PRESS DIGEST - Wall Street Journal - Aug 5
Aug 5 (Reuters) - The following were the top stories in The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.
* Alcatel-Lucent (ALUA.PA) is kicking off a global hunt for new leadership after BT Group Plc's (BT.L) former boss rebuffed an initial approach a few days ago.
* Muqtada al-Sadr plans to disarm his once-feared Mahdi Army militia and remake it into a social-services organization. The repositioning reflects an effort by the anti-American Shiite cleric to regain grass-roots support and weed out some extremists.
* Six Flags Inc SIX.N posted a profit, but the amusement-park operator is still under serious financial strain. It's weighed down by $2.4 billion of debt and faces a $288 million payment to preferred stockholders. Luring more customers is essential to its turnaround effort, but it's a terrible time to pry more income out of beleaguered consumers.
* BP Plc (BP.L) sustained one of the most serious blows yet in its fight to hold on to its lucrative Russian oil venture Monday, as the operation's chief financial officer quit amid the increasingly rancorous dispute between its British and local owners.
* Investors are growing wary of bonds backed by credit-card payments, jamming up another debt market and making it tougher for Americans to tap what has been one of the easiest places to get credit.
* U.S. President George W. Bush arrives in South Korea trying to save a free-trade agreement that led to violent protests. The focus of his visit will be a summit with Lee Myung-bak, whose presidency was damaged by a nationalist backlash over a smaller trade deal that led to South Korea reopening imports of U.S. beef.
* Even though HSBC (HSBA.L) (0005.HK) has emerged relatively unscathed from the credit crunch, the bank is still under pressure to find ways to deploy capital more effectively and to shed low-earning assets.
* China scaled back merger notification requirements in the final version of its new antitrust law. Earlier drafts raised concerns that global mergers with only a tangential link to the country would need approval from Chinese authorities.
* Jousting over Bristol-Myers Squibb Co's (BMY.N) unsolicited bid to buy ImClone Systems Inc IMCL.O began in earnest, as ImClone and its chairman, Carl Icahn, indicated they oppose the $4.5 billion offer and suggested the target company might be worth more to shareholders if it were split in two.
* AT&T Inc (T.N) is unveiling a service that provides computer networking and storage services for business customers, making the telecommunications giant the latest company to invest in what is known as "cloud computing."
* Friendster Inc is adopting a new strategy focused on Asia, including the elevation of its South Asian operations officer to CEO of the company, as it seeks to build on its status as most popular social network in the region.
