Early Edition August 26 2008 at 05:05 AM Chi-Chu Tschang and Harry Maurer
Kennedy, Obama's Wife Open Democratic National Convention
Senator Ted Kennedy, who is battling brain cancer, opened the Democratic National Convention in Denver declaring, "The work begins anew. The hope rises again, and the dream lives on." Since the 1960s, the Kennedy clan have dominated the Democratic Party. Kennedy's speech passed the symbolic torch to Senator Barack Obama as the future of the Democratic Party.
Michelle Obama also gave a speech at the convention to present her and her husband as the symbols of the American Dream. "Barack doesn't care where you're from, or what your background is, or what partyif anyyou belong to," she said. "That's not how he sees the world. He knows that thread that connects us, our belief in America's promise, our commitment to our children's future, is strong enough to hold us together as one nation even when we disagree."
Source: Washington Post, Chicago Tribune
Tropical Storm Gustav Sends Oil Prices Up
Tropical Storm Gustav's top sustained winds approached 80 miles per hour or hurricane strength as it approached Haiti. Oil prices rose on concerns that Gustav could disrupt U.S. oil and gas output in the Gulf of Mexico.
Source: Miami Herald
Infosys Buys Axon, Expands into Europe
India's second-largest information technology outsourcing company, Infosys, acquired UK-based SAP consulting company Axon Group for $755.5 million, in the largest overseas acquisition by an Indian IT company to date. The acquisition is the first takeover in Europe by Infosys.
Source: Business Standard
Temaseks Profit Doubles
Singapore's $130 billion sovereign wealth fund, Temasek, said full year profit doubled to $12.8 billion, as the sale of Tuas Power and investments in Chinese banks helped offset declining values of Merrill Lynch and Barclays' shares. Temasek has invested billions of dollars in Merrill and Barclays. "We recently concentrated on U.S. and UK primarily because we see value," said Manish Kerjiwal, Temasek's senior managing director for investment, International and India
Source: Bloomberg
Facebook Cuts Off Scrabulous Except in India
Facebook decided to block access to Scrabulous C an online version of Scrabble C in all other countries outside North America except for India, after receiving a formal request to do so from Mattel, which owns the rights to Scrabble outside the U.S. and Canada. Scrabulous was developed by two brothers in Calcutta, Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla, who criticized Facebook for taking down Scrabulous without waiting for India's court to rule on Mattel's lawsuit over Scrabulous.
Source: San Jose Mercury News
Dozen States Sue EPA over Refineries
New York and 11 other states sued the Environmental Protection Agency for refusing to control pollution from oil refineries. The states charge that the EPA's air pollution control regulations for refineries violate the Clean Air Act
Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer
MGM Seeking Capital Enhancements
The legendary Hollywood studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer said that it is not for sale. However, MGM says it has hired investment bank Goldman Sachs to explore enhancements to MGM's long-term capital structure, which could mean bringing on another investor or sell shares to the public or restructure its $3.7 billion debt.
Source: BusinessWeek
Denmark Central Bank Bails Out Roskilde Bank
Denmark's central bank, Nationalbanken, and 100 Danish financial companies have bailed out the country's eighth-largest bank Roskilde Bank by injecting $890 million and assuming $7 billion in debt after the bank's property-related loans went sour. Roskilde was put up for sale in July, but a buyer was not found so the central bank stepped in.
Source: Financial Times
Thai Protestors Storm Bangkok TV Station
Thousands of anti-government protestors stormed state-run TV station NBT and surrounded government offices to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej, who they say is a puppet for exiled former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
Source: BBC
Citigroup Scrap Executive Committee, Names Rubin Senior Counselor
Citigroup eliminated the bank's seven-member board executive committee headed by former U.S. Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin in a move to simplify corporate hierarchy. Rubin received a new title of senior counselor. Rubin says his roles and functions within Citigroup are unchanged.
Source: Financial Times
Actors Paid to Line Up for iPhone in Poland
Poland's largest mobile phone operator Orange is paying dozens of actors to stand in line in front of 20 stores for the iPhone launch Friday to drum up interest.
Source: Reuters
Conversation of the Day: Brace for U.S. Inflation
Reader Marik7 writes: "It will take a VERY long time for American voters to begin to wonder why they're in the state they're in."
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