Lufthansa plans to resume Baghdad flights
Frankfurt: German airline Lufthansa said on Saturday it was seeking approval to resume flights to Baghdad as soon as possible.
Deutsche Lufthansa AG said it needed the consent of the authorities in Iraq but hoped to take a decision in a few weeks after clarifying issues such as take-off and landing rights. "With its oil refineries, Baghdad is the country's leading industrial center and is becoming an increasingly important destination for business travelers", it said in a statement.
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Goody's to pay for Tommy Hilfiger brand violations
New York: Goody's Family Clothing Inc. said on Friday a US district court in Georgia ordered it to pay clothing maker Tommy Hilfiger Corp. about $11 million after a case that involved counterfeit T-shirts and trademark infringement. Knoxville, Tennessee-based Goody's, which operates 330 stores in 18 states, said it might appeal the decision. The US District Court for the Northern District of Georgia awarded Tommy Hilfiger $2.1 million in damages from Goody's sale of counterfeit T-shirts and nearly $9 million for trademark infringement related to the labeling of three lines of jeans formerly used by Goody's, the retailer said.
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Siebel Sys under SEC inquiry on data dissemination
Los Angeles: Siebel Systems Inc. on Friday said it received a Securities and Exchange Commission inquiry about a possible violation of a regulation to prevent companies from selectively doling out important financial information. The Silicon Valley software maker in November 2002 became the first company to agree to pay a fine to settle a case involving the same issue, violations of Regulation Fair Disclosure, or Reg FD.The SEC enacted Reg FD in October 2000 to halt a widespread practice of companies briefing analysts privately, giving them an edge in the market. News of the latest inquiry sent shares of the formerly fast-growing company to $9.26 in after-hours trade on Instinet, from their Nasdaq close of $9.53. During the high-tech boom, Siebel's stock had traded above $100.
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Investor movement enlists some fund firms
New York: Big US mutual funds have long preferred to stay behind the scenes in disputes with corporate America, but an angry investor movement is drawing them into the fray. Union-backed funds and public pension funds are leading the effort, demanding that companies change their policies on everything from executive pay to board elections. Mutual funds, quieter and more conservative, are unlikely to follow suit by sponsoring resolutions calling for reforms at companies in which they invest. But investor advocates say there are signs that big fund firms are starting to take a bit more of an activist stance.
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California reels under a deficit, Governor in the dock
San Francisco: California Gov. Gray Davis - so unpopular that some voters want to kick him out of office for messing up an economy as large as that of France - must by Wednesday come up with a revised budget to overcome a swelling deficit last estimated at $35 billion. With the economy still limping, the state legislature deadlocked and California's credit rating at risk, Davis is expected to propose a package of deep spending cuts, higher taxes and new debt to cope with a worsening fiscal crisis.
"There are no easy choices here when you have a revenue shortfall of this magnitude," his spokesman Steve Maviglio said. "There will continue to be plenty of pain everybody will have to share to help solve the problem."
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Blue Chip economists trim US growth forecast
Washington: Private economists trimmed their forecasts for US economic growth still further and now regard even the second half of 2003 with pessimism after a slew of data showed the US economy still struggling to recover. The closely watched Blue Chip Economic Indicators newsletter said its panel cut growth forecasts for each of the next three quarters, extending the steady erosion in the survey's outlook that began last summer. Gloomier still, nearly two-thirds of the more than 50 business economists on the panel said risks to their forecasts for growth in the second half of the year were on the downside.
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