- NAMES & FACES - washingtonpost.com

Fashion mogul Kimora Lee Simmons wants only the best for her two daughters with soon-to-be-ex-husband, Def Jam Recordings co-founder Russell Simmons-- and according to terms of a custody agreement reached yesterday, Ming Lee, 8, and Aoki Lee, 5, are certainly set for a while.

Papers filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Tuesday granted Kimora Lee, 33, sole custody of the girls, allowing their father one week of visitation out of every eight weeks and extra time for summer vacations and holidays, People magazine reports.

Furthermore, Russell Simmons, 50, must pay $20,000 per child per month in child support, which stops when each reaches the age of 19 1/2 -- or until the daughter is married, emancipated, becomes self-supporting, joins the armed forces or stops living with her mother. Once they can drive, he's required to buy or lease a car valued at $60,000 or more for each of the girls . . . once every 24 months.

Kimora Lee, CEO of the Baby Phat clothing line, cited irreconcilable differences when she filed for divorce from Russell in March after nearly 10 years of marriage. She recently said she is "kind of" engaged to her boyfriend, actor Djimon Hounsou.

Now She Tells Us

Almost a decade after the fact, Jennifer Lopez has been served with a subpoena to testify in a lawsuit over a New York City nightclub shooting involving her ex-boyfriend Sean "Diddy" Combs, the New York Post reports.

The subpoena came last week from lawyers for Natania Reuben, a woman who was shot in the face during a Dec. 27, 1999, incident at the now-closed Club New York. Reuben is mounting a $130 million lawsuit against Combs and Jamal "Shyne" Barrow, who both went on trial in 2001 on charges related to the shooting.

Lopez, now 38, was with Combs at the club on the night of the shooting but has never publicly recounted what she saw. She was not called to testify at the 2001 trial, where Combs was acquitted. Barrow was convicted of first-degree assault and other charges and sent to jail for 10 years.

Richardson the Winner

A handful of former Bill Richardson presidential campaign staffers joined attendees of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials' Edward R. Roybal gala Thursday night, where their former boss got the night's top honors.

Among the 1,000 or so guests at the Mellon Auditorium were Reps. Joe Baca and Lucille Roybal-Allard, daughter of the late California congressman. After accepting an award for his public service, Richardson (still sporting a well-groomed beard) said that four things stood in the way of his bid to be the Democratic presidential nominee: Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, money and votes.

Making the Scene

For a hot and muggy end of the workweek, it was pretty lively around town. Spotted: Sen. Barack Obama (dark blue baseball cap, gray T-shirt, black pants) working out at the Washington Sports Club in Columbia Heights early yesterday morning; started with cardio, then moved toward the weights . . . At Nationals Stadium, a couple of rows behind the home-team dugout, Alberto Gonzales, the seldom-seen former attorney general, with Office of Management and Budget's Clay Johnson, a pal from their Texas days, when George Bush was governor . . . Washington Wizards point guard Gilbert Arenas sitting with his two kids at the opening of "The Lion King" at the Kennedy Center on Thursday night . . . Georgetown center Roy Hibbert getting a pedicure while waiting to hear his fate in the NBA draft at Totally Polished in Potomac on Thursday afternoon (he was snapped up by Toronto, likely to head to Indiana) . . . Former Pro Bowl NFL wide receiver and ESPN sports analyst Keyshawn Johnson, with several guests, lunching on tuna tartare and lobster mac-and-cheese at Zola on Thursday.

End Note

Engaged: Uma Thurman and Swiss multimillionaire boyfriend Arpad "Arki" Busson, People reports. The pair have spent much time on separate continents since becoming an item last summer. The wedding will be Thurman's third -- she was married to Gary Oldman until 1992 and has two children with more recent ex Ethan Hawke-- and the first for Busson, who has two sons with former girlfriend Elle Macpherson.

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Timur Bekmambetov on 'Wanted' - Entertainment News, Film News, Media - Variety

The director is in the details.

At the beginning of "Wanted," one of the world's deadliest assassins dents a steel elevator with his heel as he propels himself outside the shaft at supersonic speed before leaping off the skyscraper to another rooftop. While the scene emphasizes the landing, the attention paid to the takeoff reveals what director Timur Bekmambetov is all about.

The Kazakh-born helmer is a stickler for detail. And Mark Millar and J.G. Jones' 2004 graphic novel "Wanted" gave him an adventure with details woven into its fabric. Literally.

"Wanted" follows Wesley Gibson, a panicky 25-year-old accountant living a miserable existence in Chicago with an unfaithful girlfriend and a boss from hell. He leaves that life behind when he's recruited by the Fraternity, an ancient league of supersensory assassins who seek to restore balance to the world by carrying out coded orders woven into the threads of the Loom of Fate.

In 2004, producer Marc Platt ("Legally Blonde") optioned the series of six comic books and lobbied Universal to hire Bekmambetov, whose vampire thrillers "Night Watch" and "Day Watch" were huge hits in Russia. "The comic is dark and edgy but it also has an ironic, comedic tone beneath its violent action," says Platt. "Timur's visual style and unique sensibility seemed compatible with the material."

Bekmambetov sparked to the premise, he says, "because it's a drama pretending to be fantasy. Part of what makes the film unique is its mix of genres. It's a comedy, a tragedy, a drama, a melodrama. Every scene, we change genres and that's why our movie is different."

When Universal expressed reservations about handing a potentially lucrative action franchise to a filmmaker who had never made an English-language film, much less a big-budget Hollywood tentpole, Platt convinced the studio that he could "create an environment that would allow Timur to be himself as a filmmaker and exercise his creative muscles," he says. "We wanted to fit the broad structure of the studio system of filmmaking around Timur to make him more comfortable."

Bekmambetov, an established auteur in Russia, put his faith in Platt; they developed the story together with writers Michael Brandt & Derek Haas and Chris Morgan. Platt pushed the studio to hire the director's Russian visual effects company, Bazelevs.

"Marc was very helpful to me," says the director. "He's the first Hollywood producer I've worked with. Working within another culture, I needed translators, so Marc was like my eyes. It created a good atmosphere to do something unusual and interesting. You always hear stories about how the studio is a monster that imprisons creative people, but that's just a negative stereotype. I had freedom and support and much more resources."

After Angelina Jolie signed on for a $15-million payday as a superstar assassin, the movie was a go. "Angelina was helpful and honestly, this movie happened because of her," says Bekmambetov. "Not only is she beautiful, determined, focused, smart and athletic, but she's also feminine and charming. She was also tough as nails during the creative process."

Platt and Bakmambetov wanted quiet everyman James McAvoy to play Wesley and screen-tested him a year before the studio saw "Atonement," which earned the Scottish actor an Oscar nomination. (This is McAvoy's third go-round with an American accent.) "He brings a reality and truthfulness to the character and to the character's transformation both physically and emotionally," says Platt. "He's not a superstar action hero. He's an everyday guy. And hopefully that makes for a more satisfying journey."

"'Wanted' is about the transformation of Wesley's character," says Bekmambetov. "James told us at the beginning that he would spend a lot of time building himself up. By the time he finished the movie, he was a different person than when he started. He did a lot of the stunt work himself."

The director also quelled his anxiety by importing some of his Russian team, including his costume-designer wife and "Night Watch" star Konstantin Khabensky, who portrays a villain known as the Exterminator. "I cannot make a movie without him," says Bekmambetov. "He's a great actor who brings a lot of energy and charm to the set. He's always making jokes, like a clown, but he's also like a talisman for me."

Universal had initially slated "Wanted" for March release, but decided that the pic was robust enough to take on the summer blockbusters. "Wanted" is also the summer's only hard-R actioner.

The film's distinctive style has brooked comparison to another R-rated summer movie, "The Matrix," bu Platt demurs. "The visual language, style of storytelling, depiction of characters and violence are unique and singular to Timur," he says.

 "Wanted" is "very different" from "The Matrix," insists Bekmambetov. "The foundation of this movie is the drama of the characters and the story. All the genre elements, like curving bullets, flying people, fast cars and the huge train hanging between two rocks, those are all interchangeable. They are just an extension of the drama, a way to present and explore the characters and their special abilities. The story is really about the discovery of truth and finding yourself. The whole movie is ironic -- but that's how I like to do things."

Up next, Platt and Bekmambetov will each produce a movie with roughly the same title. Platt is prepping the Rob Marshall musical "Nine" with Daniel Day-Lewis, while Bekmambetov is a producer on "9," an animated film directed by Shane Acker. Bekmambetov says he isn't yet ready to direct "Twilight Watch," the third and final installment in his franchise. "It was a long time ago, and now I feel it may be difficult to go back. For now I don't know how or when it will happen."

Meanwhile, Bekmambetov and Platt await boxoffice results. They're already talking story on a "Wanted" sequel. "Great characters often yield franchises," says Platt, "because the audience wants to come back and take another ride with them. 'Wanted' is not one of those films you walk out of and don't remember who the director was. You will know when you leave this movie it has been made by Timur Bekmambetov."

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Wall-E | Movie Review | Entertainment Weekly

There's a way to measure how well an animated film takes over your imagination. Do you forget, during the movie, that you're even watching animation? Do the textures and settings, the fantasy-land characters, become — for lack of a better word — real? That, or something close to it, is what happened to me during WALL-E, the puckishly inventive, altogether marvelous new digitally animated feature from Pixar. The movie sets us down in a rusty, postapocalyptic urban desert, all glaring sun and junk-heap skyscrapers, where the only living thing, or at least the only thing that moves, is WALL-E, a cute, squat robot with droopy binocular eyes whose name stands for Waste Allocation Load-Lifter Earth-Class. That's a very fancy way of saying that WALL-E is a roving trash compactor — and, in fact, he's the last of his breed. Hundreds of years after humans fled the earth, he's still doing what he's been built to do, molding scrap metal into bricks and piling them into neat towers.

For a while, WALL-E is nearly wordless, and the director, Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo), stages the early scenes with a gentle, unhurried mystery that is unabashedly Spielbergian. He forges a world that's casually amazing in its tactile metallic grandeur. In Toy Story, computer animation perfectly reproduced the waxy sheen of plastic playthings, and here, in a comparable way, you feel as if you could reach out and touch all the metal detritus. As a character, WALL-E is like R2-D2 gone Charlie Chaplin in the land of The Road Warrior. Almost everything he does is something he's been programmed to do, but after centuries he's developed stubborn wisps of individuality, like his penchant for plopping in a scratchy videotape of the 1969 Hollywood version of Hello, Dolly! WALL-E uses several of that film's musical numbers (in particular, the gorgeous ''It Only Takes a Moment'') in a way that's at once tenderly romantic and almost Kubrickishly eerie.

After a while, a spaceship lands, and WALL-E meets EVE, a frictionless white pod with cathode-ray eyes who's been sent to earth to search for organic life. (Her name stands for Extra-terrestrial Vegetation Evaluator.) These two don't talk, exactly, but they hold hands and burble each other's names. It's love at first digital bleep. WALL-E is a movie you want to discover, but without giving too much of it away, I'll just say that the early ''silent movie'' section, quietly enticing as it is, is merely the prelude to an eye-boggling future-shock adventure. WALL-E himself is the movie's mascot and unlikely hero; it's up to him to save a spacebound colony of humans who've ''evolved'' into hilariously infantile technology-junkie couch potatoes. Yet even as the movie turns pointedly, and resonantly, satirical, it never loses its heart. I'm not sure I'd trust anyone, kid or adult, who didn't get a bit of a lump in the throat by the end of WALL-E, a film that brings off what the best (and only the best) Pixar films have: It whisks you to another world, then makes it every inch our own. A

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Tomato 'repacking' vexes salmonella trackers

A widespread practice of mixing tomatoes from different farms at produce distribution centers has made it impossible so far to trace the source of a nationwide salmonella outbreak that has sickened hundreds, federal regulators said Friday.

Dr. David Acheson, an associate commissioner for the Food and Drug Administration, acknowledged that the extent of the practice, known as "repacking," was a surprise to agency investigators, and that it vastly complicates the process of tracing the path of tomatoes from farm to store.

"We are learning that this is a very common practice," said Acheson. "Possibly 90 percent of tomatoes are repacked."

The agency has found, for example, that tomatoes from Mexico have been shipped to Florida, repacked and sold with tomatoes from Florida. Similarly, tomatoes from the United States are sent to Mexico, where they are repacked and shipped to the United States as a product of the United States.

None of these juggled tomatoes has yet been linked to the salmonella outbreak, but the practice illustrates one reason why FDA disease detectives have had no success in tracking the bug back to the farms in Mexico or southern Florida, where they think it may have originated.

"We've got to examine the whole traceability system," Acheson said.

Meeting customer needs

Distributors frequently repack tomatoes to meet the needs of commercial customers, such as restaurant chains, that demand that each box contain vegetables of similar size and ripeness.

Not only does repacking make it harder to figure out where a bad tomato may have been grown, it raises the prospect that consumers who think they are buying produce from one of the many designated "safe" states - California is one of them - may be getting tomatoes comingled with produce from other regions.

No tomatoes grown in California have been implicated in the outbreak, but fear of the bug has spread chaos in the nation's fresh tomato industry.

Acheson said investigators are inspecting warehouses nationwide to see if the repacking process is a source of contamination, which has been going on since April and has spread to 36 states. He acknowledged that tomatoes from suspect regions may have traveled to repacking sheds that handle tomatoes from areas the FDA had declared safe.

Attempts to find sources of vegetable contamination are notoriously difficult, because the product is perishable, tends to be consumed quickly, and seldom has the kind of labeling found in processed foods.

"It is possible that this investigation will not provide a smoking gun that allows us to pinpoint a source," said Acheson. "With repacking built into this as a potential problem, it is obviously important for us to re-examine what we are doing here."

Commingling forbidden

Jay Van Rein, a spokesman for the California Department of Food and Agriculture, insists that this is not likely to be a problem for consumers of California tomatoes, because state law forbids co-mingling when the produce is sold with the state name on the label.

"Almost every California grower wants to add 'California' to their label," he said.

Jim Gorny, executive director of the Postharvest Center at UC Davis - which specializes in the study of produce distribution - said one problem with repacking is a lack of control over what boxes are used when one batch is emptied and another refilled. A box from Florida could easily be refilled with tomatoes from a box from Mexico, and vice versa.

However, he said that because tomato shipments from areas still under suspicion for the salmonella outbreak are being closely monitored, it is unlikely at this point that contaminated tomatoes would reach a repacking plant. "I don't think consumers should be alarmed by this at all," he said.

Disease investigators are puzzled that salmonella cases continue to be recorded long after the harvests have been completed in south Florida and Mexico where the contamination was thought to take place.

"We have no evidence that the outbreak is over," said Dr. Patricia Griffin, an epidemiologist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

810 reported sickened

At least 810 Americans have been sickened by the strain Salmonella Saintpaul, which can cause stomach cramps, vomiting and diarrhea, making it the largest recorded outbreak of the illness ever traced to produce.

She also acknowledged that, for every reported case of salmonella, there can be as many as 30 people who recover without a visit to the doctor or whose illnesses go unreported.

The ongoing nature of the outbreak has also caused disease investigators to consider that some other food product or process may be responsible for the salmonella poisoning.

Fresh tomatoes grown this spring in South Florida and Jalisco, Coahuila and Sinaloa, Mexico, remain the primary focus of the investigation, although tests of 1,700 samples so far have turned up no trace of the bug.

"The source of contamination has been ongoing at least through early June. And we don't have any evidence that whatever the source is, it's been removed from the market," Griffin said.

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Virgin Mobile USA

Virgin Mobile to Buy Helio

Virgin Mobile USA is buying Helio, a struggling cellphone carrier that was founded to bring the advanced features of South Korean phones to the U.S. market, for $39 million in stock.

At the same time, British billionaire Richard Branson's Virgin Group and SK Telecom, the South Korean carrier that is the majority owner of Helio, will each invest $25 million in Virgin Mobile. That will give SK Telecom a 17 percent stake in Virgin Mobile.

Helio has 170,000 subscribers, down from nearly 200,000 at the beginning of the year.

Virgin Mobile said it will keep operating Helio's advanced data services and its contract-based service plans. Virgin Mobile's own plans are prepaid and lack contracts. But the Helio brand will probably be phased out, said Dan Schulman, Virgin Mobile's chief executive

XM Offers to Pay Higher Interest

XM Satellite Radio Holdings agreed to quintuple the interest it would pay on $400 million in debt maturing next year to avoid full repayment if the company's sale to Sirius Satellite Radio succeeds.

Aside from the interest rate, terms will remain substantially the same, XM said.

XM, of the District, said investors won't demand that XM buy back the notes at face value if the merger succeeds. The $2.7 billion combination of XM and its smaller rival Sirius is awaiting final regulatory approval.

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Battered by Oil, Dow Touches Bear Territory - NYTimes.com

A brief 155-point slide on Friday afternoon brought the decline in the Dow to 20 percent from its October peak, an ignominious figure that is generally regarded as marking the start of a bear market. The index ended down 107 points, a mere 0.1 percent above the threshold. The broader Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index has not fallen quite as much.

The eight-month journey has roughly followed the twists of the subprime mortgage crisis, with a significant drop after the Bear Stearns collapse and a tantalizing rally when the economy appeared to recover slightly last month.

But in June, as the price of oil kept rising and the pain in the financial industry showed no signs of easing, the losses gained momentum. Many investors concluded that the economy was in worse shape than they had initially feared. This month, as the price of crude has gained about $13, the Dow has shed more than 1,000 points. The index closed at 11,346.51.

Few of the 30 companies in the Dow industrial index were spared Friday, reflecting growing concern among investors that the ongoing credit squeeze and record energy prices are taking a severe toll on industries throughout the economy. Procter & Gamble fell 2.2 percent. Boeing sank almost 1.9 percent. General Motors, which had plunged to its lowest level in decades on Thursday, eked out a small gain.

“The problem is, right now, things are too simple,” said Brian Gendreau, a strategist at ING Investment Management. “Whether it’s for airlines or automobiles or industry after industry, the market as a whole has become a play on energy, on oil.”

The broader stock market has fared better than the Dow, but only slightly. The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index, a broader measure of American stocks, fell 0.37 percent on Friday to close at 1,278.38. It is 18.3 percent off its October high.

Entering a bear market is a bleak milestone, if primarily a symbolic one. But it would make official what investors have known for months: The economy is in trouble, with little relief in sight.

Since the Dow reached its record high last October, all but three of the 30 stocks in the index have lost value. The biggest losers are General Motors (down more than 70 percent), Citigroup (down 64 percent) and the American International Group (down 60 percent).

Wal-Mart has gained almost 25 percent. Chevron Corporation and I.B.M. have posted modest gains.

“Three months ago, I could have said, well, we’re in a dual economy,” Mr. Gendreau said. “Some sectors like housing or finance aren’t doing well. Other sectors are doing fine. Now, a lot of those assumptions have been called into question. It’s all been driven by developments in a single commodity market.”

A similar pattern has popped up all over the world, where several central banks have warned about encroaching inflation, primarily as a result of the run-up in energy prices.

Nearly halfway through the year, stock-market investors the world over are nursing losses. Blue-chip indexes in France, Germany and other European countries are down more than 20 percent. Emerging markets in China and Vietnam have lost about half their value.

And there appears to be little on the horizon to stanch the losses.

“We still have worries about high oil prices, worries about inflation, in my mind still questions about the economy,” Richard Sparks, an analyst at Schaeffer’s Investment Research, said. “Even though we’ve seen consumer spending bump up with the retail checks, my question is what happens at the end of next month when there are no stimulus checks coming out any more.”

The last bear market, as measured by the broad S.& P. 500 index, stretched from March 2000 to October 2002. During that time, the S.& P. 500 fell almost 48 percent.

During the 20th century, the stock market went through three great bear runs: 1901-21, 1929-48 and 1965-82. Those periods coincided with geopolitical or economic turbulence — wars, the Depression, stagflation. Of course, all of those periods eventually gave way to great bull markets.

While stock prices have fallen this year, shares still are not all that cheap by historical standards. On Friday, the 500 stocks in the S.& P. 500 traded at an average of 21.2 times those companies’ earnings per share. Since 1990, that price-earnings ratio has averaged 24.3.

The Nasdaq Composite Index, heavily weighted with technology stocks, closed down 0.25 percent, or 5.74 points, at 2,315.63. Treasury bond yields fell, and the dollar weakened against the euro.

The benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose 17/32, to 99 8/32. Its yield, which moves in the opposite direction, fell to 3.97 percent, from 4.03 percent.

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Bill Gates bids a teary farewell to Microsoft | Reuters

By Daisuke Wakabayashi

REDMOND, Washington (Reuters) - Bill Gates said a teary goodbye on Friday to Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research), the software maker he built into the world's most valuable technology company based on the ambitious goal of placing a computer on every desk and in every home.

He leaves his full-time executive role at Microsoft, which he co-founded with childhood friend Paul Allen in 1975, to focus on his philanthropic organization, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the world's largest charity, funded in part by his vast fortune.

At an event at Microsoft's headquarters campus here, Gates, who will become a non-executive chairman and work part-time, joined Chief Executive Steve Ballmer on stage to deliver a short speech and field questions from employees.

"There won't be a day in my life that I'm not thinking about Microsoft and the great things that it's doing and wanting to help," said Gates, who wiped away tears as the group of employees rose to give him a standing ovation.

Ballmer, a Harvard University classmate who joined Microsoft at Gates' behest, got choked up as he tried to describe Gates' impact on the company and society at large.

"There's no way to say thanks to Bill. Bill's the founder. Bill's the leader," said Ballmer. "We've been given an enormous, enormous opportunity and it was Bill that gave us this opportunity."

Gates will leave behind a life's work developing software to devote energy to finding new vaccines or to microfinance projects in the developing world. He will still work on special technology projects at the company.

Once the world's richest man, Gates' personal fortune has been estimated at about $58 billion, according to Forbes Magazine. He has slipped to third place, behind investor and good friend Warren Buffett and Mexican telecoms tycoon Carlos Slim.

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Dow crosses into bear market territory

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Dow Jones industrial average (DJI:^DJI - News) of stocks slid on Friday into bear market territory as investors fretted about the impact of record oil prices and mounting credit losses in the financial sector.

To begin a bear market cycle, or prolonged period of falling stock prices, the index needs to end the session at least 20 percent below its closing peak, reached in October.

The Dow was down 124.98 points, or 1.09 percent, at 11,328.44, which was 20 percent below its record close on October 9, 2007.

(Reporting by Ellis Mnyandu, Editing by Kenneth Barry)

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Nets trade Richard Jefferson to Bucks for Yi Jianlian

The championship era is completely over for the Nets - unless they can begin a new one next season.

The Nets on Thursday sent Richard Jefferson - the last remaining link to the Nets' two Finals teams earlier this decade - to Milwaukee in exchange for 7-foot Chinese center Yi Jianlian, the sixth overall pick in last year's draft.

The Nets also acquired Bobby Simmons, a 6-6 forward who has played five seasons with three different teams.

“We feel that Yi can be a very special player,” said Nets president Rod Thorn.  “He is a 20-year old seven footer who shoots the ball extremely well, and he is an excellent addition to our frontcourt.  Bobby Simmons is a veteran NBA player who has averaged 10 points for his career, and should be a rotation player for us.

“I want to thank Richard for his contributions to the Nets over the past seven years.  He was a member of Nets teams that went to two NBA Finals, won two Eastern Conference championships and four Atlantic Division titles, and leaves as the Nets' second all-time leading scorer in franchise history. He always conducted himself in a professional manner, and we wish him only the best for the remainder of his career.”

The deal not only gives the Nets one of the most promising young big men in the league, but also significant financial flexibility in the future. Jefferson is owed approximately $42 million over the next three years. Simmons has two seasons left on his contract, worth just more than $20 million, while Jianlian has just one more season of guaranteed money coming to him - $2.9 million next season.

Jefferson has been a Net since 2001, the same year Jason Kidd came to New Jersey in a trade with Phoenix. The two helped lead the Nets out of oblivion and into the Finals two years in a row. However, after Kidd was traded to the Mavericks last February, the Nets missed the playoffs for the first time in seven years.

Jefferson, 28, is considered one of the better small forwards in the league and is coming off his best season ever, averaging a career-best 22.6 points last season and playing in every game. But the Nets were determined to trade him, partly due to his hefty salary but also because he's considered a high-maintenance player.

Jefferson is also facing assault charges stemming from a barroom brawl he was involved in in Minneapolis season, but team sources have said that issue had nothing to do with their desire to trade him.

Jianlian averaged 8.6 points and 5.2 rebounds in 66 games as a rookie.

The Nets have the No. 10 pick in Thursday night's draft but are rumored to be trying to move up to No. 5, perhaps to take 19-year-old Italian forward Danilo Gallinari, who could be Jefferson's heir apparent.

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H.I.V. Infection Rates Continue to Rise Among Young Men, African-Americans - NYTimes.com

Diagnoses of H.I.V. and AIDS in men who have sex with men rose significantly between 2001 and 2006 while declining in other demographic groups, the federal Centers for Disease Control reported Thursday.

ng males between the ages of 13 and 24, with an annual increase of 12.4 percent, compared to 1.5 percent for men overall. The annual increase was still higher among young African-American men who have sex with men, nearly 15 percent.

Among African-American men of all ages who have sex with men, the annual increase in diagnoses was 1.9 percent.

Experts said yesterday that the new statistics were an ominous -- but not necessarily surprising -- indicator that the epidemic continues to flourish among gay men more than 25 years after it began.

“It’s a grim report,” said Dr. Ronald Stall, an epidemiologist and professor of public health at the University of Pittsburgh. “It means roughly speaking that about half of the American AIDS epidemic is occurring among a few percent of the adult population. And the terrible trends we’re seeing among white gay men are even amplified further among minority men.”

Sex between men accounted for more than 97,000 new diagnoses over the six years, almost half of the total number, according to the C.D.C. report.

In contrast, diagnoses attributed to high-risk heterosexual contact and injection-drug use declined annually by, respectively, 4.4 percent and 9.5 percent.

The findings were published in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the C.D.C.’s widely read public health journal. The data were based on reporting from 33 states and did not include statistics from some with large gay and minority populations, including California, Illinois and Georgia.

The agency noted, however, that the racial disparities presented in the report generally reflected national trends in the epidemiology of AIDS.

The agency reported that some of the rise could stem from higher rates of H.I.V. testing among men who have sex with men but added that “available data suggest that these increases cannot be explained by increases in testing alone.”

The C.D.C. recently launched a new H.I.V. reporting system designed to differentiate between recent and older infections. Data from the new effort should become available later this year, according to the agency, and will help experts more accurately track the impact of H.I.V. prevention programs.

Jennifer Hecht, education director at the Stop AIDS Project in San Francisco, said that lack of access to information was a key factor in the increase in infection rates.

“In a lot of ways this is connected to the administration’s policy of emphasizing abstinence-only education,” she said. “And the high rates we see among black men and other minorities indicate that it’s very much connected to larger issues like poverty and racism.”

Dr. Richard Wolitski, acting director of the C.D.C.’s Division of H.I.V./AIDS Prevention, said that several factors could be fueling the increase in diagnoses, particularly among younger men.

“Because of the new treatments, some men perceive it to be a less severe disease than it once was,” he said. “And this is a new generation that hasn’t been personally affected in the same way that older men have been.”

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FOXNews.com - Ground Beef May Be Linked to E. Coli Outbreak in Ohio, Michigan - Health News | Current Health News | Medical News

A raw ground beef sample linked to an E. coli case in Ohio has tested positive for the bacteria, Ohio Department of Health officials said.

The department is testing the sample to see if it matches an E. coli strain that has sickened at least 17 people in Ohio and 15 in Michigan, spokesman Kristopher Weiss said Tuesday.

The Michigan Department of Health said more than half of that state's residents affected by the illness reported buying and eating ground beef from Kroger groceries.

The beef was available in late May and early June in some Michigan stores and in stores in the Columbus and Toledo areas of Ohio and is no longer on store shelves, said Meghan Glynn, spokeswoman for Cincinnati-based Kroger.

"We are working with state and federal investigators to determine the supplier," Glynn said. "Food safety is very important to us, and we take these issues seriously."

Of 24 cases confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 14 people have been hospitalized and one patient developed kidney failure. People became ill in late May and early June, according to the CDC.

No deaths have been reported.

Symptoms of E. coli infection can include severe stomach cramps, diarrhea, vomiting and fever. Most people recover within 5-7 days.

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Many Teens Getting Free Alcohol From Adults - washingtonpost.com

THURSDAY, June 26 (HealthDay News) -- More than half of American teens say they've consumed alcohol, and more than 40 percent of those children say they sometimes get their alcohol free from an adult, a new federal survey found.

Among the country's estimated 10.8 million underage drinkers, more than 40 percent said they got alcohol free from an adult during the past month. One in four said they got the alcohol from an unrelated adult, one in 16 got it from a parent or guardian, and one in 12 got the alcohol from a family member, according to the survey.

"There are a relatively large number of persons aged 12 to 20 who consume alcohol," said James Colliver, a statistician with the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). "A number of them are likely to get alcohol from a parent or another family member or other adult.

The survey,Underage Alcohol Use: Findings From the 2002-2006 National Surveys on Drug Use and Health, was a nationwide review based on data from the National Surveys on Drug Use and Health, and included a random sample of 158,000 people 12 to 20 years old.

"In far too many instances, parents directly enable their children's underage drinking -- in essence encouraging them to risk their health and well-being," Acting Surgeon General Dr. Steven K. Galson said in a prepared statement. "Proper parental guidance alone may not be the complete solution to this devastating public health problem -- but it is a critical part."

Underage drinking is responsible for more than 5,000 deaths of people under 21 each year in the United States, according to the report.

Among those surveyed, about 7.2 million said they had taken part in binge drinking -- defined as drinking five or more drinks on at least one occasion -- in the past month. The rates of binge drinking were significantly higher among those living with a parent who was also a binge drinker.

"This report provides unprecedented insight into the social context of this public health problem and shows that it cuts across many different parts of our community," SAMHSA Administrator Terry Cline said in a prepared statement. "Its findings strongly indicate that parents and other adults can play an important role in helping influence -- for better or for worse -- young people's behavior with regard to underage drinking."

Other findings in the report include:

More than half of those 12 to 20 engage in underage drinking. This ranges from 11 percent among 12 year olds to 85.5 percent among 20 year olds.Among people 12 to 20 years of age, some 3.5 million meet the criteria for alcohol dependence or abuse each year.Most underage drinkers (80.9 percent) said they drink with two or more people and consume about 4.9 drinks. Those who drink with fewer people consume about 3.1 drinks, and those who drink alone about 2.9 drinks.For those 12 to 14 years of age, the rate of current drinking was higher for girls than boys (7.7 percent versus 6.3 percent). For those 15 to 17 years old, the rates for boys and girls were similar. Among those 18 to 20 years old, the rate was lower for girls than boys (47.9 percent versus 54.4 percent).Among underage drinkers, 53.4 percent drank at someone else's house, while 30.3 percent drank in their own home, and 9.4 percent drank at restaurants, bars or clubs.

Dr. David Katz, director of the Prevention Research Center at Yale University School of Medicine, said the problem is obvious, but the solution is elusive.

"Alcohol consumption by under-age drinkers is a significant, if stable, public health concern, contributing to thousands of highway fatalities and innumerable other ills each year," Katz said.

Less clear than the persistent presence of the problem is the solution, Katz said. "We have a good picture of the problem, but no clearly established solution," he said.

"Responsible parenting seems to be part of the solution -- with the current data suggesting that children emulate their parents in this, as in most behaviors," Katz said. "Other societies, notably France and Italy, make alcohol a routine part of family dining, and may thereby reduce its mystique to adventurous teens."

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Salmonella outbreak illnesses rise to 756 | U.S. | Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - More than 750 people have become ill in an outbreak of Salmonella linked to certain types of tomatoes, U.S food safety officials said on Thursday.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 756 people in 34 states and the District of Columbia have been infected with a rare strain of bacteria known as Salmonella Saintpaul. Of them, 95 people have been hospitalized.

The Centers for Disease Control said in a statement that no deaths have been attributed to the illness.

"However, a man in his sixties who died in Texas from cancer had an infection with the outbreak strain of Salmonella Saintpaul at the time of his death. The infection may have contributed to his death," the CDC said.

Investigators are still trying to find the source of the contamination. Health officials said last Friday they expected more people to become ill because the outbreak is probably still under way.

Texas has been the hardest hit with 330 people becoming ill, followed by New Mexico with 80 cases.

Officials linked the outbreak to raw plum, Roma and round tomatoes. They have said this may be the largest U.S. outbreak of Salmonella infections from tomatoes.

According to the CDC, Salmonella Saintpaul is uncommon. The CDC sees about 400 cases of Saintpaul infections in humans each year.

Salmonella can cause fever, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain, according to the FDA.

(Reporting by Christopher Doering; Editing by Maggie Fox)

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AIDS cases up in men who have sex with men | Health | Reuters

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A new analysis of HIV diagnoses among "men who have sex with men" points to troubling signs of increases in new diagnoses among young men who have sex with men, US health officials reported Thursday.

Public health experts use the term "men who have sex with men," or MSM, because many of these men are not strictly homosexual or even bisexual.

Between 2001 and 2006, male-to-male sex was the largest HIV transmission category in the US, and the only one associated with an increasing number of HIV/AIDS diagnoses, according to a report from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The increase was highest among boys and men between the ages of 13 and 24 years who had sex with other males, particularly among ethnic minorities.

"To reduce transmission of HIV among MSM of all races/ethnicities, prevention strategies should be strengthened, improved, and implemented more broadly," health officials wrote in Friday's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, publication of the CDC.

Testing is important, they add, because "after persons become aware that they are HIV positive, most reduce their high-risk sexual behavior."

The report describes trends in diagnoses of HIV/AIDS in 33 states that have confidential, name-based HIV case reporting.

Of 214,379 diagnoses during the study period, 46 percent were among MSM. The rate of new diagnoses declined in all other transmission categories -- injection drug use, high-risk heterosexual contact, and other routes of transmission.

Among all MSM, the estimated annual percentage change was 1.5 percent, the great majority of which involved the 13 to 24 year age group (annual increase 12.4 percent).
AIDS cases up in men who have sex with men | Health | Reuters

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MedHeadlines - Ground Beef Recalled by Kroger

All ground beef sold in Kroger stores throughout Michigan and in Colombus and Toledo, Ohio, between May 21 and June 8 has been recalled by the grocer because of an outbreak of E. coli traced back to their stores.  The company is asking all consumers in those areas to check the sell-by dates on any packages of ground beef that has not yet been consumed.  If ground beef sold during this time is found, consumers are asked to discard it or to return it to any Kroger store for full refund or replacement.

In recent weeks, 19 people in Ohio and 15 in Michigan have become ill after eating the contaminated meat, most of which was traced genetically to the same batch of ground beef sold at Kroger stores during the dates in question.  A food safety manager for Kroger says the company is taking the outbreak very seriously and is working with state health officials to locate the supplier of the contaminated meat.  The tainted meat is no longer available for sale in any Kroger stores so consumers should not refrain from buying the meats now available.

E. coli infection can cause diarrhea that can be bloody and severe and that is often accompanied by abdominal cramps.  The ages of the people sickened by the tainted beef range in age from toddlers to seniors in their late 70s.  The outbreak led to hospitalization for seven people.

To minimize the risk of getting ill from any tainted foods, Ohio health officials advise consumers to wash hands often, dry hands with paper towels when sick or when changing the diapers of sick babies, cook all meats thoroughly, avoid working with food when sick, and wash all fresh produce before preparing or eating it.

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Recent Tim McGraw Concert Fight and Concert Behavior Tips - Associated Content

This week in Auburn, Washington, country music star Tim McGraw took a rowdy concert enthusiast's behavior into his own hands. Tim McGraw witnessed a large man assault a female concert enthusiast in the audience and then Tim helped security hoist the man on stage and kick him out of the show. The timing was quite fitting, as the song being sang was "Indian Outlaw" and as the man was taken away by security, Tim McGraw never missed a beat and sang the line of the song "I ain't looking for trouble."

The Tim McGraw concert fight story interested me because I am an avid concert attendee. I have been to so many concerts that I can't even keep count anymore. Most of t he concerts I have attended are hard rock concerts such as Ozzfest, Godsmack, Shinedown, Metallica, Rob Zombie, Sevendust, and the sort. I almost always try to get floor seats or general admission for concerts, so I can try to get as close as I can to the stage. Being that I am female, I must admit, it can get pretty rough that close to the stage. You have people pushing on you from every direction, the entire time. Then you have to watch out for crowd surfers and mosh pits. I have never crowd surfed and I try to stay out of the mosh pits, but I still have still been affected by them. Here are some tips on how you can protect yourself at concerts, especially on the main floor, where it's standing room only:

1) If you are a heavy person, please do not crowd surf. It is not fair to everyone else who has to keep your big body afloat as you make your way to the stage. ( This wasn't the case though, for the Tim McGraw concert fight that broke out at the concert though) Nothing worse than having a big body land on top of your head, this hurting you head and neck!

2) Dress for the occasion. Don't wear your most expensive jewelry and open toed shoes if you plan on being in the middle of a standing only crowd. It is too easy for someone to rip try to rip your jewelry off or for it to fall off in a scuffle caused by others. Open toed shoes do not protect your feet to well either when crowds are pushing around. Wear shoes that are comfortable because you will be standing for hours on in.

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Arts, Briefly - Kanye Blogs Back - Brief - NYTimes.com

When Kanye West, right, decided to move his 8:15 p.m. appearance to 4:30 the following morning at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Manchester, Tenn., last week because he wanted it dark enough for his light show, audience members were understandably upset, and they let him know it by booing, waving makeshift signs (“Kanye hates hippies!”) and scrawling anti-West graffiti. The criticism continued on the Internet. Now Mr. West has hit back on his own blog. “This Bonnaroo thing is the worst insult I’ve ever had in my life,” he wrote on his Web site, kanyeuniversecity.com. “This is the most offended I’ve ever been ... this is the maddest I ever will be.” He continued, “Call me any name you want ... arrogant, conceited, narcissistic, racist,” adding, “BUT NEVER SAY I DIDN’T GIVE MY ALL!”

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George Clooney calls for truce between actors unions - Los Angeles Times

Star is seeking common ground between the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television & Radio Artists on contract negotiations with the studios.

By Richard Verrier and Claudia Eller, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
2:46 PM PDT, June 26, 2008

One of the industry's biggest movie stars today called on leaders of both actors unions to end a fierce and increasingly ugly feud that has put Hollywood on edge.

George Clooney stopped short of denouncing leaders of the Screen Actors Guild, but he did indirectly question a campaign the union was waging to defeat an agreement negotiated by the smaller actors union, the American Federation of Television & Radio Artists.

"Rather than pitting artists against artists, maybe we could find a way to get what both unions are looking for," Clooney said in a statement. "The one thing you can be sure of is that stories about Jack Nicholson vs. Tom Hanks only strengthens the negotiating power of" the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers.

Hanks is among more than a hundred actors who are backing the contract recently negotiated by AFTRA, while Jack Nicholson this week joined more than 60 celebrities to declare their support for SAG's leaders.

Although AFTRA's deal includes pay increases for actors, SAG officials have argued that it didn't meet some of their key bargaining goals and are pressing 44,000 members it shares with the smaller union to vote down the tentative contract by July 8.

But, in his statement, Clooney suggested it was unrealistic for SAG to seek to "break a model" already negotiated by directors and writers.

The director and star of the football comedy "Leatherheads" also took to task SAG Executive Director Doug Allen, a former assistant executive director of the NFL Players Assn., for applying football analogies to Hollywood.

"Doug Allen has said on several occasions that this would be a negotiation for the linemen, not the quarterbacks," he said. "Unlike the NFL, in this guild the quarterbacks protect the linemen."

Pamm Fair, SAG's deputy national executive director, said the union "appreciates George Clooney's observations and opinions regarding our current negotiations and the critical issues facing all actors today. We welcome this valuable input."

The Oscar-winning star of "Syriana" and "Michael Clayton" has had a testy relationship with Allen and SAG President Alan Rosenberg. This year, Clooney along with some other high-profile actors openly called on union leaders to begin immediate negotiations with studios.

Still, Clooney said today that SAG shouldn't just "roll over and give the producers what they want" and offered two ways that high profile actors could help their union.

He suggested that a group of stars, including himself, Nicholson and Hanks, form a panel to annually review growth in online entertainment to ensure that actors get their fair share of revenues as markets emerge.

To help raise money for the union's healthcare and pension funds, Clooney also advocated that the guild raise dues for actors like himself who make "an exorbitant amount of money." Dues are currently capped at $6,000. Instead, he said, actors should pay $6,000 for each one million dollars they earn.

"The quarterbacks," he said, "have to do more."

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FOXNews.com - Report: Madonna Seeking Legal Advice for Divorce From Ritchie - Celebrity Gossip | Entertainment News | Arts And Entertainment

Madonna is seeking legal advice to end her marriage of seven years to film director Guy Ritchie, according to the Times of London.

The 49-year-old pop star reportedly has begun seeking advice from divorce attorney Fiona Shackleton, who represented Paul McCartney in his divorce from model Heather Mills.

Ritchie, 39, is believed to be consulting with Forsters, a lesser-known London law firm, the Times reported.

A spokesman for Madonna declined to comment to the Times.

Shackleton — dubbed the "steel magnolia" for her pragmatic style — also represented Prince Charles in his divorce with the late Princess Diana.

Madonna and Ritchie apparently did not have a prenuptial agreement, according to the Times, which could potentially lead to a 50-50 split of assets.

Madonna, who reportedly met Shackleton for a preliminary meeting in April, is believed to be worth about $600 million.

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WALL•E is out of this world - BostonHerald.com

Get ready to fall in love with a glorified trash compactor - and ditto for his little buddy, a cute cockroach.

“WALL•E,” the new Pixar 3-D extravaganza co-written and directed by Boston’s own Andrew Stanton (“Finding Nemo’), is a something of a miracle in the middle of a summer-movie season marked by sequels, reboots and comic-book superheros.

A tribute to the art of filmmaking featuring a mechanized Little Tramp-like hero of Chaplin-esque proportions, “WALL•E” starts out like a hybrid of “I, Robot” and “I Am Legend” (“I Am Robot Legend”?). It’s setting is a Philip K. Dickian, post-apocalytic, 29th century Earth poisoned by years of neglect and abuse. What’s left of humanity has left the planet.

What’s left on Earth is WALL•E (also known as Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-class), a little, solar-powered, cube-shaped thingamabob with moving twin tracks, rolling binocular eyes and gangly metal appendages (think Mars Rover meets R2-D2).

All seven dwarfs in one, WALL•E goes about his Sisyphean job of compacting row after row of trash, and categorizing a shed full of parts. He feeds his insect buddy a diet of indestructible Twinkie-like treats and spends his spare time watching and humming along to an old VHS of “Hello, Dolly.”

One day, a giant spacecraft lands and deposits a shapely, white, ovoid ’bot that zips around like Ironman and looks like the next generation of Apple’s iPhone. Hello, EVE (Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator). Before you can say, “Madam, I’m Adam,” WALL•E is smitten, and we have the first fully mechanical romantic comedy since “Heartbeeps” (1981), a film featuring work by the late great special-effects wizard Stan Winston.

WALL•E is voiced by Ben Burtt, creator of the sounds and voices of the aliens and droids of “Star Wars,” and “speaks” in a glossary of squeaks, pops, chirps, burps, whistles, whizzes, whirs and an unmistakable meep-meep. Unlike, say, C-3PO, WALL•E is a droid of few actual words. EVE, meanwhile, has a bit of “The Day the Earth Stood Still’s” Gort in her.

Together, they enjoy la vie en rose until they find themselves aboard an enormous, mechanized space-cruiser where surviving humans have evolved into semiboneless consumer-blobs too lazy to stand up and up against evil ’bots led by a HAL??? clone and a ship’s-computer voiced by a maleficent Sigourney Weaver, who don’t want the humans to return to Earth.

Stanton pays worthy tribute to “Star Wars” and Stanley Kubrick’s incomparable milestone “2001: A Space Odyssey.” A sequence in which WALL•E and EVE waltz in the void is a beautiful, comic evocation of “2001” ’s ballet mechanique.

But “WALL•E” stands proudly and uniquely on his own two tracks. “Presto,” a short animated film preceding “WALL•E” is a total delight. Some days I just feel like a rogue robot.

(“WALL•E” contains explosive scenes that might frighten very young children.)

Rated G. At AMC Loews Boston Common, Regal Fenway Stadium and suburban theaters.

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Bloomberg.com: Canada

June 26 (Bloomberg) -- The number of travelers over the U.S. Fourth of July holiday will decline for the first time this decade after gasoline rose to a record, AAA said.

AAA said 40.5 million people will travel over the Independence Day weekend July 4-6, a 1.3 percent decrease from a year earlier. Heathrow, Florida-based AAA, the biggest U.S. motoring group, released its forecast today in a statement.

``Gas prices are continuing to take a toll on the traveler's budget,'' AAA Chief Executive Officer Robert Darbelnet said in the statement. ``The travel industry is responding, as they have in the past, with discounts, promotions and other incentives to get people traveling this holiday.''

Fuel costs and the weakest economic growth in five years during the six months ended in March may be may be prompting Americans to save money by driving less. The forecast decline in trips of at least 50 miles from home marks the second straight expected drop on a U.S. holiday weekend, following Memorial Day in May.

U.S. retail gasoline averaged $4.07 a gallon yesterday. It reached a high of $4.08 on June 15, and has risen 34 percent this year, according to AAA. Yesterday's price is 37 percent higher than a year earlier.

The decline for Independence Day travel would be the first since at least 2000, AAA spokesman Troy Green said. AAA in 2000 changed the model it uses to calculate travel, so it can't compare the forecast to figures before then, Green said.

The number of air travelers over July 4th will probably fall 2.3 percent to 4.5 million, while the number of people going by car will be 1.2 percent lower at 34.2 million, AAA said. Some 1.7 million plan to use trains and buses or other modes.

To contact the reporter on this story: Angela Greiling Keane in Washington at agreilingkea@bloomberg.net

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UPDATE 1-Intuit cutting 575 jobs, 7 pct of workforce | Deals | Regulatory News | Reuters

BOSTON, June 26 (Reuters) - Financial software maker Intuit Inc (INTU.O: Quote, Profile, Research) said it plans to cut 575 jobs, or 7 percent of its workforce, resulting in a charge of $22 million in the current quarter.

Intuit said it was streamlining its operations, particularly in its general and administrative functions, and reallocating those resources to invest in key growth businesses and accelerate innovation.

As a result of the charge, which is equal to 4 cents a share, the company cut its forecast for earnings per share by the size of the charge.

It now expects to report a fourth-quarter loss per share of 18 to 20 cents.

Intuit said in a statement that it otherwise stands by its earnings guidance for the fiscal fourth quarter, which ends July 31.

Shares in Intuit rose 1.9 percent to $28.91 in after-hours trade, up from their Nasdaq close of $28.37. (Reporting by Jim Finkle; editing by Tim Dobbyn)

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Yahoo reorganizes in strategy shift - International Herald Tribune

Yahoo announced a broad corporate reorganization Thursday that it said would allow it to compete more effectively in the wake of the breakdown of merger and partnership talks with Microsoft.

The reorganization, which has been anticipated for about a week, is the latest in a string of corporate realignments at the Internet company over the last 18 months. It also comes amid a number of high-profile executive departures.

Susan Decker, Yahoo's president, said in an interview that "any organization change is disruptive," but said the move was necessary, and that its planning had begun even before Microsoft announced its bid for Yahoo in February.

"The flip side of disruption is the opportunity for renewed growth and our ability to renew the leadership," Decker said.

The new structure raises the profiles of two senior executives, Hilary Schneider and Ash Patel.

Yahoo announced a broad corporate reorganization Thursday that it said would allow it to compete more effectively in the wake of the breakdown of merger and partnership talks with Microsoft.The reorganization, which has been anticipated for about a week, is the latest in a string of corporate realignments at the Internet company over the last 18 months. It also comes amid a number of high-profile executive departures.Susan Decker, Yahoo's president, said in an interview that "any organization change is disruptive," but said the move was necessary, and that its planning had begun even before Microsoft announced its bid for Yahoo in February."The flip side of disruption is the opportunity for renewed growth and our ability to renew the leadership," Decker said.The new structure raises the profiles of two senior executives, Hilary Schneider and Ash Patel.

Schneider, who oversees Yahoo advertising products and its relationships with other Web publishers, will be in charge of the bulk of Yahoo's operations in the United States. A protégé and close friend of Decker, Schneider joined Yahoo in 2006 and has risen quickly to one of its uppermost management positions.

Patel is a Yahoo veteran, who joined the company in 1996, and was responsible for a broad swath of Yahoo's technology infrastructure. He will now head an "audience products" division, which will be responsible for product strategy and product management for many of the company's key Internet services, including search and email.

Under the reorganization, the company also created an "insights team" chartered with better understanding the needs of Yahoo's customers and partners. The company also expanded its technology organization, creating a group that oversees its cloud computing and data storage initiatives. The technology organization is run by the chief technology officer, Aristotle Balogh, who joined the company recently.

The restructuring essentially splits apart the company's network division, which had been run by Jeff Weiner, an executive vice president who announced a week ago that he would leave. The bulk of Weiner's former organization now reports to Patel. But its media group, headed by the senior vice president Scott Moore, will now report to Schneider.

Brad Garlinghouse, another high-profile executive who is leaving and was in charge of the company's e-mail and communications products, will be replaced by Scott Dietzen, an executive with Zimbra, the e-mail company that Yahoo acquired last year. The executive running Yahoo search, Vish Makhijani, who is also leaving, is being replaced by Tuoc Luong, on an interim basis. Luong, who had worked at search engine Ask.com, will also continue to oversee search engineering efforts.

Yahoo reorganizes in strategy shift - International Herald Tribune

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Visa to reduce transaction fees for gas stations

NEW YORK (Associated Press) - Visa Inc. on Thursday said it will reduce the transaction fees it charges gasoline retailers, who have complained that their profits are being eroded by them.

The fees are a fixed percentage of every transaction, usually just under 2 percent. So each time gasoline prices go up, so does the dollar amount of the fees, eating away at profit margins.

With gas topping $4 a gallon, that pushes fees toward 10 cents a gallon, close to the typical gas station's markup of 11 or 12 cents per gallon.

The credit-card company said its changes will lower fees by 14 percent on a $60 fill-up, and by 43 percent on a $120 gasoline sale. Visa also said it would cap its fee for debit-card purchases at 95 cents.

MasterCard last year capped interchange fees for gas purchases of $50 or more.

Congress has stepped up its scrutiny of the industry's "interchange fees" in recent months. Legislation in the House would require Visa and MasterCard to negotiate the fees directly with merchants, and if an agreement couldn't be reached the rates would be set by a three-judge panel.

Visa's fee reductions will initially benefit the bottom lines of gas stations, whether they are independently owned or controlled by major oil companies.

Bill Sheedy, global head of strategy for Visa, said in a written statement that "we hope to see oil companies pass these savings along to their stations and ultimately to consumers."

The National Association of Convenience Stores says that its members paid roughly $7.6 billion in credit card fees last year, while making $3.4 billion in profits.

Roger Randolph, the manager of Mr. Ed's Chevron in St. Albans, W.Va., gained attention last week by banning the use of credit cards at his gas station, because interchange fees were erasing his profits. He said Thursday he's glad to hear about Visa's plan, although he's going to wait and see how it works before deciding whether to reinstate credit-card use.

Randolph said the all-cash experiment has been working well, and he's now seeing a profit of about six cents per gallon. The main question for him is whether Visa's plan would knock that figure back into the loss category, he said.

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Bloomberg.com: Worldwide

June 26 (Bloomberg) -- Crude oil jumped above $140 a barrel to a record as Libya threatened to cut output, OPEC's president said prices may reach $170 by the summer and the dollar weakened.

Libya may curb output because of a U.S. law that allows terror victims to seize assets of foreign governments as compensation. OPEC President Chakib Khelil said oil may surge on a European interest rate rise, France 24 reported. Oil, gold and copper climbed today as the dollar dropped because the Federal Reserve gave no signal of higher interest rates yesterday.

``The Libyan comments are helping send us higher,'' said Brad Samples, commodity analyst for Summit Energy Inc. in Louisville, Kentucky. ``The Libyans are responsible for only about 2 percent of production, but with supplies tight every missing barrel will have an impact.''

Crude oil for August delivery rose $5.09, or 3.8 percent, to $139.64 a barrel at 2:59 p.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange, a record settlement price. Futures touched $140.39 today, surpassing the previous intraday record of $139.89 reached on June 16.

``I think you're seeing a clear flight from equities into commodities,'' said Kyle Cooper, an analyst at IAF Advisors in Houston.

Record oil prices helped send U.S. stocks tumbling. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index plunged 38.82, or 2.9 percent, to 1,283.15 in New York. The Dow decreased 358.41, or 3 percent, to 11,453.42.

GM Plunges

General Motors Corp., the largest U.S. automaker, plunged the most in three years as Goldman Sachs Group Inc. advised selling the stock because of a worsening sales outlook amid soaring gasoline prices, falling consumer confidence and tight credit. GM fell $1.38, or 11 percent, to $11.43 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.

Libya's National Oil Corp. Chairman Shokri Ghanem declined to say when a decision would be made on whether to lower Libyan production or give any indication of the size of the cut under consideration. The African country produced an average 1.85 million barrels of crude oil a day last year, or 2.2 percent of global supply, according to a report this month from BP Plc.

Ghanem said the cuts may be made because of a law passed by Congress in January that would let families of American victims of Libyan-linked attacks confiscate Libyan assets and those of companies doing business with the North African nation. At least two lawsuits have already been filed in Washington.

U.S. legislation allowing lawsuits against the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries may also lead to reductions, Ghanem said.

NOPEC

President George W. Bush has said he'd veto a so-called NOPEC bill passed in May by the House of Representatives, because it may limit the availability of gasoline and further increase fuel prices.

An oil price of $150 a barrel may be ``around the corner,'' Ghanem said in a Bloomberg Television interview.

A decision by the European Central Bank to increase interest rates in July may cause the dollar to decline and prompt investors to buy more oil, Khelil, who is also the Algerian oil minister, told the Paris-based television channel. Prices would ease toward the end of the year, he said.

Threats against Iran would also support prices during the summer, he said. A political crisis that would stop Iran's oil production would push prices over $200 a barrel, to possibly $400 a barrel, he said.

Saudi Arabia pledged it will pump an extra 200,000 barrels a day next month to calm the oil market at a June 22 meeting. The kingdom hosted the summit of 35 producing and consuming countries in the Red Sea port of Jeddah.

OPEC Matters

``The Saudis go out of their way to have this specific meeting outside the OPEC frameworks, and if you're the OPEC president, you want to be important, so you come out of it and say $150 to $170,'' said Roger Read, an analyst at Natixis Bleichroeder in Houston. ``He's trying to prove he matters and OPEC matters and the Saudis don't make all the decisions.''

The dollar is also lower on a forecast that the ECB will boost interest rates. The currency's drop against the euro made commodities cheaper for buyers outside the U.S. The dollar was at $1.5756 per euro as of 4:38 p.m., from $1.5666 yesterday.

``Now the worry is that the European Central Bank may raise rates, which would be the same as another Fed cut,'' said Peter Beutel, president of energy consultant Cameron Hanover Inc. in New Canaan, Connecticut.

The Federal Reserve yesterday left its benchmark interest rate at 2 percent and said ``uncertainty about the inflation outlook remains high'' as energy and commodity prices continue to rise. Leaving the interest rate unchanged ended the most aggressive series of rate cuts in two decades.

Commodity Rally

``Commodities are rallying because there's a lack of confidence that the Fed will raise rates,'' said Phil Flynn, a senior trader at Alaron Trading Corp. in Chicago. ``They didn't raise rates yesterday and it doesn't look like they will raise them soon. Their statement yesterday was too wishy-washy.''

The Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index of 19 commodities jumped 11.13, or 2.5 percent, to 463.27, after earlier reaching a record 463.41. The index gained 49 percent in the past year.

Brent crude oil for August settlement rose $5.50, or 4.1 percent, to settle at a record $139.83 a barrel on London's ICE Futures Europe exchange. Prices climbed to $140.56 today, the highest since trading began in 1988.

To contact the reporter on this story: Mark Shenk in New York at mshenk1@bloomberg.net.

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