Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:
- Global hedge-fund assets climbed 19% to about $2.5 trillion in the six months to July, before the subprime mortgage crisis in the US sparked turmoil in capital markets, a HedgeFund Intelligence survey showed.
- Crude oil is falling below $80/bbl. in NY as speculators slash long positions in anticipation of declining demand from refiners as margins tumble.
- Texas oil billionaire Oscar Wyatt pleaded guilty to conspiracy following three weeks of trial over kickbacks paid to Saddam Hussein in exchange for the right to buy oil under the UN Oil-for-Food program.
- The last time investors bet on a decline in Research In Motion(RIMM), maker of the BalckBerry e-mail phone, the stock tripled in a year. Now the shares are near a record and two-thirds of 37 analysts say it’s still a mistake.
- BP Plc(BP), Europe’s second-largest oil company, and Australia’s Babcock & Brown will officially open their largest US wind farm in Colorado tomorrow.
- Nokia Oyj(NOK), the world’s biggest mobile-phone company, agreed to buy Navteq Corp.(NVT) for $8.1 billion to gain digital maps of 69 countries and compete with TomTom NV in the market for navigation devices.
- Homebuilders, led by Lennar Corp.(LEN), rallied as a Citi Investment Research analyst recommended investors buy the shares after a 53% drop for the group this year.
- Uranium fell 12% last week, erasing most of this year’s gain, as supply outpace demand, according to TradeTech LLC, an industry consulting company that helps set prices.
- Sugar is falling 2.3% today, the most in six weeks, on speculation that Brazil, the world’s largest producer, may producer more sweetener than last year.

Wall Street Journal:
- Wall Street is re-evaluating how to measure growth at eBay Inc.(EBAY) and Amazon.com(AMZN) – and the change is helping to send the stocks of both companies higher.

NY Times:
- Starting tomorrow at certain Starbucks(SBUX) stores, a person with an iPhone or iTunes software loaded onto a laptop can download the songs they hear over the speakers directly onto those devices. The price will be 99 cents a song, a small price, Starbucks says, to satisfy an immediate urge.
- Fatal airplane crashes have plunged 65% over the last decade. There is now about one fatal accident in 4.5 million departures versus 1 in 2 million in 1997.

MSNBC.com:
- Is Hollywood’s ‘green’ carpet just show? Industry may be serving up organic fruit, but it’s also a major polluter.

Financial Times:
- Procter & Gamble(PG) has retained Blackstone to run two separate auctions – one for Duracell and one for its remaining food assets, Pringles and Folgers, according to sources familiar with the situation.

Valor Economico:
- Mexican billionaire Ricardo Salinas Pliego is seeking to use Brazilian technology to produce ethanol from sugar cane in Mexico.

O Estado de S. Paulo:
- One percent of all homicides in the world take place in Sao Paulo, Brazil’s largest city, citing a UN study.