUM) fell after voters handed control of the US House of Representatives to Democrats who pledged to control pharmaceutical spending.

Wall Street Journal:
- Google Inc.(GOOG) is adding staff to capture more sales for advertising carried by large radio companies.

NY Times:
- Technological advancements in deepwater drilling have helped increase production in the Gulf of Mexico, tagged “the Dead Sea” a decade ago and abandoned by energy companies. About 40 billion barrels of undiscovered reserves lie in the deep water, enough to satisfy US consumption for more than five years.
- “Several thousand” people have returned to their homes in Sudan’s battle-stricken Darfur region. Some places such as corners in the southwester part of Darfur are peaceful now, citing aid workers.

Loyd’s List:
- UK oil producers will spend $572 billion to extract the North Sea’s remaining reserves, citing Malcolm Webb, CEO of the UK Offshore Operators Assoc. The UK will be able to produce 60% of its own oil requirements, and 20% of its gas needs by 2020, Webb said.

Xinhua News:
- China discovered a coal mine with estimated reserves of 6.4 billion tons in the northern Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.