PRESS DIGEST - Wall Street Journal - May 6
May 6 (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.
* France's Alstom (ALSO.PA) is being investigated over whether it paid hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes to win contracts in Asia and South America from 1995 to 2003. Some of the projects involved were funded in part by the World Bank.
* Sprint Nextel Corp (S.N) is considering spinning off or selling Nextel, signaling the problems facing the No. 3 U.S. wireless carrier. A sale could make Sprint more attractive as Deutsche Telekom (DTEGn.DE) weighs a bid.
* UBS (UBSN.VX) plans to cut 5,500 jobs by the middle of next year, an effort meant to restructure its troubled investment bank as the Swiss giant recorded a net loss of nearly $11 billion.
* Vikram Pandit faces mounting pressure to show he can turn around Citigroup Inc (C.N), one of the largest and most troubled banks. While the CEO has earned high marks for addressing pressing issues, some executives say he hasn't articulated a long-term vision and takes too long to make decisions.
* As energy prices surge, U.S. regulators are poised to expand oversight of oil companies and energy markets and to write rules banning market manipulation. One hitch will be the extent to which the Federal Trade Commission is willing to venture into the Commodity Futures Trading Commission regulatory turf.
* Treasury is meeting with mortgage companies Tuesday to discuss ways to quickly aid borrowers. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke suggested the Federal Housing Administration could insure some loans in cases where lenders reduced principal.
* Casino operator Tropicana Entertainment LLC filed for Chapter 11, the largest corporate filing of the year, following a missed interest payment on a $1.32 billion loan. It was the latest blow to Las Vegas, which has seen gambling revenues decline and major building projects canceled or delayed.
* Bank of America Corp (BAC.N) said its acquisition of Countrywide Financial Corp CFC.N is proceeding as planned despite uncertainty over the deal that has intensified.
* Yahoo Inc (YHOO.O) Chief Executive Jerry Yang Monday had to tangle with some big shareholders who were displeased that he didn't reach a deal to sell his company to Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) at a sweetened price.
* Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have retooled their messages on free trade in Indiana and North Carolina, states that have made gains from free trade, after slamming the North American Free Trade Agreement while campaigning in Ohio.
* The Pentagon concluded it can't send additional troops to Afghanistan until a sizable number withdraw from Iraq, a senior military official said.
* The death toll from the weekend cyclone in Myanmar escalated rapidly, with state media saying that 10,000 people perished in just one town. The tragedy adds more woe to the troubled Southeast Asian nation and increases strains on its military government.
