Anxiety rises on Delta-Northwest deal

Delta (DAL) and Northwest Airlines (NWA) still can’t get together. The carriers are close to agreeing on a merger, but plans continue to be hung up on the question of pilot seniority, The Wall Street Journal reports. Pilots at the two carriers can’t agree on a formula for determining how their ranks will be combined. The standoff, which stems from pilot anxiety about career advancement — no one wants to get stuck flying regional jets — caused top execs at the two companies to break their silence on the talks. Northwest said for the first time that it is “prepared to consider positively a transaction” that’s good for workers, investors and passengers. Delta, engaging in a bit of posturing, told workers in a memo that no “potential transaction meets all our principles” at the moment.

The waiting is making Wall Street anxious. Investors have sent shares in Delta and Northwest down 14 percent since Feb. 7, when a deal appeared imminent. Still, observers expect the merger to happen, because a combined carrier would be more robust in the face of rising energy prices and tough competition. “We will eventually get an agreement,” airline consultant Julius Maldutis tells Bloomberg television. He says that despite the problems now, he expects to see a merger announced “over the next several days.”

Asif vows to continue efforts for democracy restoration

 

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan People's Party (PPP) Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari Wednesday said he would continue his struggle for the elimination of dictatorship and the restoration of democracy in the country.
Addressing a luncheon arranged in honour of Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N), ANP and independent representatives, he said the martyrdom of Benazir Bhutto will always remind us to persist on the path of complete and true democracy, adding her sacrifices would always be remembered.
Zardari said, 'I appeal to all the political parties to work in concert with each other for the permanent elimination of dictatorship and any role of establishment,' adding, 'Today's meeting offers us a new chapter of democracy and hope.'
Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) Chief Nawaz Sharif said the presence of all the people here is a clear-cut message to President Musharraf to resign.
Addressing to the gathering, Awami National party Chief Asfandyar Wali said people of Pakistan has given their verdict on February 18, adding, no compromise on principles is likely.
On this occasion, all the leaders including Asif Ali Zardari, Mian Nawaz Sharif, Asfandyar Wali, Makhdoom Amin Fahim and others joined their hands to express unity.

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SAN FRANCISCO, Feb 21, 2008 (AFP) - A US medical clinic revealed on Thursday that it is helping Google test a much-anticipated online health record service that promises to compete with one launched last year by Microsoft.

Cleveland Clinic in the state of Ohio said it plans to enroll up to 10,000 patients in an invitation-only private pilot project in collaboration with the California Internet titan.

The Google Health service is crafted to let patients use the Internet to efficiently and privately share their medical information with various health care providers and pharmacies, according to the clinic.

"We believe patients should be able to easily access and manage their own health information," Google vice president Marissa Mayer said in a written release.

Google chose Cleveland Clinic because it already lets patients manage electronic medical records online.

"The partnership with Google is an example of true innovation in health care which brings value to patients and providers," said clinic chief executive Delos Cosgrove, who is a member of Google's Health Advisory Council.

"As the volume of medical information available to patients increases, it becomes more important for doctors and patients to use this information in a way that empowers the patient to be more collaborative with their care providers."

The collaboration will let Google test software tools built to allow patients to securely exchange medical information such as prescriptions, allergies, and illnesses with health care providers, according to the clinic.

In October, Google rival Microsoft launched HealthVault software and services designed to let people store and selectively share medical records.

Feb. 21--Pfizer is spending $195 million to snap up Houston-based Encysive Pharmaceuticals, a small outfit with big hopes for a breakthrough drug that, so far, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has snubbed.

The FDA deemed as "approvable" Encysive's once-a-day pill Thelin, a drug to treat pulmonary arterial hypertension. But the federal regulator will not give its final blessing to market the drug in the U.S. until after another costly Phase III human trial.

Encysive CEO George Cole said the company doesn't have the means to fund more research. Pfizer, the largest drug maker in the world with $20 billion in cash on its balance sheet, does.

New York-based Pfizer is the force behind many of today's most popular and most commonly prescribed drugs, including Lipitor and Xanax. The company will pay $2.35 per share for Encysive, a premium of almost 120 percent over Tuesday's closing price of $1.08 per share.

The companies hope to close the deal in the second quarter of this year.

On Wednesday, Pfizer shares were up 10 cents to $22.47, and Encysive's were up $1.19 to $2.27.

In a written statement, Ian Read, Pfizer's president of worldwide pharmaceutical operations, said Encysive complements cardio-pulmonary work his researchers already are doing.

Read compared Thelin to Revatio, which Pfizer markets to treat pulmonary arterial hypertension, a disease of the arteries and blood vessels connecting the heart and lungs that can cause extremely high blood pressure.

PAH is thought to afflict between 100,000 and 200,000 people -- mostly women -- in North America and Europe, according to the companies.

While Pfizer markets Revatio to treat PAH, the same substance under the name Viagra is used to treat erectile dysfunction. Because such drugs improve blood flow, it's thought they can help constricted vessels in the heart and lungs.

According to Encysive, Thelin works in a one-two punch by blocking a chain of amino acids that constrict blood vessels and then dilating those vessels to reduce pressure inside them.

Pfizer executives wouldn't comment on whether Thelin could be marketed as an erectile dysfunction treatment in the future.

Encysive has already received marketing approval and sells Thelin in much of Europe as well as Canada and Australia.

Encysive has 75 employees in Houston and another 75 in Europe. Pfizer would not say Tuesday whether the Houston office will remain open.

The clock is ticking on the patents of many big pharmaceutical companies' drugs. Pfizer, like many other drug makers, has been buying smaller companies in the hopes that something in their research pipelines will provide a big payoff.

 

USA Today and the Los Angeles Times lead with the shooting at Northern Illinois University, where a gunman walked into a geology class and began firing. The gunman, who was identified as a former graduate student, killed five students and injured 16 others (at least two remain in critical condition) before turning the gun on himself. Carrying a shotgun and two handguns, the shooter apparently walked into the lecture hall that had at least 100 students and, without saying a word, shot the instructor (who survived) and then began firing randomly. The LAT points out that it was the fifth school shooting in a week.

The Washington Post leads, and most of the other papers front, news that the Pentagon will try to shoot down a malfunctioning U.S. spy satellite before it falls to Earth carrying 1,000 pounds of fuel that could turn into a potentially lethal toxic gas. The Navy will fire an anti-ballistic missile from a ship in the Pacific Ocean as the satellite reenters the atmosphere, which is a move that has never been tried before and is meant to avoid leaving much debris in space. The New York Times leads with Federal reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson acknowledging before lawmakers that the continuing credit crisis will slow down growth in the economy as a whole. Bernanke said the situation will likely get worse before it gets better and emphasized that the Fed is open to further interest rate cuts. The Wall Street Journal leads its world-wide newsbox with Mitt Romney's endorsement of Sen. John McCain. The former governor of Massachusetts urged the 280 delegates he had won to support his former rival.

Bush Enacts Economic Aid Package

WASHINGTON (Feb. 13) - The checks aren't in the mail, but they will be soon. President Bush signed legislation Wednesday to rush rebates ranging from $300 to $1,200 to millions of people, the centerpiece of government efforts to brace the wobbly economy. First, though, you must file your 2007 tax return.

 

With his signature, President Bush makes the $168 billion economic stimulus bill official. The package may not prevent a recession, but analysts generally believe it could help suppress an economic crisis.

Will News Corp ride to the rescue of Yahoo?

 

News Corporation (NYSE: NWS) is in talks with Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) in a deal that would combine the company's MySpace site and other Internet sites with the pioneering Internet portal, according to The Wall Street Journal [subscription required].
Under the terms of the deal, News Corp. would get a more than 20% stake in Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company. No doubt that Rupert Murdoch, New Corp's CEO, would want to buy all of Yahoo at some point, probably after it's completed the integration of Dow Jones, publisher of the Journal.
For now, the ball is in the court of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT), whose $44.6 billion unsolicited bid for Yahoo was rejected as being being too low. Unless News Corp is prepared to buy the whole thing, Yahoo will have little choice but to agree to Microsoft's buyout. Murdoch, though, may have a few tricks up his sleeve.
"News Corp. has been reaching out to private equity firms since the day Microsoft's bid was first announced, according to one person familiar with the matter," the paper said. "The company had been originally reluctant to press forward with a deal until waiting for a sign from the Yahoo board that they were interested, according to another person."

Tags: interent media, InterentMedia, Internet advertising, InternetAdvertising, inthenews, msft, MySpace, nws, Rupert Murdoch, RupertMurdoch, yhoo

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Benazir murder case accused admit guilt

RAWALPINDI: The two accused in the Benazir Bhutto murder case have confessed committing the crime in the judicial court here on Wednesday.
Arrested recently from different areas of Rawalpindi, the suspects, Hasnain Gul and Rafaqat were produced before a Rawalpindi magestrate today
According to sources, both the accused recorded their confessional statements before the magistrate, after which they were sent to Adiala Jail
Two other suspects Aitizaz Shah and Sherzaman are already in the custody of Rawalpindi police. The were arrested from Dera Ismael Khan

Obama has advantage in head-to-head with McCain

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sen. John McCain became the likely Republican nominee after Mitt Romney decided to suspend his campaign Thursday. Now, the Democrats are debating who would do better against the Arizona Republican.

Democrats are debating who would do better against Sen. John McCain, the GOP front-runner.

Two polls this month have asked registered voters nationwide how they would vote if the choice were between McCain and Democratic Sen. Hillary Clinton.

A CNN poll, conducted by the Opinion Research Corporation February 1-3, shows Clinton three points ahead of McCain, 50 percent to 47 percent. That's within the poll's margin of error of 3 percentage points, meaning that the race is statistically tied..

A Time magazine poll, conducted February 1-4, also shows a dead heat between Clinton and McCain. Each was backed by 46 percent of those polled.

Sen. Barack Obama believes he can do better, arguing "I've got appeal that goes beyond our party."

In the CNN poll, Obama leads McCain by 8 points, 52 percent to 44 percent. That's outside the margin of error, meaning that Obama has the lead.

And in the Time poll, Obama leads McCain by 7 points, 48 percent to 41 percent -- a lead also outside of the poll's margin of error of 3 percentage points.

Afghanistan's harsh winter has left at least 650 people dead

 

KABUL: Bitter cold, snowstorms and avalanches have killed at least 650 people in Afghanistan this winter.
Weather-related incidents have also left 84 people injured.
The temperature dropped to the freezing point in most of the areas of the country.
Succor could not be supplied to the residents of remote areas.

Asif Zardari vows to continue Benazir’s mission

Co-Chairman of PPP Asif Ali Zardari Thursday vowed to take revenge of the murder of the martyred Benazir Bhutto. Addressing the chehlum of Benazir Bhutto here, he said, ‘Our leader Benazir always attempted to effect change in the prevalent system, we will change this system at all costs as this was the mission of Benazir Bhutto.” Vowing to commemorate her every year, Asif Zardari said, ‘Benazir always said that politics is my worship, accordingly; she was martyred while praying.’

Snowfall in Kashmir gets life to a standstill

Srinagar: It's been snowing continuously for the last 48 hours in Jammu and Kashmir. While most villages in South Kashmir are under nearly six feet of snow and hundreds of people are stranded, with essential goods running out fast, Amritsar and Delhi are also witnessing a prolonged winter.

French businessman, Sylvain Dronet was planning to fly out of Srinagar on Monday. But he and hundreds of other visitors are stranded, as no flights have take off from the Valley for two days due to heavy snowfall.

Dronet says, "I am stuck here and have suffered losses in my business, I have certainly no information about the flying schedule.''

As the stranded visitors look to the skies, the Valley's residents are silently praying too. The heavy snowfall has triggered fears of avalanches, and over 250 people have been evacuated from Kulgam district alone, but a bigger worry is that the essential supplies will run out.

Good snow is always thought to be a bliss in Kashmir but when it exceeds the peoples' expectations, trouble stars to ring in. People have started to resort to panic buying and are stocking up on vegetables, perhaps because supplies are not coming that smoothly as the heavy snow has also forced the closure of the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway.

With the Highway closed, over 800 trucks carrying essential supplies are stranded, as are thousands of commuters.

For stranded commuters like Nazia Begum and her children the last four days have not been easy, as she has been literally living on the road. "It's been difficult with the kids, we are living on the road and have even run out of money" says Nazia.

Holloway case solved? New info surfaces-'May help considerably,' Aruba prosecutor's office says

 

The Aruba prosecutor's office said that information from Dutch reporter Peter R. de Vries may help resolve what happened to the American, who vanished during a May 2005 school vacation to the Dutch Caribbean island.

"This information may help considerably in the solution of the mystery of Natalee's disappearance," the prosecutor's office said, without saying what it might be.

"The mystery of Natalee Holloway will be solved Sunday," De Vries said on the Dutch television show RTL Boulevard, which showed him meeting Natalee's mother, Beth Twitty, at an Amsterdam airport. "It was a big operation that we worked on for months."

De Vries’s Web site said the information was gathered through “an ingenious hidden camera tactic.” It said the reporter traveled to Aruba last week to inform authorities of his findings.

De Vries had a testy exchange earlier this month during a televised interview in the Netherlands with van der Sloot.

Van der Sloot, who was among the last people seen with the missing American, threw wine at De Vries after the reporter challenged his credibility.

Joseph Tacopina, a U.S. attorney for Van der Sloot, said it was irresponsible for prosecutors to make the announcement without describing their evidence.

"They act quite frankly like clowns," he said. "If they have a resolution, they should bring a case and stop talking about cryptic information."

Prosecutors dismissed their case against Van der Sloot and two other suspects last month, saying that they lacked evidence to charge them or even to prove a crime was committed. Authorities have said the case could be reopened if new evidence surfaces.

Holloway, of Mountain Brook, Ala., disappeared the final night of her high school graduation trip to Aruba. She was 18 at the time.

She was last seen in public leaving a bar with Van der Sloot and two Surinamese brothers — Deepak and Satish Kalpoe — hours before she was due to board a flight home. The three men have been repeatedly detained as suspects but denied any wrongdoing.

ORANJESTAD, Aruba - Aruban prosecutors said Thursday that authorities are investigating new information in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway provided by a Dutch crime reporter.

A source close to the investigation told NBC that the information is a secretly recorded conversation between Joran van der Sloot, a Dutch man who was a suspect in the case, and a person previously unknown to investigators in Aruba.

In the conversation, Van der Sloot allegedly gives details about the disappearance.