Nation briefs 10/28/05

Tropical Storm Beta becomes 23rd of season

MIAMI -- Tropical Storm Beta formed Thursday in the southwestern Caribbean Sea, extending this year's record of named storms in the Atlantic hurricane season. Beta is the season's 23rd tropical storm, the most since record keeping began in 1851. The disturbance formed Wednesday night but forecasters say it is not expected to threaten the United States. A tropical storm warning has been issued for the entire Caribbean coast of Nicaragua and adjacent islands.

President visits relief distribution center in Fla.

POMPANO BEACH, Fla. -- President Bush on Thursday promised a robust response to Hurricane Wilma, offering reassurance that things would improve soon for victims who are angry that supplies have been slow in coming. "Things don't happen instantly, but things are happening," Bush said. Bush spoke at a relief supply distribution center, as people gathered around him as they waited for a hot meal. Alongside his brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, the president greeted volunteers with the Southern Baptist Convention who traveled from Tennessee to hand out food and water. Storm victims mobbed the brothers to get handshakes, hugs and, for the women, kisses on the cheek.

Hanging suicide mistaken for Halloween prank

FREDERICA, Del. -- It could be easily seen from passing vehicles. Yet the apparent suicide of a woman found hanging from a tree went unreported for hours, because passers-by thought the body was a Halloween decoration, authorities said. The 42-year-old woman used rope to hang herself across the street from some homes on a moderately busy road late Tuesday or early Wednesday, state police said. State police spokesman Cpl. Jeff Oldham and neighbors said people noticed the body at breakfast time Wednesday but dismissed it as a holiday prank. Authorities were called to the scene more than three hours later.

Bird flu drug shipments suspended in U.S.

BASEL, Switzerland -- Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche Holding AG said Thursday it had temporarily suspended shipments of the anti-viral drug Tamiflu in the United States to ensure that enough treatments will be available for the regular influenza season. Roche spokesman Alexander Klauser said that Roche's U.S. management suspended the shipments because of the increased global demand for Tamiflu, the drug that experts believe is most effective in treating flu in humans. Demand has increased due to fears of the potential spread of bird flu. "The priority is that there is enough Tamiflu for the people who need it at the start of the influenza season," Klauser said. "At the moment, there is no influenza currently circulating."

Exxon Mobil posts new record for profit, sales

IRVING, Texas -- Exxon Mobil Corp. had a quarter for the record books. The world's largest publicly traded oil company said Thursday high oil and natural-gas prices helped its third-quarter profit surge almost 75 percent to $9.92 billion, the largest quarterly profit for a U.S. company ever, and it was the first to ring up more than $100 billion in quarterly sales. Net income ballooned to $9.92 billion, or $1.58 per share, from $5.68 billion, or 88 cents per share, a year ago.

SBC to call itself AT&T after acquisition

NEW YORK -- The storied AT&T name will live on after the long distance phone company is acquired by SBC Communications Inc., which is renaming itself and most of its products under the 120-year-old brand. On Thursday, federal antitrust regulators approved SBC's $16 billion purchase of AT&T Corp., its former corporate parent, as well as Verizon Communications Inc.'s $7.5 billion acquisition of MCI Inc., ordering the companies to sell certain assets to preserve competition in 19 markets. The name change had been widely predicted ever since the SBC-AT&T deal was announced in January, given the global recognition and reputation of AT&T as compared with SBC, a little-known brand outside the 13 states where it provides local phone service.

Ill. college student's body identified in Mississippi

NORMAL, Ill. -- Friends and classmates mourned the death of an Illinois State University senior as authorities continued investigating how the missing woman's body ended up in a burned-out chicken coop in Mississippi. Authorities said dental records confirmed Wednesday that the remains were those of 21-year-old Olamide Adeyooye, who was last seen two weeks ago renting a movie at a video store near her off-campus apartment. An autopsy performed Oct. 21 "did not reveal the cause of death," said Delores Lewis, a spokeswoman for the Mississippi Highway Patrol.

Woman fired after seeing her husband off to war

CALEDONIA, Mich. -- A woman who took an unpaid leave of absence from work to see her husband off to war has been fired after failing to show up for her part-time receptionist job the day following his departure. "It was a shock," said Suzette Boler, a 40-year-old mother of three and grandmother of three. "I was hurt. I felt abandoned by people I thought cared for me. I sat down on the floor and cried for probably two hours." Officials at her former workplace, Benefit Management Administrators Inc., confirmed that Boler was dismissed when she didn't report to work the day after she said goodbye to her husband of 22 years. "We gave her sufficient time to get back to work," Clark Galloway, vice president of operations for Benefit Management, told The Grand Rapids Press for a story published Wednesday. He added that other factors were involved in the decision but he declined to elaborate.

Israel fires missiles in Gaza refugee camp

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- Israel raided a West Bank town and fired missiles at a Gaza refugee camp, killing two Islamic Jihad militants and arresting one of the group's leaders. Backed by Apache helicopters, Israeli troops entered Jenin and surrounded the home of Abdel Khalim Izzadin. After a brief standoff, Izzadin and three other men surrendered, witnesses said. Later Thursday, Israel fired missiles at the Jebaliya refugee camp near Gaza City as people returned home from evening prayers, killing five people, including two leading Islamic Jihad militants. Shadi Mohanna, the Islamic Jihad field commander for northern Gaza, was killed along with his assistant, Mohammed Ghazaineh, according to Islamic Jihad.

--From wire reports

Justice approves SBC-AT&T and Verizon-MCI mergers

WASHINGTON -- The nation's two biggest local phone companies received approval Thursday from antitrust regulators to buy the two largest long-distance carriers in multibillion-dollar mergers that would change the landscape of the telecommunications industry. The Justice Department cleared the mergers of SBC Communications Inc. with AT&T and of Verizon Communications Inc. with MCI Inc. without any significant conditions, such as the asset sales that critics said were needed to ensure adequate competition. The Federal Communications Commission still must sign off on the mergers, and that could come as early as Friday when the agency meets for its monthly public meeting.

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin supports the mergers, but it's not clear if the two Democratic commissioners on the panel will go along. Because the commission is split between two Republicans and two Democrats, Martin would need the support of at least one Democrat for approval.

The SBC merger, valued at $16 billion, won't be the end of the AT&T name. SBC, based in San Antonio, plans to change its corporate name to the iconic AT&T, company officials said.

New York-based Verizon will keep its corporate name after the $8.5 billion merger with MCI.

Justice Department approval requires Verizon and SBC to lease to smaller competitors several hundred unused or "dark" lines that run to buildings serving mostly business customers. The leasing is required in 19 metropolitan areas where the companies, either SBC or Verizon, would be the only providers.

Without the condition, the mergers would have resulted in higher prices for certain customers in eight metropolitan areas in Verizon's territory and 11 metropolitan regions in SBC's area, the department said.

AT&T and MCI dominate the market for business customers, and the mergers would enhance the base of business customers for Verizon and SBC. The deals would also expand their national and international presence.

Gene Kimmelman, senior policy director at Consumers Union, said the Justice Department decision will cut competition, leading to fewer choices for consumers and higher prices.

"This is an earth-shattering reversal of competition policy from the agency that 21 years ago broke up the Bell monopoly and today is coddling the dominant Bell companies who seek to re-monopolize each of their regions," Kimmelman said.

Not so, says Verizon senior vice president and deputy general counsel John Thorne. The eight-month review by antitrust staff proves "that the transaction is pro-competitive and will not lessen competition in any market," said Thorne.

SBC senior executive vice president and general counsel James D. Ellis called it a "fair and impartial determination that ... the merger of SBC and AT&T will not harm competition."

Jeff Kagan, an independent telecom analyst in Atlanta, said the mergers are indicative of an industry that is in the midst of massive change.

For the past 10 years, local phone companies have been engaged in a fierce battle with long-distance companies for customers, with the local carriers emerging largely victorious. Now, Kagan said, the merged phone giants will compete with cable companies -- as cable offers phone and Internet services and the telephone companies offer video and Internet services.

"It's not going to be separate sectors," he said. "It's going to be single companies that sell all these services."

Verizon and SBC are still awaiting approval from several states. SBC expects its merger to close by the end of the year; Verizon expects to close by late this year, or early next year.

On Wall Street, SBC rose 5 cents to close at $23.70, and AT&T rose 10 cents to close at $19.60. Verizon rose 17 cents to close at $30.76, and MCI fell 2 cents to close at $19.84.

Under the Justice Department agreement, the merged companies would have to lease their connections to more than 350 buildings in which they own or control wireline access.

For Verizon and MCI, the metropolitan areas are: Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, considered one area, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Tampa, Fla., Richmond, Va., Providence, R.I., and Portland, Maine, the government said.

For SBC and AT&T, the metropolitan areas are: Chicago, the Dallas-Fort Worth area, Detroit, the Hartford and New Haven, Conn., area, Indianapolis, Ind., Kansas City, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, Wis., San Diego, the San Francisco and San Jose area, and St. Louis.