
Today's P.M. News Roundup
Authorities arrest 96 in university drug bust; FBI agents raid office of Special Counsel; volcano eruption in Chile causes evacuation; breastfeeding may boost IQ.
Business and Finance
Source: The Wall Street Journal (subscription may be required)
Commodities prices were high in early morning trading today. U.S. light, sweet crude oil for June delivery reached a record-high $120.93 per barrel on the back of tensions with Iran and attacks on petroleum processing plants in Nigeria. CNBC reports that “Gold was also strong … but is still some way below a record of $1,030.80 an ounce reached on March 17."
Source: CNBC
Fannie Mae, the country’s biggest mortgage finance company, reported first-quarter losses of $2.19 billion, some $2.57 a share, worse than analysts’ projections of 64-cent-per share losses. Fannie Mae “will cut its dividend and raise $6 billion in capital to help overcome the worst housing slump since the Great Depression,” writes Bloomberg.
Source: Bloomberg.com
Silverjet, a U.K.-based business-class airline, “has had a number of discussions” with investors from the Middle East and Asia, said CEO Lawrence Hunt. This news follows last week’s $25 million investment by an anonymous backer from the United Arab Emirates, which could be followed by another $75 million.
Source: Arabian Business
Business Week suggests that Yahoo’s upcoming partnership with Google and the possibility that Microsoft will return with another offer are reasons that the search engine’s stocks saw a rebound yesterday. While dropping 22 percent at the start of trading, they closed yesterday down 15 percent on Friday.
Source: Business Week
Qwest Communications is leaving Sprint Nextel to partner with its rival Verizon Wireless, a joint venture between Verizon and U.K.-based Vodafone.
Source: The Street
“Target announced Monday that it had struck a deal to sell a 47 percent interest in credit card receivables to JPMorgan Chase for an initial investment of $3.6 billion,” reports The New York Times’ Deal Book.
Source: Deal Book on The New York Times (free registration may be required)
The U.S. dollar has shown the largest eight-day percentage increase since Jan. 7, 2005, rising by 2.57 percent from April 22 to May 2.
Source: Seeking Alpha
Politics
N.Y. Sen. Hillary Clinton appears to have the edge in today’s Indiana Democratic primary. Writes Politico, "Economically distressed cities with union influence, such as Anderson, Muncie and Richmond, present favorable terrain for Clinton, but they also have African American populations of between eight and 15 percent,” which may lean toward Ill. Sen. Barack Obama.
Source: Politico
Raleigh, N.C. paper The News & Observer reports about today’s Democratic presidential primary in that state, “Just a few weeks ago, North Carolina was seen as an easy Obama victory. But the race has narrowed to the point that both Obama and Clinton were throwing everything into the fight.”
Source: The News & Observer
National
Source: USA Today
Source: NPR
N.Y. Atty. Gen. Andrew M. Cuomo announced the introduction of new legislation to stiffen New York's anti-film-piracy laws. First-time offenders could get up to a year in jail. Second-time offenses would be treated as felonies.
Source: Los Angeles Times (free registration may be required)
Georgia has scheduled the execution of William Earl Lynd tonight at 7 pm EDT. Convicted of murdering his live-in girlfriend, Lynd will be the nation’s first execution since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last month that death by legal injection does not constitute cruel and unusual punishment.
Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Crops on Hawaii’s Big Island are withering in the sulfur dioxide emitted by Kilauea, a volcano in which a new vent opened in March. Flower famers Tony and Sam Bayaoa told the AP, "The first reaction was—did someone poison the plants? I’ve lost my livelihood.” The Bayaoas have lost 70 percent of their crop.
Source: WTOP Radio (AP)
International
Source: International Herald Tribune (Associated Press)
Cyclone Nardis’ death toll in Myanmar is now some 22,000, report state news sources, with hundreds of thousands left homeless and without potable water. The ruling junta announced that it will postpone a referendum originally scheduled for Saturday in the hardest-hit areas of the country.
Source: The BBC
Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President George W. Bush are to ink a deal today that would give the United States access to Russian nuclear research. The treaty comes on the last day of Putin’s presidency.
Source: USA Today
The Awami National Party, which leads the ruling coalition in Pakistan’s strategic North West Frontier Province, a border region with Afghanistan, espouses a nonviolent approach to tackling extremism.
Source: Christian Science Monitor
Helicopter shortages threaten NATO, UN and EU missions around the world, and the global demand for these most vital aircraft is likely to increase.
Source: ISN
An Amnesty International study released today said Somali “civilians are caught in the middle as Ethiopian soldiers and troops of Somalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG) battle remnants of the Islamic Courts Union, which was ousted by Ethiopian forces in 2006.”
Source: CNN
Science and Health
Source: The BBC
The AP reports that “a Massachusetts study suggests that restaurant smoking bans may play a big role in persuading teens not to become smokers.”
Source: The Boston Globe (AP)
Source: Discovery News
Human Interest
Mukesh Ambani, head of India-based petrochemical giant Reliance Industries and the world’s fifth-richest man, is building the world’s first billion-dollar home, according to Forbes.
Source: Forbes
Entertainment
Source: Agence France-Presse
Sports
Source: ABC News (Associated Press)

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