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PRESS DIGEST-Financial Times, Wall St Journal Asia editions

06 Aug 2007 00:20:44 GMT
Source: Reuters

SINGAPORE, Aug 6 (Reuters) - The Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal carried the following stories in their Asia print and Web site editions on Monday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. FINANCIAL TIMES (www.ft.com)

--The urgent investigation into the return of foot-and-mouth disease to British farming was on Sunday night focused on how the virus might have been carried from a nearby laboratory owned by Merck <MRK.N> of the US and Sanofi-Aventis <SASY.PA> of France, the pharmaceuticals companies.

--World markets face a nervous start to the week following the plunge in stocks in the United States on Friday as concerns mounted about fallout from the US mortgage market turmoil. The late sell-off in New York followed comments by the chief financial officer of Bear Stearns <BSC.N>, who said credit markets were as bad as he had seen in 22 years.

--Japan's Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe,is expected to reshuffle his cabinet and convene an extraordinary session of parliament at the end of the month to try to keep his job after his party's trouncing in upper house elections.

--Germany could face its toughest industrial action in years after a rebel train drivers' union said it would go ahead with an all-out strike on Wednesday despite threats of legal action and dismissals from Deutsche Bahn, the soon-to-be privatised railway operator.

--The Royal Bank of Scotland-led <RBS.L> consortium seeking to break up ABN Amro <AAH.AS> on Friday questioned the Dutch banking group's claims to have created a level playing field for rival bidders. The tensions emerged days before Fortis <FOR.BR>, the Belgian-Dutch group that is the consortium's smallest member, is to ask shareholders to approve a 13 billion euros rights issue to help fund its share of the deal.

--The cost of shipping dry bulk commodities, such as coal, iron ore and cereals, has surged to a new high boosted by strong demand, port congestion and a significant lengthening of trade routes. The Baltic Dry Index, the best gauge of the world's dry bulk shipping costs, last week rose above 7,000 points for the first time - an increase of 103 per cent in the past year.

--U.S. interest rates are expected to remain on hold at 5.25 per cent this week, but money markets are once again pricing in a rate cut before the end of the year as a result of the current turmoil in credit markets.

WALL STREET JOURNAL (www.wsj.com)

--Bear Stearn's co-president and co-chief operating officer Warren Spector has quit, becoming Wall Street's highest-profile casualty in the burgeoning subprime-lending fiasco.

--Japan's Fast Retailing <9983.T> sweetened its bid for Barneys New York Inc. to $950 million, intensifying a bidding war with Istithmar, the Dubai government investment arm, for the upscale department store chain.

--China may show a slowdown in export growth starting with July's trade data, but the shift, from a tax-policy change rather than concerns over recalls,is expected to be limited.

-- Telstra Corp.'s <TLS.AX> relationship with the Australian government looked set to hit new lows when the telecommunications giant said it started legal action against Communications Minister Helen Coonan over the awarding of almost A$1 billion (US$856 million) in funding to rival Singapore Telecommunications Ltd <STEL.SI>.

-- Samsung Electronics <005930.KS> restored operations at six chip factories shut down by a power failure, but put the cost at $43 million.

-- Seoul will restrict foreign-currency lending in an effort to cool the rising won.

--Lenovo <0992.HK> is planning a low-cost PC aimed at China's rural population, as the developing world emerges as the computer industry's next battlefield.

--Orient Overseas's <0316.HK> net rose eightfold, but fell 18 percent if a gain from the sale of four container terminals is excluded.

--Japan's Kirin <2503.T> said its group net profit for the first half fell 12 percent from a year earlier amid higher raw-materials costs and weak beer sales.

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Last updated:Mon Aug 6 00:21:10 2007