World Business Briefing | Europe: Ireland: Ryanair Profit Declines
Date: 07 February 2006
By Bloomberg News
Bloomberg News
Ryanair Holdings, Europe's largest discount airline, reported an unexpected decline in third-quarter profit on soaring fuel costs and predicted that fares would drop. Net income at the Dublin-based Ryanair fell 21 percent, to 36.8 million euros ($44.2 million) in the three months ended Dec. 31, from a restated 46.7 million euros a year earlier. The result missed the median estimate of 39.5 million euros among analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News. Fuel costs in the third quarter climbed 59 percent, to 114.9 million euros, higher than analysts estimated. The airline has futures contracts protecting against high fuel costs only through the fourth quarter. Ryanair is able to absorb higher fuel costs, without hedging, because other expenses are being reduced, the chief executive, Michael O'Leary, left, said on a conference call. Shares of Ryanair fell 20 cents, or 2.6 percent, to 7.52 euros in Dublin.
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News Summary
Date: 07 February 2006
INTERNATIONAL A3-11 Muslims React to Cartoon With Further Violence Muslim anger over Danish cartoons that satirized the Prophet Muhammad continued to swell across Asia and the Middle East and turned violent in Afghanistan, where at least four protesters died and more than a dozen police officers and protesters were injured. A8 The Philadelphia Inquirer became the first major American newspaper to publish any of the caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad, prompting a small protest outside the newspaper's offices. A8 Face-Transplant Patient Speaks The French woman who received the world's first partial face transplant appeared in a news conference designed to ease public curiosity about the operation and to show the world that the innovative post-transplant treatment was working. A3 Canadians Shield Rain Forest An improbable assemblage of officials from the British Colombia provincial government, coastal Native Canadian nations, logging companies and environmental groups will announce an agreement to keep the world's largest intact temperate coastal rain forest off limits to loggers. A6 Iraqi Rebel Visits Syrian Leader The rebel Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr of Iraq met in Damascus with President Bashar al-Assad of Syria to discuss the Iraqi elections and negotiations over the next government, Syria's official news agency reported. A6 Israel Deals Around Hamas Israel will continue to cooperate with the Palestinian Authority and its interim government so long as Hamas is not represented, said the acting prime minister, Ehud Olmert. A9 Egyptian Ferry Office Attacked Frustrated relatives of passengers aboard an Egyptian ferry that sank in the Red Sea stormed into the offices of the ship's owners, looting it and demanding that the company and the government provide information about their loved ones. Out of the 1,400 passengers, only 388 survivors and 245 bodies have been found. A6 NATIONAL A12-18 Bush Proposes Budget Stressing Security President Bush proposed a $2.77 trillion budget calling for increased spending on defense and homeland security and substantial cuts in domestic programs as disparate as education, farm subsidies and the national parks. A1 On paper, Mr. Bush's budget seems to meet his promise of cutting the federal deficit in half by the time he leaves office, but it omits at least a half-trillion dollars in costs that are likely over the next five years. A16 9/11 Suspect Ejected at Trial Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person to be put on trial in the United States for involvement in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, was ejected from a federal courtroom at the start of the jury selection for repeatedly disrupting the proceedings. A12 Attorney General Defends Bush Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales testified to Congress that President Bush decided against allowing the National Security Agency to intercept domestic phone calls and e-mail messages after the Sept. 11 attacks in part because officials realized such a decision would provoke intense opposition if made public. A1 State Passes Lobby Reform In an effort to tighten regulations on the relationships between lawmakers, lobbyists and special interests, the Tennessee legislature passed new ethics and lobbying rules after an F.B.I. bribery sting that ensnared four lawmakers. A12 Police Find Attacker's Note Investigators in New Bedford, Mass., where a man used a hatchet and a gun to attack three patrons in a gay bar before fleeing to Arkansas and killing a police officer, discovered Nazi paraphernalia in his bedroom, as well as a note he apparently wrote that same night that they believe augured there was more violence to come. A13 Opus Dei Tries to Change Image Opus Dei, a Roman Catholic organization with powerful members and a reputation for secrecy, is trying to change its public image. A1 NEW YORK/REGION B1-7 Panel Suggests Changes For State's Divorce Laws A commission appointed to look into New York's matrimonial laws called for an overhaul of divorce and child custody rules, including permission for no-fault divorces. Such a move would put New York in line with most other states, which allow couples to end their marriages by mutual consent. A1 Zoo Elephants Marching Off The Bronx Zoo, the only zoo left in New York City that keeps elephants, said it planned to shut down its exhibit after the death of two of its three elephants, or even one. Keeping elephants happy in captivity is a delicate balancing act, zoo keepers say. B1 FASHION B8 OBITUARIES A18-19 SCIENCE TIMES F1-8 Evolution of Leeches A scientist at the American Museum of Natural History is reconstructing the evolutionary history of leeches -- how an ordinary worm hundreds of millions of years ago gave rise to sophisticated bloodsuckers that spread across the planet. F1 Health & Fitness F5 SPORTSTUESDAY D1-7 OLYMPICS G1-10 ARTS E1-10 Identifying Mysterious Writer A central figure in the case of the mysterious writer JT Leroy has come forward to say that no one named JT Leroy exists, and that the books published under that name were actually written by a San Francisco woman named Laura Albert. E1 BUSINESS DAY C1-16 More Sleeping Pills Americans were prescribed 42 million sleeping pills last year, according to the research company IMS Health, up nearly 60 percent since 2000, and experts worry that the drugs are being overprescribed without sufficient regard to known, if rare, side effects or the implications of long-term use. A1 New Director at G.M. General Motors Corporation announced that Jerome B. York, an adviser to its biggest individual investor, Kirk Kerkorian, will join the company's board of directors at the same time that E. Stanley O'Neal, the chief executive at Merrill Lynch, leaves the board. C1 A Hollywood Indictment Federal prosecutors unveiled a 110-count indictment against Anthony Pellicano, the private detective, that alleges he masterminded a sprawling wiretapping ring that helped his celebrity clients gain an advantage in disputes with oppenents ranging from actors to reporters to talent managers. C1 Business Digest C2 EDITORIAL A20-21 Editorials: A trillion little pieces; those Danish cartoons; justice for asbestos victims; getting Mr. Snow to talk. Columns: John Tierney, Nicholas D. Kristof. Crossword E8 TV Listings E9 Weather D8
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Reuven Frank, Producer Who Pioneered TV News Coverage at NBC, Is Dead at 85
Date: 07 February 2006
By Jacques Steinberg
Jacques Steinberg
Reuven Frank, a pioneering television news producer whose career at NBC ran from Huntley and Brinkley (whom he first paired on the evening news in the 1950's) to Tom Brokaw (whom he installed as a solo anchor in the 1980's), died Sunday at Englewood Hospital in New Jersey. He was 85 and lived in Tenafly, N.J. The cause of death was complications of pneumonia, said a son, James A. Frank.
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Good News for Bill O’Reilly
Date: 07 February 2006
By Nicholas D. Kristof
Nicholas
The pledges to help finance Bill O’Reilly’s trip to Darfur are pouring in. As a matter of fact, they seem to have temporarily knocked out the gmail account we set up — we’ll get it back on ASAP, and we’ll tabulate some of the amounts coming in.
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Shares Fall on Lowered Forecast by Luxury Homebuilder
Date: 08 February 2006
By Bloomberg News
Bloomberg News
Stocks fell yesterday after Toll Brothers, the nation's largest builder of luxury homes, said 2006 sales would be less than its most recent forecast. The estimate from Toll ''caused some concern as to what a slowing housing market would do to the economy,'' said Eric Thorne, an investment manager at Bryn Mawr Trust in Bryn Mawr, Pa.
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World Business Briefing | Asia: South Korea: Donation by Executive
Date: 08 February 2006
By Bloomberg News
Bloomberg News
The Samsung Group, under fire last year for its suspected role in the bribing of politicians and illicit transfers of stock, said that its chairman, Lee Kun Hee, left, and his children would donate 590 billion won ($621 million) to charity. Samsung also said that it would withdraw from its disputes with the government over tax penalties and its fight with the Fair Trade Commission over rules governing holding companies. The announcement comes less than a week after Mr. Lee apologized for various controversies linked to him. Last year, prosecutors investigated whether Mr. Lee wrongfully used corporate money to bribe presidential candidates; he was ultimately cleared of those suspicions.
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Google Imposes a Ban on BMW Web Site
Date: 07 February 2006
By Bloomberg News
Bloomberg News
Google has removed the German Web site of BMW from its Internet search index, saying that the company was redirecting users from requested information to another page selling luxury cars. Pages on the Web site, BMW.de, included hidden software that moved visitors from a page that Google had found to another page with flashier graphics.
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Medicare Plans Lift Earnings at Humana
Date: 07 February 2006
By Bloomberg News
Bloomberg News
Humana Inc. said yesterday that its fourth-quarter profit rose on increased enrollment in its plans aimed at Medicare recipients. Net income rose 37 percent, to $64.6 million, or 39 cents a share, from $47.1 million, or 29 cents a share, a year earlier, the company said. Revenue rose 14 percent, to $3.66 billion.
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Ex-Chief of American Airlines Takes Post at Virgin America
Date: 07 February 2006
By Bloomberg News
Bloomberg News
Virgin America Inc., an airline seeking authority to fly in the United States, named a former chief executive of American Airlines, Donald J. Carty, as its chairman. Mr. Carty, 59, will also become an investor in the airline by taking a stake in VAI Partners, which owns a 75 percent equity stake in Virgin America, the carrier said. The rest of the airline is owned by the Virgin Group, which is controlled by the British billionaire Sir Richard Branson.
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