Yukos files for bankruptcy in the US
Moscow: The Yukos oil company has filed for bankruptcy in the US and appealed for a temporary restraining order against the auction of its main production unit, scheduled for Sunday. Yukos filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 11 in Houston on Tuesday, according to a company statement.

It said that the impending auction of Yuganskneftegaz, its main production subsidiary, on Sunday "will cause the company to suffer immediate and irreparable harm." Yukos maintains that the auction is illegal.

The campaign against Yukos and its owners, including former CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky, has been seen as a Kremlin-inspired effort to punish Khodorkovsky's perceived political ambitions, including his funding of opposition parties.

President Vladimir Putin has cast the case as part of official crackdown on shady bookkeeping and corruption. Tax authorities say Yukos owes them a total of 27.8 billion US dollars.
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Sprint acquiring Nextel in $35 billion deal
Washington, DC: Telecommunications giant Sprint Corp is acquiring Nextel Communications Inc. in a 35 billion US dollar deal that would create the nation's third largest wireless telephone service provider.

The transaction, announced on Wednesday, would create a company called Sprint Nextel with about 40 billion US dollars in combined yearly revenue and more than 35 million wireless subscribers, trailing only Cingular Wireless and Verizon Wireless. Sprint would get access to Nextel's 15.3 million subscribers, many of whom are business customers, and Nextel would avoid a costly upgrade of its own network.

The companies' executives estimated the merger would save them 12 billion US dollars in operating costs and network upgrades.
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