US economy keeps producing jobs BBC NEWS
The US economy created 211,000 jobs in March as the unemployment rate dropped to 4.7%, the Labor Department said. The rate at which employers added jobs surprised analysts, who had forecast 190,000 new posts. However, the Labor Department revised down the number of jobs created in January and February by 34,000. March wage growth was below forecasts at 0.2%, but fears remain that current high levels of employment could boost consumption levels and raise inflation.

Hiring and firing
The markets are also worried that current hiring levels could lead to inflationary pay rises, which might then encourage the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates in an effort to contain them. "I think the Fed wants the unemployment rate to stop going down pretty much immediately, and if it doesn't the Fed will keep tightening," said economist Jim O'Sullivan of UBS Securities in Greenwich, Connecticut. The Fed has raised its key short-term interest rate 15 times since mid-2004, and many analysts believe the current rate of 4.75% marks the latter stages of its rate-rising cycle. Not all industry sectors created jobs in March. Manufacturing employment fell by 5,000 after a 10,000 drop in February, while transportation firms shed 7,600 posts. Service sector businesses led the hiring, recruiting 202,000 new staff in March, following on from the 194,000 in February.

Solid Growth for U.S. Payrolls

WASHINGTON - The U.S. economy turned in a solid performance last
month, adding a net 211,000 new jobs and driving the unemployment
rate back to its lowest point in the current expansion. By Joel
Havemann.
http://email.latimes.com/cgi-bin1/DM/y/e1S...Io30G2B0HQz30Eq

To Open China's Market, Disney Faces Long March

SHANGHAI - The company has to overcome China's tight controls on
foreign media to sell its stories. Analysts say it needs a TV
channel there. By Don Lee.
http://email.latimes.com/cgi-bin1/DM/y/e1S...Io30G2B0HQz40Er

First Quarter Was a Pretty Good Year

Stock funds posted strong gains despite rising interest rates.
Will bulls stay in control? By Tom Petruno.
http://email.latimes.com/cgi-bin1/DM/y/e1S...Io30G2B0HQz50Es

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/article/...2124287,00.html

The Times April 08, 2006


World 'cannot meet oil demand'
By Carl Mortished, International Business Editor

THE world lacks the means to produce enough oil to meet rising projections of demand for fuel over the next decade, according to Christophe de Margerie, head of exploration for Total and heir presumptive to the leadership of the French energy multinational.

The world is mistakenly focusing on oil reserves when the problem is capacity to produce oil, M de Margerie said in an interview with The Times. Forecasters, such as the International Energy Agency (IEA), have failed to consider the speed at which new resources can be brought into production, he believes.

“Numbers like 120 million barrels per day will never be reached, never,” he said.

The IEA predicted in its World Energy Outlook that global demand for crude oil would reach 121 million barrels per day by 2030, of which more than half would be supplied by Opec. The agency predicted that more than $3 trillion (£1.72 trillion) of investment in wells, pipelines and refineries would be needed to raise output to such levels.

However, Total’s exploration chief reckons the output rise is impossible, given available resources and geopolitical constraints on gaining access to reserves in Opec countries.

M de Margerie argued that the resources were simply not available. He said: “Take Qatar. How many projects can you have at the same time? You have more than 100,000 people working on sites. It’s a big city of contractors. Now they have the problem of having to build a new power plant to supply a city of contractors.”

The IEA was mistaken in using recovery factors that failed to consider the timing of new resources coming on stream. M De Margerie said. The world was confusing the issue of reserves with the scale of the problem in producing those reserves. He said: “The oil reserves are there, that is the good news, but what we can bring on today to meet demand is limited by factors other than what scientists see in a lab or think-tanks.”

The Total exploration chief said he was the likely successor to Thierry Desmarest, the current chairman and has been nominated to join the company’s supervisory board.

Globalization Uproots Island's Banana Trees

CASTRIES, St. Lucia - Paved roads, free public schools and
pastel-painted houses covering the lush hillsides testify to the
relative prosperity that swept this Caribbean island during its
stint as a banana republic. But now, with the end of European
Union trade preferences, St. Lucia's growers of the fruit can't
command prices that cover costs. By Carol J. Williams.
http://email.latimes.com/cgi-bin1/DM/y/e1S...Io30G2B0HQ120E6

How Piracy Opens Doors for Windows

Microsoft Corp. estimates it lost about $14 billion last year to
software piracy, but Bill Gates may not be entirely dismayed by
software thieves. By exposing new markets to the software, they
help make Microsoft a worldwide standard. By Charles Piller.
http://email.latimes.com/cgi-bin1/DM/y/e1S...Io30G2B0HQ130E7

Business Objects unveils new Web-delivered software Yahoo! NEWS
Business Objects SA will introduce a Web-based version of its database marketing software on Monday, the latest company to push into the fast-growing market for applications delivered over the Internet. The French-American software maker said on Friday that the crystalreports.com product offered as a monthly subscription service would help penetrate the small- and medium-sized business market. The San Jose, California, and Paris-based company makes software to help companies mine mountains of information stored in databases and use the data to detect marketing trends. It competes with rivals such as Cognos Inc., Hyperion Solutions Corp. and Microsoft Corp.. Dan Vesset, research director at IDC, said the new product marks the first major push by a business intelligence vendor into Web-delivered software amid growing demand for such tools that many customers find are cheaper and easier to use than traditional applications installed on specific computers. According to IDC, worldwide spending on Internet-based software stood at $4.2 billion in 2004 and is expected to hit $10.7 billion by 2009. Salesforce.com Inc., a maker of sales and marketing software, is perhaps the best-known supplier in this emerging sector. "We expect new BI software delivery methods such as this ... offering from Business Objects to be well received by the market," Vesset said in a statement. The company, which recently moved past the $1 billion revenue mark, already has made its Crystal Reports XI offering available via the Web through AppExchange, the eBay-like marketplace of Salesforce.com. Companies like Salesforce have enjoyed dramatic growth as more businesses turn to Web-based software for a monthly fee. This has spurred big software makers like Oracle Corp. and SAP AG of Germany to begin offering their customers applications delivered over the Web. Business Objects will now offer crystalreports.com as an upgrade or add-on product to current users of Crystal Reports XI who want a Web-based service that makes it easier to distribute and share reports, the company said. Salesforce customers can access crystalreports.com through the AppExchange. The software maker will offer its basic Web service product for free beginning on April 10. A premium version priced at $20 per user per month will automatically schedule and share reports with other users. It will be available later this quarter. Greg Wolfe, general manager of the company's U.S. unit, said crystalreports.com would help the company expand to reach a wider range of customers. He said Business Objects was looking to eventually make all its products available on the Internet. "If we get the kind of response we think we will we would quite naturally extend the entire platform this way," Wolfe said. "We will have to see what our customers say."
By Michael Kahn

Stones rock full house in China BBC NEWS
The Rolling Stones have played their first concert on mainland China to a packed audience at Shanghai's Grand Stage venue. The veteran band began their landmark gig - part of their Bigger Bang world tour - with classic hit Start Me Up. The 8,000-seat indoor stadium was filled with an audience made up of mainly non-Chinese fans. The concert comes three years after they cancelled shows in Shanghai and Beijing due to the Sars outbreak. There was little sign of the fan frenzy that has followed the band on other stops on the tour. The Rolling Stones do not have such a devoted following in China. However, demand for tickets had driven up the price to 5,000 yuan (£358) on the black market. Chinese rock pioneer Cui Jian, who was to perform with the band, said before the concert the show was a "milestone" for him and all rock fans in China. "It is a big moment, I will never forget this," said Cui, whose songs became anthems for student protesters in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 1989. Ahead of the concert on Saturday, the Chinese government asked that the band not play the songs Brown Sugar, Honky Tonk Woman, Beast of Burden and Let's Spend the Night Together because of their suggestive lyrics. Authorities reportedly later added another track to the list, Rough Justice from the Bigger Bang album. Lead singer Sir Mick Jagger said the band were not worried by the censorship and had fully expected it. "Fortunately, we have 400 more songs that we can play so it's not really an issue," said Sir Mick.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China_Business/HD08Cb06.html
Chinese auto makers ready to go it alone

BEIJING - For years, Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC), a government-owned behemoth, has worked side by side with General Motors Corporation (GM) and Volkswagen AG on world-class assembly lines to build cars for the Chinese market.

Now, the giant auto maker is getting ready to use the technical expertise and experience it has gained from these partnerships - which turn out hundreds of thousands of Buicks and Chevrolets as well as VW Santanas and Passats a year - to make its own high-end sedan.

Shanghai Automotive's shift from an ally of its foreign partners to a potentially dangerous rival is a sign of sweeping changes ahead for auto makers in the fast-growing China market, which has become an increasingly important source of sales and profits for US and European auto companies.

Prodded by Chinese economic planners, large state-run companies that have joint ventures with other foreign manufacturers, from Ford Motor Corporation of the US to Japan's Suzuki Motor Corporation and South Korea's Kia Motors Corporation, are also moving to develop and sell more vehicles under their own brand names. The push comes amid a broader questioning of the role that foreign companies and brands should play in China's economy.

"This is a watershed in the development of the auto industry in China," said Michael Dunne, president of consultancy Automotive Resources Asia. "The Chinese formed joint ventures for one purpose: to learn how to do it themselves one day. That day is here."

Zhu Xiangjun, a spokeswoman for Shanghai Automotive, said the company's launch of its own brand will foster a "healthy" rivalry that will "drive" the joint ventures to "further improve their competitiveness". The company is expected to release more details about its new-car development plans Monday.

In a prepared statement, GM said it "understands" Shanghai Automotive's "desire for further growth" and is confident "SAIC recognizes that the success of both companies in the China market is closely linked to the success of our joint ventures". Volkswagen said: "Volkswagen and SAIC keep a close and long-lasting partnership. We understand SAIC's wish to build up an own Chinese car brand. We offered our support in the past and still do at present."

The new car from Shanghai Automotive, China's largest passenger car maker, will be a modified version of MG Rover Group Ltd's Rover 75, a luxury, four-door sedan that will compete head to head with some cars produced by Shanghai Automotive's joint ventures with GM and VW. Shanghai Automotive bought the plans for the cars and the rights to make them from MG Rover Group before the British company filed for bankruptcy in April 2005.

Shanghai Automotive says its new car, which hasn't been named, will start rolling off the assembly line within the next six months. Sales in the domestic market will start soon after. The company also plans to push into its partners' home turf, with exports to Europe and the US. It is aiming to start sales in Europe as early as 2007.

Succeeding with such ambitious plans won't be easy. "It's risky for local companies to start at the high end. Their brands aren't strong enough," said Yale Zhang, an analyst at CSM Worldwide in Shanghai.

Over the near term, foreign auto makers have few alternatives. Under Chinese regulations, to make cars in China, foreign companies must form joint ventures in which their Chinese partners own no less than 50%. The major multinationals have already teamed up with the biggest and most promising local firms. So, observers say, they have little choice but to keep making their cars and encourage their partners not to compete too directly with them.

For now, few analysts expect Shanghai Automotive or China's other state enterprises to suddenly walk away from their very substantial, and profitable, investments in joint ventures with foreign firms. But, they say, balancing cooperation and competition is likely to become increasingly difficult.

GM's China joint ventures have become especially critical to the company at a time when it is piling up large losses in North America. For 2005, GM reported preliminary profit of US$327 million from its affiliates in China, compared with $417 million the year before.

Already, sales of homegrown Chinese cars, many made by small manufacturers, are starting to take off. Last year, 26% of passenger cars sold in China were Chinese brands, more than double the share in 2001, according to Automotive Resources Asia. Heightened competition is pushing down prices and squeezing profits.

Now that Shanghai Automotive and the country's other major vehicle manufacturers are getting into the game, it is likely to accelerate the trend. Shanghai Automotive employs about 50,000 people. Last year, its manufacturing ventures made more than 600,000 vehicles, dwarfing the output of Chery Automobile Co and Geely Holding Group, two smaller auto makers that have garnered attention abroad because of their export ambitions.

Shanghai Automotive traces its roots back to factories that made tractors, buses and shiny, black Phoenix sedans for party cadres in the years after the communist revolution. The company stopped making its own vehicles in the mid-1980s when it signed a joint-venture deal with Volkswagen. Partnership agreements followed with dozens of parts makers and, in 1997, with GM.

Shanghai Automotive's recent efforts say a lot about industrywide strategies for gaining access to know-how and technology to strengthen China's domestic manufacturers. The company says it has gleaned "rich experience and resources in every field" from its work with GM and VW. In addition to manufacturing ventures, Shanghai Automotive insisted on a joint research and development (R&D) operation with GM. Staffed by top GM engineers and designers and their local counterparts, the center has been doing increasingly sophisticated design work for GM cars sold in China.

Shanghai Automotive is hiring experienced engineers and managers from these joint ventures to work on its own car projects. It is also bringing in veteran executives from foreign car makers. Wang Xiaoqiu, general manager of the Shanghai Automotive unit that will be making the new sedan, for example, once worked for Shanghai Volkswagen. Its R&D head, Wang Dazong, is a veteran of GM and parts supplier Delphi Corporation.

Shanghai Automotive says it is planning to open a design center in Europe later this year. And it has brought in engineers from Korean sport-utility vehicle maker Ssangyong Motor Co, in which Shanghai Automotive bought a controlling stake in 2004.

Chinese and foreign auto makers are already grappling with the implications of the state enterprises' solo efforts. Xu Liuping, chief executive of government-controlled Changan Automobile Group, which has joint ventures with Ford and Suzuki, said his company plans to roll out four of its own new passenger car models within the next year. "Of course, there will be a certain degree of competition," Xu said. "But my view is that different brands and products will have different target customers."

(Asia Pulse/XIC)

Disney to make TV shows available free on Web Yahoo! NEWS
Walt Disney Co.'s ABC television network will offer some of its most popular shows, such as "Desperate Housewives" and "Lost," for free on the Internet in a two-month trial, the company said on Monday. The move was the latest effort by leading U.S. media companies to experiment with the delivery of programs through new technologies and still maintain revenue as viewership for prime-time television schedules slowly erodes. ABC already sells digital downloads of its highest-rated TV shows for the popular iPod music and video player, while other networks have been testing online and video-on-demand formats for airing shows soon after they first appear on broadcast TV. "It's really an opportunity for us to learn about a different model," Anne Sweeney, president of the Disney-ABC television group, said at an annual cable industry convention in Atlanta on Monday. "It's more importantly recognizing that none of us can live in a world of just one business model." Top ABC shows such as "Commander in Chief" and "Alias," along with "Lost" and "Desperate Housewives," will be available on the Web at ABC.com in May and June, starting the day after they are first broadcast, the network said. Viewers will be able to pause and move between "chapters" in an episode, but not skip ads that are technically embedded. Advertising revenue will support the trial run on ABC.com, with 10 advertisers, including AT&T Inc., Ford Motor Co., Procter & Gamble Co. and Universal Pictures already signed up. Some will insert video ads into the content while others will sponsor shows, with the idea of tailoring commercials to the Internet experience. Disney is also launching a high-speed Internet channel for soap opera fans, called Soapnetic, on April 17 for subscribers to Verizon Communications Corp.'s Internet services. Sweeney said the network was keen on bringing in more viewers under the age of 27. These are what some marketers have dubbed the "millennial" generation of consumers, who are at ease with technology and often use several media outlets at the same time. ABC said it would also explore ways to bring its local broadcast affiliates into online offerings. Participants at the convention, sponsored by the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, asked whether ABC's trial would threaten U.S. cable operators that have linked up with the networks to charge for on-demand viewing of such shows. But cable executives said they viewed it as part of the entire industry's effort to capture new audiences amid fiercer competition with the Internet, video games and digital downloads. "The idea is to find a way to make the pie bigger," said Brian Roberts, chief executive of Comcast Corp., the top U.S. cable operator. Disney shares rose 44 cents, or 1.6 percent, to $27.97 in midday New York Stock Exchange trading.
By Michele Gershberg and Kenneth Li

Time Warner Cable mulls TV ad auctioning system Yahoo! NEWS
Time Warner Cable is in early discussions to create an auction place for advertising spots on video-on-demand channels, modeled after Google's AdSense system on the Internet, the company's top executive said. The cable services division of media conglomerate Time Warner Inc. is considering a plan much like that of Google Inc., which allows advertisers to bid to display ads in front of viewers with specific viewing habits. For instance, automobile manufacturers or car dealerships could bid to put their ads on the television screens of viewers who spend a lot of time watching the Speed Channel. The move is another sign of how the television industry is borrowing and improving upon some of the most lucrative practices of the Internet. Last year, Comcast Corp. told Reuters it was looking at how to create a search engine-like on-screen guide to navigate the vast number of channels and videos on demand that could some day be made available. "We can start doing what Google does -- auctioning off spots," Time Warner Cable Chief Executive Glenn Britt told Reuters in an interview at the cable industry's annual convention in Atlanta. "We have the ability, using our set tops and new software we're putting in, to begin targeting advertising," Britt said at the show sponsored by the National Cable and Telecommunications Association. "We're actively looking at this." The discussions are still in the early stages, but indicate how Time Warner, which plans to spin off 16 percent of its cable division, will compete amid the looming threat of competition from the telephone industry. The spinoff is expected to occur after Time Warner completes its purchase of bankrupt cable operator Adelphia Communications Corp., which Britt said would happen at the end of the second quarter. Britt said Time Warner Cable would be able to create such an advertising system because it possessed highly detailed usage information on some of its customers. The company would not identify individual users to advertisers, adhering to strict privacy laws, he said. Craig Moffett, a senior analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein, said cable's biggest asset is its storehouse of customer information. "Google and Yahoo have made fortunes out of very good information about what consumers do, but virtually no information about who is doing it," he said. "Cable operators have the potential to do that one better." While Internet media companies track mouse clicks reliably, the users themselves are largely anonymous, analysts said. But in homes with cable set top boxes, cable operators can easily track the name, number of children and other data, combined with a household's viewing habits, Moffett said. "You can pair that data with whether they watch home improvement shows, and if they're interested (in an ad) from something like Home Depot," he added.

BACK TO THE FUTURE
Time Warner, the second-largest U.S. cable operator, has deployed a feature in limited markets that lets viewers start some shows from the beginning if it is still airing. The company said about 70 percent of its customers in its test market in Columbia, South Carolina, used the "Start Over" service an average of about seven times per month. It plans to deploy the feature, available on networks including General Electric Co.'s NBC Cable channels, Turner, News Corp.'s Fox Cable channels and HBO, in seven to eight additional markets this year. By 2007, the company expects to offer a more ambitious extension of the idea it has dubbed "Look Back," which will let viewers watch shows on participating networks from a day or several days ago, Peter Stern, executive vice president of product management at Time Warner Cable, told Reuters. "TV is more powerful than the Internet at the end of the day," Britt said.
By Kenneth Li

Comcast, Sony to launch on-demand horror network Yahoo! NEWS
Comcast Corp. and Sony Corp. will launch a horror films on-demand cable, Internet and wireless network on Halloween this year, an executive at the top U.S. cable operator said on Sunday. Movies for the yet-to-be named network, which will debut on October 31 and expand Comcast's programing lineup, come from more than a thousand horror titles in the Sony and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer libraries. The Japanese electronics giant and investors, including Comcast, purchased the legendary Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer movie studio a year ago. At the time, the parties said they planned to troll through the libraries, which include the Pink Panther and James Bond series, to create new cable and Internet networks. Starting with horror films was a "no-brainer" because of the "emotional connection" of such films, said Diane Robina, president of Comcast's emerging networks, in an interview. "It's about scaring the heck out of you," Robina said. About 40 hours of recent and classic movies, including "Night of the Living Dead," "The Grudge" and "Resident Evil," will be available per month at launch. About 70 hours will be made available in the future. Comcast is expected to announce details of the horror films network on Monday at the annual cable industry convention, the National Show sponsored by industry lobby National Cable & Telecommunications Association. In some respects, the strategy for the new network follows those Comcast employed in its kids programing network, Sprout, which was launched last year at the cable convention. Like Sprout, the horror network will also be advertising supported and available on-demand. Comcast has no plans to launch a traditional, linear cable channel, the company said. Eventually, Comcast aims to offer movies for download on its Web site, although business models have yet to be worked out, Robina said. For now, the site will consist of movie clips, clips from DVD supplements, blogs and community sites. Robina also aimed to elicit user generated programing, such as videos of elaborate Halloween home decorations.

Skilling Says He's 'Absolutely Innocent' Yahoo! NEWS
Former Enron Corp. Chief Executive Jeffrey Skilling declared he was "absolutely innocent" Monday as he began to testify in his own defense in his fraud and conspiracy trial. The 52-year-old one-time corporate celebrity whose reputation as a business wunderkind shattered along with the company he once ran also said he "never ... not once" considered making a deal with prosecutors the way more than a dozen other Enron executives did. "I will fight those charges until the day I die," Skilling said. Skilling, known for his plainspoken manner and bravado as he led Enron's transformation from a staid pipeline company into an energy trading giant, addressed jurors directly, his eyebrows raised slightly, looking earnest and alert. He acknowledged being nervous as his lawyer, Daniel Petrocelli, began his questioning. "I guess in some ways my life is on the line, so I'm a little nervous," Skilling said. Although he has faced harsh questioning from investigators before, this is the first time federal prosecutors who have pursued him for years will have an opportunity to grill him. But the cross examination likely won't come until midweek or later. Petrocelli noted that among the Enron executives who pleaded guilty to crimes and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors were Skilling's friends and co-workers. The defense has maintained throughout the 11-week trial that most of them did so in response to government pressure to avoid trials or lengthy prison terms and were actually innocent. Petrocelli asked Skilling if he thought his former co-workers were guilty. "I would say the vast majority who testified here are in my opinion not guilty," Skilling said without naming names. Skilling described how Enron consumed his life and how, as it grew into a successful company, he decided to find some personal balance. "I guess you could say I was obsessed with Enron," he said. "Every day was intense, and I had not spent the time I should have spent with my family. ... As time went on, and the company became more successful, that was something that mattered more to me." But he also said he told Lay on "that fateful day, Friday, the 13th of July," that he wanted to resign after 11 years with the company because he was bothered by Enron's falling stock. He also said he told Lay that he believed he had lost credibility with Wall Street after calling a hedge-fund worker an obscene name during a conference call when the worker questioned Enron's financial figures. "The now-infamous ... quote was used as an example of, I don't know, arrogance or something. It wasn't meant that way," said the former CEO, who has a reputation for arrogance. Skilling repeated his twice-made assertion that Enron was in "very good condition" when he left the company in August 2001 and that he never would have jumped ship if he'd known it was going to collapse into bankruptcy proceedings less than four months later. "It's almost inconceivable now what happened," he said. Earlier, prosecutor John Hueston continued pressing former general counsel Jim Derrick on Monday to highlight Enron's cursory response to August 2001 memos from Sherron Watkins, then an Enron vice president, who warned Lay about possibly shady accounting related to financial structures backed by the company's stock. The note, which won Watkins fame when released by Congress the next year, came days after Skilling unexpectedly resigned as chief executive officer. The crumbling structures were unwound in the third quarter, forcing Enron to report hundreds of millions of dollars in losses. Last week, Derrick in part served as a lead-in to Skilling. Through him, Skilling's lawyers sought to counter prosecution testimony that he failed to approve deals Enron conducted with partnerships run by former Chief Financial Officer Andrew Fastow, as required. Derrick testified that Enron's board approved procedures that required the review and approval of former Chief Accounting Officer Richard Causey and former Chief Risk Officer Rick Buy, but not Skilling. Fastow testified earlier in the trial that he used the partnerships, with Skilling's knowledge, in part to help Enron manufacture earnings. Lay and Skilling are accused of repeatedly lying to investors and employees about Enron's financial health when they allegedly knew fraudulent accounting propped up weak business ventures. The two men say there was no fraud at Enron other than that committed by Fastow and a few others, who skimmed millions from secret schemes, and that bad publicity coupled with lost market confidence drove the company to seek bankruptcy protection in December 2001. Skilling is charged with 28 counts of fraud, conspiracy, insider trading and lying to auditors, while Lay faces six counts of fraud and conspiracy. Skilling, 52, has maintained his innocence of any wrongdoing since the initial, explosive aftermath of Enron's swift flameout. In lengthy testimony with Securities and Exchange Commission shortly after the bankruptcy filing, and two contentious appearances at congressional hearings in February 2002, Skilling said he knew of no accounting tricks to hide debt or inflate profits. He also insisted he believed Enron was financially strong when he abruptly resigned in mid-August 2001, citing personal reasons. But then, investigators had just begun Enron probes. In court, Skilling — and later, Lay — will face prosecutors who have investigated him and the company for years.
By KRISTEN HAYS, AP Business Writer

Best, worst places to live? Yahoo! NEWS
Zurich is the city with the highest quality of life in 2006, while Baghdad, for the third year running, has the lowest, a survey published Monday shows. Geneva and Vancouver made the top three in the list compiled by human resource company Mercer while Bangui in the Central African Republic and Brazzaville, the capital of Congo Republic, joined Baghdad in the bottom three. The top three cities in the list are all unchanged from last year. Chicago is one of the biggest climbers in the rankings since 2005, rising to 41st from 52nd due to reduced crime rates, while Cairo is one of the biggest fallers, sliding nine places to 131st out of 215 cities. "(This was) due to political turmoil and terrorist attacks in the city and surrounding area," Mercer said. Mercer bases its annual survey on 39 quality-of-life factors, from political stability to schools, bars, restaurants and the environment. The full list is available at http://www.imercer.com/qol

I'm innocent says ex-Enron chief BBC NEWS
Former Enron chief Jeffrey Skilling has said he is "absolutely innocent" of any charges linked to the firm's collapse. He made the comments as he began what is viewed by experts as his "make or break" testimony against charges of fraud and conspiracy. Along with Enron founder Kenneth Lay, he is charged with hiding billions of dollars of losses and of lying about the state of the energy-trading firm. Both Mr Skilling and Mr Lay have denied the charges. Enron collapsed in 2001 with debts of $31.8bn (£18bn).

Vow to fight
"I'm absolutely innocent," Mr Skilling said as he began his testimony at the federal court in Houston. "The charges against me are wrong. I will fight those charges till the day I die." During questioning by his defence lawyer, Daniel Petrocelli, Mr Skilling also admitted he was nervous as "I guess in some ways my life is on the line". As he began the questioning Mr Petrocelli noted that many of Mr Skilling's former colleagues had pleaded guilty to crimes associated with Enron's collapse, and agreed to cooperate with the prosecution.

Plea concerns
During the trial, the defence has consistently argued that they were actually innocent and had been pushed into making guilty pleas to avoid trials or long prison sentences. When asked whether he believed any of his former colleagues were guilty, Mr Skilling said he believed the "vast majority" who had testified were innocent. He added that when he decided to resign from the firm after 11 years, he had done so to spend more time with his family. However, he also admitted he had told Mr Lay he wanted to quit as he was concerned about Enron's falling stock price. At its height, Enron was the seventh-biggest US firm and Mr Skilling had played a key role in building up the firm. He is now charged with 28 counts of conspiracy and fraud related to the company's collapse. Mr Skilling has argued that he is innocent and claimed that Enron collapsed because of a lack of market confidence and a "run on the bank" situation when creditors called in loans and the firm did not have enough money to finance itself.

More to come
Both he and Mr Lay have laid the blame for the accounting problems at the door of Enron's former chief financial officer Andrew Fastow. Mr Fastow has already pleaded guilty to fraud charges and is a prosecution witness. Mr Lay, 63, is due to testify later this month. He faces six charges of fraud and conspiracy. Analysts said that Mr Skilling's time on the stand could make or break his defence. "His testimony may be his only opportunity to save himself," said Robert Mintz, a former federal prosecutor. "But at the same time, he runs the risk of sealing his fate and almost guaranteeing his conviction if jurors find his testimony incredible."

Oil tops $69 amid Iran tensions BBC NEWS
Crude oil prices have hit record levels in London amid heightening concerns of a conflict between the US and Iran. A barrel of London's benchmark Brent crude climbed to $69.06, while in New York, light sweet crude was at $69.11. Analysts have warned that prices could climb higher as geopolitical tensions increase worries that oil supplies will not be able to keep up with demand. Prices are close to the $70.85 record reached in the US in August following the impact of Hurricane Katrina.

'Mere mention'
The current round of price surges has been sparked by speculation that the US may attack Iran over its plans to develop nuclear capabilities. Both the US and key ally the UK have denied the claims, though that has done little to calm fears. However, the European Union is considering what measures to take against Iran, including sanctions, should Iran continue with its nuclear policy. Iran, the world's fourth largest oil producer, says it needs nuclear power to generate electricity, but the US and EU are concerned it wants to develop atomic weapons. Although the US reiterated on Monday that it was a seeking a diplomatic solution to the row, some investors fear Washington may be running out of patience with Tehran. "Concern about Iran never ceases to push prices," said Gerard Burg of National Australia Bank. "The mere mention of it sends prices higher."

Gasoline Heading to $3 a Gallon

With oil prices heading higher and fuel-supply worries mounting,
market watchers say that $3-a-gallon gasoline nationwide is a near
certainty as the U.S. gears up for the summer driving season. By
Elizabeth Douglass.
http://email.latimes.com/cgi-bin1/DM/y/e1X...Io30G2B0HRLA0EN

Eyeing Vancouver Port Unrest

To avoid a repeat of a strike that idled Canada's busiest port for
five weeks last summer, officials in Vancouver have borrowed a
strategy pioneered in Southern California: extending the hours
that terminal gates are open. By Ronald D. White.
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China Action Seen Ahead of Meeting

Eager to smooth the way for next week's visit by Chinese President
Hu Jintao, officials from that country are expected to lift a ban
on U.S. beef and move more aggressively to shut factories that
pirate American movies and software, analysts say. By Evelyn
Iritani.
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MySpace.com hires child safety czar from Microsoft Yahoo! NEWS
News Corp. is set on Tuesday to name a security czar to oversee child safety measures on MySpace.com, the popular teen dating and music site that has provoked an outcry among parents who fear they have not done enough to thwart sexual predators. Hemanshu (Hemu) Nigam, now director of Consumer Security Outreach & Child Safe Computing at Microsoft Corp., will head up safety, education, privacy and law enforcement oversight programs for MySpace and other Fox Web properties. The appointment is effective May 1, News Corp.'s Fox Interactive Media, the parent of MySpace, said in a statement. The move is one of several responses MySpace and its owners have taken in recent months to respond to harsh criticism by parent groups, legal authorities and politicians. Just last week, a U.S. Congressional committee held hearings on potential laws to thwart the sexual exploitation of children online. MySpace, which began as a music fan site, has caught fire as the most popular online forum for teenagers to hang out and express themselves with peers. Largely a U.S. cultural phenomenon, MySpace now counts 69 million members. Its success is tied to how it combines together in one place many features otherwise only available separately -- from blogs, to instant messaging, music videos and photo galleries -- powering it to become the second most visited U.S. site. Nigam brings strong credentials to his new role. He has more than 15 years of experience in online safety, including serving as a Federal prosecutor against Internet child exploitation for the U.S. Department of Justice. He was also an advisor to a Congressional commission on online child safety, and an advisor to the White House on cyberstalking. Prior to Microsoft, Nigam was vice president of worldwide Internet enforcement at the Motion Picture Association of America, where he oversaw the global strategy to combat online video piracy for seven major Hollywood studios. MySpace has implemented a series of measures to protect young users. It limits access to the site to members who are at least 14 and provide special protections to kids under 16. It claims to have deleted more than 250,000 profiles of underage kids since the site's inception. Over the weekend, MySpace said it was working with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the Advertising Council to create the largest-ever online safety program using nationwide public service advertisements. Gartner Inc. Internet analyst Allen Weiner, whose teenage daughter is a big fan of MySpace, said the site suffers from what sociologists might call the "busy street corner problem." "People are going to find nefarious things to do with anything that draws such a huge audience," Weiner said. "I think MySpace is actually doing a pretty decent job in terms of security," the analyst said.
By Eric Auchard

FCC to vote on secret bidding in wireless sale Yahoo! NEWS
U.S. regulators plan to vote on Wednesday whether to keep secret some key bidding information during a June auction of valuable wireless airwaves to prevent bidders from colluding with each other, raising ire among many telecommunications companies and Wall Street. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is slated to begin the auction of wireless licenses on June 29. The licenses, expected to command as much as $15 billion, can be used by companies for advanced services like video or high-speed Internet access. The FCC suggested keeping secret until the sale is over which licenses bidders want and who has made the highest bid for each license after some studies suggested this would stop bidders from colluding and signaling each other during an auction. The FCC has not used anonymous bidding in about 12 years. The auctions are electronic and usually last several weeks. Normally, after each round of an auction the FCC reveals the bidders' identity and the amount offered for each license. In a February proposal, the FCC cited economists as saying that a potential drawback to disclosing information is that it could be used by bidders to signal each other or to retaliate against each other. FCC commissioners are due to vote on the proposal at an open meeting on Wednesday, where they will also set rules on smaller bidders partnering with bigger carriers. Typically such rules are set by the FCC's wireless bureau. Verizon Wireless, the No. 2 U.S. wireless carrier, and public interest groups support blind bidding while the largest U.S. provider, Cingular Wireless, other national carriers and investors oppose it. Verizon Wireless is a joint venture of Verizon Communications and Vodafone Group Plc. Cingular Wireless is a joint venture of AT&T Inc. and BellSouth Corp. Rudy Baca, a partner at the Rini Coran law firm who has followed FCC auctions, said collusion is not a major problem and keeping information secret could be challenging. He said the FCC tried this in the past with mixed success. "Enforcement is just too difficult," Baca said. Reuters America LLC, a unit of Reuters Group Plc, filed formal comments with the FCC urging that the bidding data be released at the end of each auction round. Some carriers opposed to blind bidding, like T-Mobile USA, have offered compromises such as providing results if competition thresholds are met or at random intervals. T-Mobile is a unit of Deutsche Telekom AG. Private equity firms, which back many telecommunications companies, have warned they would be less willing to back bidders if data is withheld. "In the absence of a solid basis for evaluation, financial investors will either withdraw or reduce the amount of their investments because they have been forced to factor in additional elements of uncertainty and risk," Madison Dearborn Partners LLC and TA Associates Inc. told the FCC in February. Madison Dearborn managing partner Jim Perry met with FCC Chairman Kevin Martin on April 4 in Chicago and reiterated the company's preference for a "fully transparent auction process," the firm said in an FCC filing on Monday. But a group of consumer advocates last week urged the FCC to approve anonymous bidding and limit partnerships between smaller entrepreneurial bidders and big wireless carriers. "Companies use well understood bids and 'dummies' to buy licenses cheaply in the same way bridge players use bidding signals to 'bid' for 'game contracts' or 'preempt' the other team," said the group, which included the Media Access Project, Consumer Federation of America and the National Hispanic Media Coalition.
By Jeremy Pelofsky

Google Maintains Search Lead Forbes
According to the latest data released by comScore, a global market research provider, Google continues to dominate the online search market worldwide. Google’s market share increased to 60.3% in February, from 60% the month before, and gained most of its market share from Yahoo! and Microsoft MSN, reports Bear Stearns analyst Robert S. Peck in a Monday research note. Worldwide, Google search queries grew 59.2% year-over-year, faster than overall market growth at 31.3%. Individual searches increased to 35 queries per searcher per month, up from 32 in January and nearly double that of the second-highest site, Yahoo! at 18. Google still has to recover from declining click-through rates, which declined to 13% in January from 14% in December. Peck says click-through rates are low partly because of impression fraud, where competitors pull up ads without clicking on them to falsely lower click-through rates. The fraud could even partially offset Google’s gains in search queries, says Peck. ComScore also found Google’s international market share declined 10 basis points to 70.7% and Yahoo! declined 30 basis points to 15.8%, at the expense of MSN, Time Warner AOL, and Ask Jeeves, which all gained moderate market share. Google remains strong, overall, and Peck maintains an “outperform” rating on Google with a price target of $525.
By Mary Crane

Yahoo improves travel planning via search and maps Yahoo! NEWS
Yahoo Inc. is introducing an upgraded travel service on Tuesday that blends the breadth of Yahoo search with handy travel-specific features, stepping up its challenge to dedicated travel sites. Using Yahoo's central search site, consumers can receive instant airfare and hotel price comparisons, satellite overview maps and user reviews of restaurants and tourist destinations, features that previously existed in different corners of the Yahoo network or elsewhere across the Web. Analysts say that by embedding travel features in its core search system as well as throughout the broader Yahoo network, and improving its travel destination site, the company could lure customers away from online travel agents where most online shoppers now look for travel deals. "Industry-best prices will actually show up in Yahoo search results," said Jasper Malcolmson, director of Yahoo Travel. "We have created a search engine both for best prices and destinations." Starting Tuesday night, visitors to Yahoo's central search site can quickly locate flight or hotel information using terms such as "flights to Las Vegas" or "compare Las Vegas hotels." Search results that are returned will feature a range of hotel or airline prices from Yahoo's FareChase price comparison system and direct links to detailed fare information. These pricing claims reflect how fare offers come not only from Yahoo's own FareChase system but also draw on the low-fare databases of CheapTickets and Orbitz, Malcolmson said. When a Yahoo customer clicks on a particular hotel offer, a second-level page appears giving either a Yahoo map or a new, detailed satellite image to give the traveler a bird's eye view of where the hotel is located relative to landmarks. Further enhancing Yahoo's travel system are embedded connections to Yahoo Trip Planner, allowing users to create, categorize and share their personalized itineraries with friends or family. Users are encouraged to publish online travel journals to help others plan trips to the same locale.

TRAVELOGS
While many of the features Yahoo offers can be found scattered across the Web, Yahoo is distinguishing itself by the sheer comprehensiveness of travel planning information in one place, said Forrester Research analyst Henry Harteveldt. A study by Forrester of online travel purchasing habits found that consumers have begun showing greater trust in reviews written by other consumers than from travel promotions written by professionals or others with a commercial stake. "What Yahoo has and the travel agents don't have is user generated content," Harteveldt said. "Travelers will change their behavior based on what they see from other consumers." Yahoo's travel site at http://travel.yahoo.com had 15.75 million unique visitors worldwide during February, according to Internet traffic research firm comScore Networks. Yahoo only launched a separate travel business in June 2004. According to a March survey by Forrester Research, Internet media companies such as Yahoo or AOL only represent 20 percent of the U.S. market for online travel, in part because of a one-size-fits-all-approach to the travel business. Three-quarters of the market is controlled by travel brands or dedicated online agents such as Expedia or Sabre's Travelocity, which typically require users to sign on and give up a range of personal details, allowing the sites to more precisely tailor travel offerings to their customers.
By Eric Auchard

Google sees substantial revenue growth in China Yahoo! NEWS
Google Inc. expects substantial revenue growth in China, a market the Internet giant sees among its most promising but one in which censorship laws run counter to some of the firm's core values. "I don't know where (Chinese) revenue growth will be, but it will obviously be large," Eric Schmidt, Google's chief executive officer, told Reuters on the sidelines of a news conference on Wednesday. Supporting that growth will be more than 100 software engineers that the company plans to have working by this summer at a new research and development center in China, a number that will grow to "eventually thousands," Schmidt said. "You have an enormous number of computer science and smart people here who are Chinese and want to stay in China," he said. "But there are relatively few companies that are trying to build worldwide R&D centers here, so we have been able to attract the top people." Google came under fire in February from U.S. legislators and Chinese dissidents for agreeing to block links about sensitive topics, such as the 1989 anti-government protests in Beijing's Tiananmen Square. But Schmidt said Google had a responsibility to abide by the law in every country in which it does business. "It is important to operate Google's worldwide service based on local law and local custom," he told the news conference. "It is not an option for us to broadly make information available that is illegal or inappropriate or immoral," he said. Google executives have said that opting for self-censorship was a tough decision but the lesser of two evils for the firm. Schmidt said Google saw China not only as a market for its Web search services but also as a global research center. "We believe the engineers that are working here will be building products not just for China but in fact for the world as a whole," he said. "There is such a large amount of technical talent that wants to play at the world stage." Google is developing partnerships for advertising and other businesses but is awaiting licenses and regulatory approval before launching any new ventures, executives said. Earlier this year, Google denied local media reports that it was operating illegally because it had not obtained the proper Internet content provider license needed for China. Regulators never took any action against Google, which has license arrangements similar to those of rivals Yahoo Inc. and EBay Inc..
By Kirby Chien

Iceland tops Internet broadband league: survey Yahoo! NEWS
Iceland had the highest concentration of broadband Internet users in 2005, but the United States still leads in absolute numbers with more than double the connections of Japan, a survey showed on Wednesday. In Iceland, 26.7 percent of citizens have a subscription to an always-on broadband Internet connection, compared with 25.4 percent in South Korea, 25.3 percent in the Netherlands and 25 percent in Denmark, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) said in a study. The number of broadband connections in Iceland grew to 78,017 by the end of 2005, from a penetration rate of 18.2 percent broadband penetration a year earlier, when it lagged Korea, the Netherlands and Denmark. The number of broadband subscriptions throughout the OECD countries grew to 158 million by December 2005 from 136 million six months earlier. This is an average of 13.6 subscribers per 100 inhabitants in the entire OECD. The United States, with 16.8 percent broadband penetration, counted 49.39 million subscribers in 2005, compared with 22.52 million in Japan which has 17.6 percent penetration. The fastest broadband download speeds are in Japan and Korea as a result of fibre-optic cable connections. More than 6 out of every 10 broadband households in the world get their broadband over Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) which uses copper phone wires connecting homes and businesses.

US trade deficit with China falls BBC NEWS
The US trade deficit fell back in February as its politically sensitive trade gap with China shrank to the lowest level in nearly a year. The Commerce Department said the trade deficit - the difference between what the US exports and imports - had narrowed by 4.1% to $65.7bn (£37.6bn). The deficit with China shrank to $13.8bn, the lowest since March 2005. The trade gap with China has fuelled calls by some in the US for a tougher stance on Beijing's trade practices. President George W. Bush will raise the issue of Beijing's currency policy when he meets China's leader next week. American manufacturers say that the Chinese yuan is undervalued by as much as 40% against the dollar, making the country's exports artificially cheap.

'Positive news'
Analysts had expected weaker consumer demand and lower oil prices in February to cut the trade deficit by $1bn from January's record high of $68.6bn, but it ended up falling by almost $3bn. February's smaller trade gap reflected a 2.3% percent drop in imports and a 1.2% percent fall in exports. It was still the third highest ever recorded, and the cumulative deficit for the first two months of 2006 is running 13.5% above the pace seen at this stage last year, when the 12-month deficit hit an all-time record of $723.6bn. "The narrower trade deficit is a positive piece of news for February," said Patrick Fearon, senior economist with stockbrokers A.G.Edwards and Sons in St.Louis, Missouri. "However, with energy prices going up recently, you have to remember that there's a good chance that the trade deficit will widen again over the next few months."

AMD Profits at Intel's Expense

The firm rebounds from a year-earlier loss after gaining market
share. But it warns on sales. By Terril Yue Jones.
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Skilling Speaks of Ties to Lay

HOUSTON-Enron's ex-CEO says he and his co-defendant made a 'good
team.' Prosecutors may try to get one to undermine the other in
court. By Thomas S. Mulligan.
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Closure of Shanghai Bazaar Not Expected to Subdue Piracy

SHANGHAI-Chinese officials trumpet the move as an assault on the
bootleg market. Merchants plan to sell their counterfeit wares
elsewhere. By Don Lee.
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China frees up overseas investment by banks, funds MSN Money
China relaxed its capital controls on Friday to make it much easier for individuals and companies to buy foreign currencies and invest abroad. The move will permit President Hu Jintao to tell President Bush when they meet next Thursday that China has made another notable move toward a market-driven exchange rate. "The deregulation is a concrete step fulfilling the central bank's commitment to gradually ease China's capital controls," said Li Yang, an economics professor who is a former member of the central bank's monetary policy committee. Under rules announced by the central bank and the foreign exchange regulator, Chinese banks will be allowed to pool yuan deposits and convert them into foreign currencies for investment in overseas bonds. Fund management firms may invest individuals' and companies' existing foreign exchange holdings in overseas bonds or shares, while insurers will be permitted to invest in foreign fixed-income assets and money market paper. Individuals will be allowed to buy $20,000 a year, up from $8,000, and firms will be allowed to hold more foreign exchange. By creating demand for dollars, the steps should ease pressure for a further rise in the yuan generated by China's record trade surplus and investment inflows. Beijing said on Friday that its forex reserves, which had already overtaken Japan's in February to become the world's largest, grew to $875.1 billion at the end of March, fueled by foreign direct investment in the first three months of $14.25 billion and a first-quarter trade surplus of $23 billion. "An outflow of foreign currencies can ease pressure for further yuan appreciation. This offers a good argument before President Hu's U.S. visit to show the Americans China's commitment to further currency reform and ease the U.S clamor for a firmer yuan," said economist Yi Xianrong. Like Li Yang, Yi works at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

VITAL REFORM
In practice, though, economists say the initial impact will be muted because of a widespread view that the yuan, which has risen just 1.16 percent since it was revalued and unhooked from a decade-old dollar peg in July, is a one-way bet to rise further. "Capital flight will occur if there are expectations of yuan depreciation, as people will seek to send money overseas. But in the short term, the latest measures will not have a significant effect given expectations of a yuan appreciation," said Gao Shanwen, an economist at China Everbright Securities in Shanghai. What's more, the authorities have not said how much money they will allow to be invested overseas. Still, analysts said China had taken a step toward making the yuan convertible for purely financial purposes instead of just for trade and direct investment deals, as is the case now. It follows a series of other moves to build a two-way market for foreign exchange. These include the introduction of a system of market-makers, who constantly stand ready to buy or sell the yuan, and the development of derivatives so banks and firms can hedge new-found currency risk. "Just as central bank officials have been saying, what really counts is reform of the foreign exchange formation mechanism rather than the level of the exchange rate. This move is a vital part of that reform," said economist Yi. Underscoring the reform drive, China said on Friday it would launch interbank trading in currency swaps on April 24. Depending on the pace of liberalization, the easier foreign exchange rules provide a juicy business opportunity for Chinese banks and money managers. "You're giving banks a huge opportunity. They already have a huge depositor base, so marketing is going to be very easy," said economist Stephen Green with Standard Chartered Bank in Shanghai. Green rated the significance of Friday's announcement at five on a scale of one to 10. "It's giving them the tools they need to start allowing liquidity to move offshore. They've driven a wedge through the capital account," he said.
By Kevin Yao and Eadie Chen in Beijing, Reuters

China's forex reserves surge to $875.1 billion Reuters
China's foreign exchange reserves, the world's largest, rose $56.2 billion in the first quarter to a record $875.1 billion on the back of a surge in its trade surplus and an increase in foreign direct investment. The gain is unlikely to go unnoticed by Washington, which says China's currency is held down artificially, giving China's already competitive exporters an unfair advantage. To disarm critics of its yuan policy, China on Friday implemented important measures to liberalise its capital account, which will make it easier for Chinese institutions and individuals to buy foreign currency and invest overseas. Those moves could potentially ease some of the upward pressure on the country's forex reserves and, with it, upward pressure on the yuan. China's reserves have ballooned in recent years as the central bank, in order to hold down the yuan, has bought most of the dollars generated by a growing trade surplus, inflows of foreign direct investment and speculative capital. Beijing reported on Friday that foreign direct investment rose 6.4 percent in the first three months to $14.25 billion. Its trade surplus in the first quarter was $23 billion, 41 percent higher than in the same period last year. China overtook Japan in February to become the world's biggest holder of foreign exchange reserves. Cheng Manjiang, an economist with Bank of China International in Beijing, said the rapid growth in reserves had left the banking system awash in cash and could soon force the central bank to respond, perhaps by requiring banks to hold a larger share of their deposits in reserve. "The pressure for the central bank to control liquidity is quite big, so I don't think it will take very long for the reserve ratio to be raised," Cheng said. The central bank said on Friday the broad M2 measure of money supply grew 18.8 percent in March from a year earlier, the same rate as in February and well above its target of 16 percent. Annual credit growth quickened to 14.7 percent.
China yuan ends at 8.0180 to US dollar vs 8.0185 in OTC trade Forbes
China Will Let Citizens Begin Investing Abroad Los Angeles Times
Forbes - Reuters - ITAR-TASS - all 50 related »

Fox will put TV reruns on the Internet: report Yahoo! NEWS
News Corp.'s Fox network has signed a six-year agreement with its 187 affiliated stations that will let it show reruns of its television programs on the Internet, the Wall Street Journal reported on its Web site on Thursday. The revenue-sharing agreement allows Fox to make 60 percent of its prime-time schedule available online the morning after the shows air, the Journal reported. The formula is complex, but stations essentially will get a 12.5 percent cut after costs, the paper also reported. A News Corp. spokesman was not immediately available for comment. Fox is the home of hit programs such as "American Idol" and "The Simpsons," and is the latest television network to take a shot at making its programming available online as more people turn to the Internet for entertainment. Walt Disney Co.'s ABC television network announcement earlier this week that it will offer some of its most popular shows, including "Desperate Housewives" and "Lost," for free on an advertising-supported Web service. It also comes after CBS Corp. made the "March Madness" NCAA college basketball playoff games available online. General Electric Co.'s NBC last December started offering programs for sale on Apple Computer Inc.'s iTunes downloading service.

Cell phones ready to start dialing for dollars yahoo! News
Forget about cash and credit cards. There's a new payment alternative for buying CDs, DVDs and other such entertainment pleasures -- your cell phone. Online payment specialist PayPal, a unit of Internet auction giant eBay, has introduced PayPal Mobile to North America. The wireless version of its service enables users to buy goods and exchange money using their phones. Transactions are conducted by secure text message. Music heavyweights Universal Music Group and MTV already are supporting the technology. UMG will use PayPal Mobile to sell CDs by the Pussycat Dolls, Mary J. Blige and Daddy Yankee in direct-marketing initiatives. Rollout is imminent. And MTV plans to use it to sell basic merchandise from its Web store, including T-shirts and DVDs. Other big-name media and entertainment brands, including 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, Bravo and the NBA Store, hope to drive similar impulse buys by offering items for purchase via PayPal Mobile. "With the overwhelming popularity of mobile phones, the time has never been better for the merging of e-commerce and wireless devices," PayPal president Jeff Jordan says. To be sure, the opportunity is huge. PayPal claims more than 100 million members. In addition to purchasing goods, PayPal members can send money to other individuals as well as to participating charities and merchants. "PayPal Mobile is an important indicator of the broader changes now occurring in the mobile content/payments space," says Ed Kountz, senior financial services analyst with Jupiter Research.

NEW TO THE STATES
Sophisticated mobile phones can already be used to buy digital products, including music downloads, ringtones, pictures and videos. But the ability to use a phone as a digital wallet for buying physical goods is a new phenomenon in the United States. PayPal's technology figures to be just one of a number of mobile payment applications. Motorola is said to be targeting the market, as are startups Obopay and TextPayMe. And credit card companies, including Visa, are testing a contactless payment technology in phones called near field communication (NFC), which uses radio waves to transmit transaction data. In the NFC trials, participants use their phones to make purchases at a coffee shop, download a movie trailer in a DVD store, shop from their home TV and buy concert tickets from a smart poster. "You're going to start to see retailers embrace (mobile) as another payment option," Universal Music Mobile vice president and general manager Rio Caraeff says. Analysts say mobile payment technology creates new sales opportunities for the music business, including CD pre-orders, ticketing and concert merchandise. New mobile payment services are expected to expand the number of merchants selling digital products for use on phones. In a move unrelated to PayPal Mobile, UMG in May is expected to launch a new premium short-message service that will allow consumers to use text-message codes to buy ringtones, wallpapers and videos for their phones. Billing will be handled by participating carriers including Cingular, Sprint and T-Mobile. Analysts are divided over what the music business should expect from these new mobile payment options. "To the extent that digital money doesn't feel like real money, it may increase spontaneous purchasing," says Aram Sinnreich, an analyst with Los Angeles-based research firm Radar Research. Sinnreich argues that "carriers have a very simple and transparent billing relationship with consumers, and adding a second billing platform only confuses things." Kountz cautions that it will take 12 to 18 months to see how much traction services like PayPal Mobile can gain in North America. "User habits and awareness don't shift overnight."
By Brian Garrity

Hu welcome dinner at Gates house, not White House abcnews
The first lavish dinner of China President Hu Jintao's historic visit to the United States next week will be in a big, secure house in Washington where the host is one of the world's most powerful men.

The White House? No.
It won't be in Washington D.C., but Seattle, Washington, and the April 18 dinner will be held at the $100 million lakeside mansion of Microsoft Corp. founder and the world's richest man, Bill Gates. The approximately 100-person guest list is a who's who of the U.S. Pacific Northwest power elite, including Starbucks Corp. Chairman Howard Schultz and Washington state Gov. Christine Gregoire, said event organizers. The guests will undergo strict security checks before entering Gates' lodge-style, 66,000 square-foot (6,130 sq meter) home overlooking Lake Washington with a reported seven bedrooms, six kitchens, 24 bathrooms, a domed library, a reception hall and an artificial estuary stocked with salmon and trout. Gates and Gregoire are expected to introduce and welcome Hu, who will then offer a toast in front of the gathering. The guests will be served a three-course dinner, starting with a smoked guinea fowl salad, a choice of either beef filet with Walla Walla onions or Alaskan halibut and spot prawns before a dessert of rhubarb brown butter almond cake, the event organizers said. Like any good dinner guest, President Hu will not come empty handed. The Chinese government issued a decree two weeks ago that all PCs will need to have a licensed operating system software installed before leaving the factory gates in an effort to crack down on piracy. As a result, three Chinese PC manufacturers announced plans to buy a total of over $400 million worth of Microsoft Windows operating system software over the next three years and Lenovo Group Ltd., China's largest PC maker, is expected to announce a similar deal on Monday, organizers said.

AOL in new tie-up with China firm Yahoo! News
AOL, the online unit of media giant Time Warner Inc., said on Monday it has formed a tie-up with China's number two media company, one of its first such pairings since it withdrew from the Chinese market in 2003. Under their new relationship, the broadband content arm of Shanghai Media Group (SMG) will provide material for a Chinese language version of AOL.com aimed at Chinese speakers in the United States. SMG Broadband will provide the actual material to U.S. firm MediaZone, which is a partner in the AOL Chinese language site. "This partnership is just a beginning, with the major fruits still to come in the future," said SMG Vice President Zhang Dazhong at a news briefing. He said the initial focus will be on free products and services, but the companies hope to further cooperate to develop fee-based services in the future. AOL has had an on-again-off-again relationship with China this decade, mirroring its global fortunes as it boomed during the dot-com bubble of the 1990s only to fade during the crash that followed starting in 2000. The company charged into China in 2001 amid a broader global expansion, launching a $200 million venture with much fanfare with Lenovo Group Ltd., China's largest PC maker. But the pair scrapped the venture two years later after it failed to gain steam. The company told Reuters in 2004 it was back in discussions to re-enter China -- the world's second biggest Internet market with more than 100 million Web surfers -- but no deal was ever announced. If it returns to China, AOL will find itself in a crowded market where local players like Sina Corp. and Sohu.com Inc. compete alongside global Web giants like Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft's MSN service.

Oil Prices Approach Intraday Record High
Oil prices pressed gains and approached record highs on Tuesday amid heightened supply worries linked to disruptions in Nigeria and international tensions over Iran's nuclear program. Analysts said crude oil prices were likely to climb as long as these geopolitical risks posed threats to supply at a time when global demand remains strong and supplies remain tight. Light, sweet crude for May delivery rose 30 cents to $70.70 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract on Monday jumped $1.08 to settle at $70.40 a barrel, a record close. Oil prices were approaching the intraday record high of $70.85 set Aug. 30, when Hurricane Katrina lashed at the U.S. Gulf Coast and wreaked havoc on the region's oil industry. The contract settled that day at $69.81.

Chart shows light sweet crude oil prices for 2004, 2005 and 2006. (AP Graphic)
Crude oil production is only barely keeping up with rising global demand, leaving a slim margin for error in the event of a prolonged supply interruption, experts say. Traders are anxious that that U.S.-led efforts to stop Iran, OPEC's second-largest member, from pursuing a suspected nuclear weapons program would lead to a disruption in Persian Gulf supplies. And in Nigeria, militant attacks have led to the stoppage of more than 25 percent of the country's crude oil production. "The Iran issue is the driver of the day, the extra factor causing the run-up in prices, but the basic thing underlying the industry is that global demand remains very strong," said Tobin Gorey, a commodities strategist at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia in Sydney.

Traders work the oil options pit at the New York Mercantile Exchange, Monday, April 17, 2006. Crude oil futures hit $70 a barrel for the first time in seven-and-a-half months Monday, pushed higher by concerns about supply disruptions in Nigeria and tension over Iran's nuclear program. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
"The market is still reacting to the Iran issue as we saw last week that the war of words got stronger, there's a sense that things are moving faster, and that's pushing the price higher still, while Nigeria remains on the back-burner," Gorey said. Another expert said prices were reaching new highs now because gasoline inventories in the world's largest energy consumer, the United States, have been shrinking at a time when the country is gearing up for the peak demand summer. "The market sentiment now is much more nervous," said Tetsu Emori, chief commodities strategist at Mitsui Bussan Futures in Tokyo. "Things haven't changed so much but as we approach the summer driving season we'll need more crude to make gasoline and we know also that U.S. gasoline production has its limitations because of the tight refining capacity." According to a midweek report from the U.S. Department of Energy on Wednesday, gasoline inventories dropped 3.9 million barrels in the week ending April 7 to 207.9 million barrels - down nearly 2 percent from year-ago levels. Gasoline futures Tuesday rose 0.43 cent to $2.1740 a gallon, while heating oil prices gained 0.6 cent to $2.0289 a gallon. Natural gas futures rose 0.3 cent to $7.580 per 1,000 cubic feet.
By GILLIAN WONG

Google Maintains Lead In Search, Ad Growth Forbes
Global advertising could grow 35% in the first quarter of 2006, with search advertising growth continuing to outpace branded and Google continuing to lead in market share gains, according to a recent Merrill Lynch report. "Checks with advertisers and agencies have indicated ongoing strength in the Internet advertising market, with no major disruptions during the quarter," said analysts Justin Post and Lauren Rich Fine. The analysts expect Google to increase its advertising share in the first quarter to 30%, up from 28% in the fourth quarter of 2005. Yahoo!, Time Warner AOL and Microsoft MSN will likely lose advertising share as the first quarter is not a strong branded quarter, they said. According to recent worldwide search query data from comScore, Google steadily gained share in the first quarter of 2006, while Yahoo! and Time Warner maintained market share, and the Ask network and MSN lost share. The analysts attribute Google’s continued search query share growth to the company's diverting small amounts of search traffic to content sites like Google Finance, which is the top sponsored listing for search results on the term "finance," according to comScore. The Merrill analysts have "neutral" ratings on both Google and Yahoo!, but favor Google near term.
Maya Roney

RealNetworks Benefiting From Video Offerings Forbes
Standard & Poor's Equity Research downgraded shares of RealNetworks to "hold" from "buy" on concerns regarding the stock's 38% run-up since mid-February. "We think that notwithstanding a very strong balance sheet, this appreciation in the shares, coupled with our view of recent inconsistent execution and a change at the CFO position, warrant our recommendation downgrade," wrote analyst Scott Kessler in a research note Monday. Nevertheless, Kessler raised his price target on RealNetworks to $11 from $9 to better reflect his optimism regarding the company's video-related offerings. "Increasingly, media companies big and small are making their content available online," the analyst noted. Leading this trend is Apple Computer's iTunes, which is still the music downloading industry's dominant player with more than three-quarters of all audio downloads. RealNetworks, Napster, Yahoo! and Microsoft unit MSN and are fighting for the remainder of the pie. RealNetworks will report first-quarter 2006 results on Thursday, April 27.
Maya Roney

News Corp. buying stake in jobs search engine Yahoo! News
Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. said it plans to announce on Wednesday an investment in a jobs search engine company Simply Hired Inc., betting on the growing market for online classified job ads. Joining venture capital firm Foundation Capital, News Corp.'s Fox Interactive Media group invested $13.5 million in Simply Hired Inc., News Corp. said in a statement. Unlike leading Internet jobs classified advertising sites such as Monster Worldwide Inc. and Yahoo Inc.'s HotJobs, Simply Hired does not solicit job postings from employers. Simply Hired is an advertising supported Web search engine that lets people search other employment-related classified advertisements on such sites as CareerBuilder.com, Monster and Craigslist. For News Corp., investing in Simply Hired is a move toward reclaiming revenue generated by classified advertising -- a business newspapers once dominated but which has steadily shifted to the Internet. News Corp. has its roots in the newspaper business. "Classified revenue is important to News Corp. overall," a Fox Interactive spokeswoman said. "We're looking for ways to participate in those revenue streams as they move online. This is one step in that direction." Over the past two years, Murdoch has urged newspapers to modernize and to build a new business model to survive. Foundation Capital was an investor in DVD rental service Netflix Inc. and Internet service provider NetZero. News Corp. has been focused on buying more Internet properties for the past year. Last July, the company paid $580 million for teen online hangout MySpace. "The demographic on MySpace is junior high school, high school and college kids ... Some of these folks will be looking for jobs," said Greg Sterling of Sterling Market Intelligence, an Internet consumer behavior consultant. "Why not be able to serve up listings from there?" MySpace has more than 50 million registered users and is among the fastest growing Web properties. It commands about 50 percent of the market share of all U.S. Web community sites, according to Hitwise. Sterling said Simply Hired could also evolve into the jobs classified ads Internet business serving News Corp.-owned newspapers in Europe and Australia. News Corp. has about $1.4 billion earmarked for Internet investments, company executives have said. Murdoch has also expressed interest in investing in search technology, but has not publicly identified any targets.

Google to search inside business software programs Yahoo! News
Google Inc., the consumer Web search favorite, will help office workers dig deeper into business software programs and databases to find relevant information tidbits, the company said on Tuesday. Google is introducing a new version of its system to trawl for information locked inside an organization's key business systems, working with software makers including Oracle Corp., Salesforce.com and Cisco Systems. The Mountain View, California company seeks to answer criticism that its basic keyword system of searching for information on the public Web is too blunt an instrument to cut through complex office filing systems to find salient details. The new feature, known by the mouthful "Google OneBox for Enterprise," is built into boxes Google sells to businesses. They help create custom search systems for employees inside organizations or for consumers on the company's own Web site. "Google is becoming more and more savvy about what the enterprise needs in the way of search," said IDC analyst Sue Feldman, an expert in the enterprise search field. "It is taking commodity search, adding features, and making search more appealing" for business users, she said. While Google lacks the sophistication of systems that have long focused on the corporate search market -- from suppliers like Autonomy, Fast Search and Transfer and IBM -- Google is quickly making in-roads, Feldman said. Google plans to allow corporate customers to create company-specific searches where employees can use the familiar Google search box to locate information such as contacts or calendars, employee benefits, sales leads or purchase orders. "Over time Google has become a gateway for searching for all types of information," said Dave Girouard, general manager of the company's enterprise business. "We have been doing this on the consumer side for years," he said. Already, when a consumer goes to http://www.google.com and types in a query for certain types of information, Google analyzes the request to figure out if it may refer to, say, a song or airline flight times, the weather or stock prices. The seeming simplicity of Google disguises how different search terms whisk a user into entirely different databases. Similarly, office workers using the new business software search feature inside companies using a Search Appliance -- as Google's hardware product is known -- will be able to drill down and search for specific types of office documents. The move to customize how Google hardware searches inside popular software applications comes as the Search Appliance nears sales to its 4,000th customer, nearly double the 2,000 customers it counted in 2005's third quarter, Girouard said. A company could set up a hundred different categories of custom searches for documents inside their organizations, with specific queries targets to particular employee groups. Initial software partners include Cognos Inc. and SAS, suppliers of software used to uncover marketing trends in business databases along with Employease, an online supplier of employee benefits services but the scope of Google's effort is to embrace hundreds if not thousands of common software types. Google will promote use of the new search feature by providing open access to developers to download the software, create new applications and share them with other developers. In order to jump start use of its search software inside business, government and other private organizations, Google has worked with consulting partners such as BearingPoint and Persistent Systems to provide access to commonly used applications from SAP AG, Oracle's PeopleSoft, Microsoft Exchange and IBM's Lotus Notes.
By Eric Auchard

Chinese president meets Bill Gates within four-day visit to US EiTB
The visit comes at a time of unease among US businesses, political leaders and the public about how China is using its new power. Chinese President Hu Jintao met Microsoft Corporation Chairman Bill Gates on Tuesday, at the start of a four-day visit to the US. President Hu Jintao arrived in the Seattle area to meet business leaders eager for a bigger share of China's markets before heading to Washington for talks with politicians wary of his nation's muscular stance on trade, energy and currency policy. China is Washington state's third-largest export market, while the state imported more than 16 ( billion US dollars worth of products from China in 2005. But the visit comes at a time of unease among U.S. businesses, political leaders and the public about how China is using its new power. On Thursday Hu Jintao will hold a summit with President George W. Bush during which they are expected to cover a broad agenda, from China's much criticised currency and other trade policies, to its aggressive search for oil and Iran's and North Korea's nuclear programmes.

Software piracy
Microsoft has spent years battling widespread software piracy in the potentially lucrative China market and the company is hopeful that things are changing. Chinese government officials say they are serious about cracking down on sales of illegal copies of Microsoft's Windows operating system, and some computer makers are pledging to ship more computers with legitimate Windows software installed. Responding to a reporter's question concerning the protection of intellectual property rights in China after his tour of Microsoft, Hu Jintao said that China had "strengthened intellectual property rights" and would "seriously prove" their commitment to upholding them in the future. Although analysts say it could be some time before the promised changes have a significant effect on Microsoft's sales, the pledges are a feel-good backdrop for Hu's visit with Gates and other business and government executives. For Microsoft, the move is important because it sees China as a major market in which to increase revenues. During Hu's visit to Microsoft on Tuesday, Gates said that China and Microsoft have in common a "belief in technology and innovation as a key and essential enabler." On Tuesday night, Hu Jintao joined guests at Gates' home for a dinner Washington state Governor Chris Gregoire was hosting there. Former US Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger was amongst the guests.
China's Hu, `Friend' of Microsoft, Pledges Action on Piracy Bloomberg
Chinese President Dines At Bill Gates' Place Forbes
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Stocks Surge on Hope for Rate Plateau

Stocks roared back Tuesday, lifting major indexes to their biggest
gains in a year, as investors cheered signs that the Federal
Reserve's campaign of raising interest rates finally might be
almost over. By Josh Friedman and Ronald D. White.
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Wal-Mart Works to Polish Image, but Detractors Gear Up Too

ROGERS, Ark. - The retailer's executives have been forced to shift
their focus to combating negative news. By Abigail Goldman.
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Intel, Apple Results Show Reversal of Fortunes

Intel Corp. posted its biggest drop in quarterly profit in four
years. But the chip giant might have lagged further if not for a
boost from an unlikely source: Apple Computer Inc., which this
year switched to Intel chips and on Wednesday reported a
blockbuster quarter. By Terril Yue Jones.
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U.S.-China Relations Are Embraced in Store Aisles

Consumers in both countries may be more accepting of the economic
ties than is reflected in Washington and Beijing. By Evelyn
Iritani and Don Lee.
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Mogul Close to Deal for Papers

Singleton is said to be the favored suitor for three Knight Ridder
properties in California. By Joseph Menn and James Rainey.
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EMI sees download sales jump 150% BBC NEWS
Record company EMI has seen its revenues from digital music downloads increase by 150% over the past year. The world's third largest record company predicted that the jump would help its annual profits rise by 12%. EMI added that overall turnover should rise by approximately 4%, led by strong sales from its key acts including Coldplay, Gorillaz and Robbie Williams. Digital music sales now account for 5.5% of the music division's annual revenues, EMI said. Looking ahead, it said it was targeting an extra £30m in cost cutting.

'International superstars'
"Overall, the group expects to report full year revenue growth of close to 4%, with digital revenues more than doubling to over £110m," the company said in a trading statement. "This strong divisional performance reflects successful releases from a broad range of artists including international superstars Coldplay, Gorillaz, Robbie Williams and The Rolling Stones...and breaking artists KT Tunstall, Dem Franchize Boyz and Corinne Bailey Rae." Revenues at its publishing arm are expected to grow 2.5%.

Vivid to offer movies to burn onto discs Yahoo! News
Adult entertainment giant Vivid Entertainment Group said on Wednesday it will start next month selling downloadable movies that viewers can burn to DVD and watch on their TVs. Vivid said it will start selling burnable movies May 8 through online movie service CinemaNow, an Internet provider of on-demand movies, which had previously agreed to distribute Vivid films. Earlier this month, CinemaNow and another online movie service, Movielink, said they will begin selling major films such as "Memoirs of a Geisha" on the same day DVDs are sold at stores in a watershed event for Hollywood in the digital age. Movielink said it signed download-to-own deals with six major studios, and CinemaNow unveiled similar pacts with two big players as well as independent LionsGate Entertainment Corp., the studio behind this year's Oscar winner "Crash." Both sites allow consumers to copy digital movies for backup use. Those copies will be software protected so they can not be burned onto DVD discs and replayed on DVD players. Vivid's move to enable viewers to burn the films onto a DVD for about $19.95 apiece and then be able to watch them on the TV marks a first for Hollywood. "With this, we're giving users the ability to download and burn a movie. And not just a movie, but all the things that come along with a standard DVD, like menus, graphics, art," said Bill Asher, co-chief executive officer and co-owner of Vivid.

Indian envoy goes, thousands march for king's ouster DailyIndia.com
India's special envoy Karan Singh left for home Thursday after asking King Gyanendra to restore democracy, as thousands took to the streets on the 15th day of escalating protests against the monarchy. 'We have done our duty, let us see what happens,' Karan Singh told an Indian television channel after calling on the king, who declined to meet Indian Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran and New Delhi's high commissioner Shiv Shankar Mukherjee along with the envoy of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Asked whether he had a message for the mass of ordinary men and women thronging Kathmandu in support of democracy, Karan Singh said people needed to be patient. He declined to say if the king had agreed to step down. But an Indian embassy statement said: 'The special envoy has stressed the need for genuine dialogue between the constitutional forces in Nepal with the objective of urgently restoring multiparty democracy in the country in order to overcome the crisis that Nepal is faced with.' Karan Singh reportedly urged the king to restore democracy, saying a 'lasting solution' to the unrest plaguing the kingdom had to be found by people through a 'peaceful political process'. It was another day of massive protests in Kathmandu, where the protesters marched all night from neighbouring districts in a show of strength against the king, disregarding bad weather and arbitrary shooting by security forces. Women, teenagers, elderly men and young mothers carrying sleeping children were among those who responded to calls by Nepal's seven major opposition parties to send one member from each household to take part in the anti-king rally. 'Long live democracy, restore power to people, we want peace!' shouted the people as they poured out from Kathmandu's bylanes, defying a ban on public assemblies and an 18-hour curfew with security forces asked to shoot troublemakers at sight. Vowing to encircle the capital, the marches were led by opposition leaders like Prakash Man Singh of the Nepali Congress (Democratic) party. Sujata Koirala, daughter of opposition leader Girija Prasad Koirala, released from prison this week, Shashank Koirala, her cousin, former law minister Subhash Nemwang, who had been waging a separate war in Nepal's Supreme Court for the release of political detainees, and other prominent citizens joined the stir. Notwithstanding the intensifying calls for democracy within Nepal and criticism from abroad, the king remained unrepentant. His government took steps to bar UN officials from monitoring human rights abuses during the protests in the Kathmandu Valley. Representatives of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Nepal (OHCHR) along with media organisations, embassies and other diplomatic agencies were not issued curfew passes Thursday. The UN monitors, a common presence during demonstrations, were told they could only go to their office and residences only under police escort. Many missions remained closed while the rest functioned with essential staff. The European Union and UN offices were shut. Also Thursday, independent media houses were refused curfew passes. Since April 6, when the opposition began an indefinite nationwide shutdown to force the king to relinquish power, Nepal's free media has been coming out with shocking episodes of police and military repression. So far 10 people have been killed in the course of the protests. Of them, four died in Chandragadhi village in Jhapa district Wednesday. Along with milk and other essential supplies, Kathmandu valley did not receive a single newspaper Thursday with a curfew getting enforced from 2 a.m. King Gyanendra also snubbed the Swiss government, refusing to send any representative to a meet where donors and rights bodies asked the international community to act. Switzerland held a meeting in Geneva Tuesday to discuss the human rights situation in Nepal and how far the government had honoured the commitments made to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights last year. Nepal wants New Delhi to resume arms supplies to combat Maoist guerrillas while the opposition would like India to exert real pressure by suspending petroleum supplies and imposing a blockade, like it did in 1990. The meeting between Gyanendra and Singh, whose wife belongs to Nepal's royal family, started on a discordant note Thursday morning with the audience given to Karan Singh alone. The king-Karan Singh meeting lasted almost two hours. The king's body language indicated he would not like to be advised by a country he has regarded as his worst enemy since he seized power last year. The government claims Maoist guerrillas have taken control of the protests and are trying to incite an armed revolt.
By Indo Asian News Service. Kathmandu, April 20 (IANS)
Police kill three protesters as thousands defy curfew Sydney Morning Herald
Protests push Nepal to brink San Francisco Chronicle
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Niche Web networking sites chase MySpace ad dollars Yahoo! News
Social networking online isn't just for hip twenty-year-olds any longer, as a new wave of targeted Internet community sites build business models to attract larger audiences and more advertisers. The Internet will see a lot more targeted community launches in the coming months, both from start-up companies and established media businesses, rather than the general youth community sites that defined the sector such as MySpace.com, Facebook.com or Friendster.com, industry watchers say. At least two new sites were unveiled this week. Sisterwoman.com caters to women over 21 while JokeBox.com invites users to share jokes and other funny material. Like most social networking sites, both allow users to create and share blogs, pictures and videos with friends and the wider public. "You're going to see a lot of these kinds of sites in the next six to nine months, both start-ups and major companies," said Andrew Frank, an analyst at Gartner Research. Frank said that sites such as Sisterwoman would offer advertisers added value in reaching an audience that will be prepared to engage with marketers. The sector drew investor attention after News Corp. bought MySpace for $580 million last July. In March, General Electric Co.'s NBC Universal said it planned to buy women's online network iVillage for $600 million. Sisterwoman launched on Wednesday after signing on ahead of time four major advertisers, including beauty-care line Neutrogena and cable network The Learning Channel. Sisterwoman is offering them the opportunity to sponsor services around which users can share their own photos, videos or other links. Founder Allie Savarino said advertisers were traditionally resistant to two-way conversations with consumers, which opens the gates on both positive feedback as well as criticism. "Now they realize they have no way of increasing their market share without it," Savarino told Reuters. "It is tied to the ownership that consumers have of your brand."

GROWNUPS WANTED
Sisterwoman and Jokebox are the latest in a new line of community sites hoping to build on the success of younger-skewing Internet networks but attract mainstream advertisers looking for other audiences. Jib-Jab Media, a company behind popular comic Internet films, also unveiled this week a site allowing users to share jokes and funny material. The company described JokeBox.com, which featured a prominent plug for Bud Light beer on its home page on Wednesday, as a hybrid of MySpace and cable channel Comedy Central. Sites aimed at adult consumers would appeal more to advertisers than MySpace, despite the youth network's huge popularity, said Eric Wheeler, chief executive of Internet media buyer Neo@Ogilvy North America, a unit of WPP Group. Advertisers are generally concerned over the commentary they may receive online, and even more wary of the freewheeling discussions of younger users. "Anytime you move away from buying a placement (in the media) to buying something that is live, it can get a little dicey for advertisers," said Wheeler. Adults are also more likely to recommend brands to each other on a regular basis and may be more receptive to advertiser messages, Savarino said.
By Yinka Adegoke

Hu pledges more steps on trade Yahoo! News
Chinese President Hu Jintao pledged to President George W. Bush on Thursday that China will make more trade concessions and does not seek an excessive trade surplus with the United States. After talks between the two leaders at the White House Oval Office, Bush said he hoped China would allow its yuan currency to appreciate in order to improve the climate for U.S. exports. Hu said China has taken some steps to improve the trade climate and would do more, specifically on trying to stem the illegal piracy of American software and DVDs. In words welcomed by Bush, Hu said China pursues a policy of boosting domestic demand and does not pursue an excessive trade surplus. Hu also said he believed U.S.-Chinese trade frictions can be resolved through negotiations on an "equal footing." Hu urged the United States to relax controls on high-tech exports as a way to improve the U.S. trade deficit with Beijing.

Leading Economic Indicators Dip in March

By EILEEN ALT POWELL

NEW YORK -- A closely watched gauge of future economic activity dipped 0.1 percent in March following a revised drop of 0.5 percent the previous month, suggesting that the nation's economy could weaken later in the year.

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GM's Quarterly Loss Narrows; Its Shares Climb

Record sales help lessen the automaker's red ink, but its North
American operations still struggle. By John O'Dell.
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Google's Earnings Dazzle Wall Street

Posting first-quarter earnings that again confounded and delighted
Wall Street, Google Inc. gave credence Thursday to the adage that
you have to spend money to make money. By Chris Gaither.
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Gas Prices in Region Hit New Highs

The average cost for self-serve regular in Los Angeles topped $3.
More pump pain is expected. By Ronald D. White.
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Google's 1Q profit surges 60 percent, exceeding analyst estimates SFGate.com
Google Inc. still has the golden touch. Defying recent skepticism that tarnished its stock, the Internet's search king dazzled investors late Thursday by reporting first-quarter earnings that obliterated analyst estimates and boosted the company's shares by 8 percent in late trading. The results appeared to validate recent research showing Google has widened its lead over its fiercest rivals to grab a bigger piece of the Internet's increasingly lucrative advertising market. The Mountain View, Calif.-based company said it earned $592.3 million, or $1.95 per share, during the first three months of the year. That compared with net income of $369.2 million, or $1.29 per share, at the same time last year. Quarterly revenue surpassed $2 billion for the first time in Google's 7 1/2 year history, reaching $2.25 billion — a 79 percent increase from $1.26 billion last year. After subtracting the commissions that company pays to thousands of advertising partners, Google's revenue totaled $1.53 billion. Google's profit increase would have been even larger if not for new accounting rules that require companies to deduct the costs of their employee stock options. That requirement, imposed over the high-tech industry's loud objections, wasn't in effect last year. If not for the stock option expenses and a charge for a recently announced legal settlement, Google would have earned $2.29 per share, well above the average estimate of $1.97 per share among analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial. Google's revenue, excluding ad commissions, exceeded the average analyst estimate by $90 million. After finishing Thursday at $415 on the Nasdaq Stock Market, Google shares climbed $33.31 in extended trading. "We are obviously very happy with our first-quarter results," Google CEO Eric Schmidt said during a conference call with analysts. "We basically have good news across the business." A lower than expected tax rate increased Google's first-quarter earnings by about 8 cents per share, estimated American Technology Research analyst Rob Sanderson. Google's effective tax rate was 27 percent in the quarter, below the 30 percent rate the company anticipates paying for the year. "It was still a solid quarter," Sanderson said. "There shouldn't be any doubt about this company's ability to make money." Google is profiting as advertisers shift more of their spending to the Internet. Merrill Lynch analyst Lauren Rich Fine recently estimated Internet advertising this year will total $14.5 billion, surpassing magazine advertising for the first time. The strong showing provides another lift for Google's stock, which has surged by more than 20 percent since its addition to the Standard & Poor's 500 index was announced a month ago. The inclusion to the widely watched market barometer reversed the negative sentiment that had been swirling around Google after the company missed analyst earnings estimates in its previous quarter. The concerns raised by that shortfall were compounded in late February when George Reyes, Google's chief financial officer, said it was becoming more difficult for the company to find new ways to get people to click on its ads. That didn't appear to be a problem in the first quarter though, particularly abroad. Google said 42 percent of its revenue came from outside the United States during the period, up from 39 percent last year. The results also appeared to validate recent research indicating that the company has raced further ahead of its closest competitors, Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp. Yahoo, which runs the Internet's second-ranked search engine, had challenged the notion that it was losing significant market share when it released its first-quarter earnings this week. But Google's first-quarter growth outdistanced Yahoo's by a substantial margin. Excluding ad commissions, Google's first-quarter revenue increased 19 percent from the previous quarter while Yahoo's inched up by just 2 percent. Google ended March with a 42.7 percent share of the U.S. search engine market, up from 36.4 percent at the same time last year, according to comScore Media Metrix. Yahoo's market share fell to 28 percent from 30.6 percent last year, comScore said, while Microsoft's dropped to 13.2 percent from 16.5 percent. Bolstered by its success, Google is sitting on a large pile of cash that could finance acquisitions and other investments to grow even larger. The company has about $10.5 billion in the bank, including the proceeds from a recently completed sale of 5.3 million additional shares. Google already is investing heavily in the computer data centers that power its search engine and increasing array of other products. The company's capital expenditures totaled $345 million in the first quarter, putting it on pace to invest about $1.4 billion in that area this year, up from $838 million last year. In another sign of its rapid expansion, Google hired 1,100 employees — an average of a dozen per day — during the first quarter to increase its payroll to 6,800 workers.
By MICHAEL LIEDTKE, AP Business Writer

Crackdown on illegal workers hits state plants Ashland City Times
Dozens of Nashville area employees were among m