Jury begins deliberations in Enron trial
Houston: A Houston jury has begun deliberating the fate of Enron's Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling, even as Lay heads back into the courtroom to be tried on four personal banking charges.

Observers said that prosecutors and defense lawyers did an excellent job of equipping the panel of eight women and four men with highlights from 15 weeks of testimony, and argued two vastly different stories. They said that the jury got capable closing argument directions from some of the best trial lawyers in the legal market.

Enron Task Force Director Sean Berkowitz closed the government's case Wednesday, telling the jury panel that they got the last say.

"The final word goes to people like the investors. You get to decide what's right . . . You get the final word in this historic case. You get to decide whether they told truths or whether they told lies. Black and white," Berkowitz said.

The government is accusing Skilling, in 28 counts, and Lay, in six, of manipulating Enron's finances and lying about the company's financial health to investors in order to enrich themselves. Lay begins a second trial today on four personal banking charges over whether he misused loan money from three banks.
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Xstrata in fray for Falconbridge - outbids Inco
London/Toronto: Swiss-based mining major, Xstrata Plc, jumped into the merger battle between three Canadian mining companies on Wednesday with a C$20 billion hostile offer for Falconbridge Ltd. disrupting a friendly bid from Inco Ltd.

The move by Xstrata comes as miners try to capitalise on near record commodity prices by expanding their global capacity.

Even as Swiss-based Xstrata, is trying to outbid Inco, Teck Cominco Ltd. wants to take over Inco in order to prevent it from buying Falconbridge.

Should Xstrata succeed, it would become the world's fifth-largest diversified mining company by market capitalisation. It is already Falconbridge's largest shareholder with a roughly 20 per cent stake.

The deal would broaden Xstrata's geographical reach and add nickel to copper, coal, zinc and chrome operations. Xstrata said the combination would boost earnings and cash flow substantially in the first full year of consolidation. It would also enable Xstrata to compete with larger rivals such as BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto Ltd., the world's two largest miners.
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UPS unveils $1bn expansion at its main air hub
Louisville, USA: The world's largest shipping carrier, UPS Inc, has announced plans for a second $1bn expansion at its main air hub in recent years, anticipating strong growth in global commerce.

The latest project will add 1.1 million square feet to the sprawling air hub known as UPS Worldport, making it bigger than 113 football fields. The computerized sorting system installed four years ago will feature 197 miles of conveyors once the expansion is finished by 2010.

The Atlanta-based company's earlier $1bn investment in its Louisville hub more than doubled its sorting complex to four million square feet in 2002. UPS said the expansion would start this year. Once completed, the hub's sorting capacity will grow by 60 percent to more than 487,000 packages per hour. About 260 flights come in and out of the Louisville hub each day that connect it with more than 200 countries and territories worldwide.

The air hub currently employees about 7,500 of 18,000 UPS workers in Louisville. Additional workers hired as part of the new expansion will fill about 1,200 full-time and 3,800 part-time jobs.

UPS started its air operations in Louisville in the early 1980s with seven leased aircraft and about 100 employees.
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