The Morning Brief

[EV_Ares]

Associated Press: China today said the death toll from last week's powerful earthquake jumped to more than 51,000, as it appealed for millions of tents to shelter homeless survivors.

South China Morning Post: As Chinese rescue crews began to demolish the teetering remains of damaged buildings and aftershocks forced people to move from one tent site to another, authorities were confronted with yet another challenge -- epidemic prevention -- with experts saying that accumulated filth, bodies floating in water supplies and ignorance of preventive hygiene threaten the health of millions of already stressed survivors.

Times of London: While millions of dollars in aid have been flooding into China -- much of it from the corporate world -- appeals for aid to cyclone-stricken Myanmar have been less successful, Mark Astarita, head of fundraising at the British Red Cross, blamed in part the ruling junta's exclusion of foreign news media and cameras, saying: "At the end of the day, charitable giving doesn't necessarily follow need. Disaster fundraising follows the news agenda."

New York Times: While the U.S. has been rewarding returning GIs with a college education since after World War II, President Bush is threatening to veto a bipartisan bill that would pay tuition and other expenses at a four-year public university for anyone who has served in the military for at least three years since the 9/11 attacks because the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are far from over and the military still needs its fighting men and women in uniform, not in classrooms.

International Herald Tribune: Ending an 18-month impasse, European Union countries agreed yesterday to begin wide-ranging new negotiations with Russia, raising hopes that an era of tension and confrontation with Moscow could give way to an improved relationship. The agreement among senior European diplomats paves the way for the EU and Moscow to start negotiating their first broad cooperation deal in more than a decade.

Guardian: Silvio Berlusconi's new right-wing cabinet, at its first meeting in Naples yesterday, endorsed a package of tough measures aimed at Gypsies and clandestine immigrants. In a move that appeared certain to cause controversy, the interior minister, Roberto Maroni, said local authorities would be empowered to check on the living conditions of citizens from other EU nations before granting them right of residence, a measure that appeared to be aimed at Roma living in encampments, and particularly at the estimated 50,000 Romanian Gypsies who have entered Italy in recent years and whom some Italians blame for rising crime rates.

Le Monde: French unions were staging transport strikes and other protests today aimed at reversing the government's plans to lengthen the amount of time employees must work to retire at full pension to 41 years from 40 years.

Los Angeles Times: As many as 24,000 deaths annually in California are linked to chronic exposure to fine particulate pollution, triple the previous official estimate of 8,200, according to state researchers. The studies found rates of heart attacks, strokes and other serious disease increase exponentially after exposure to even slightly higher amounts of metal, dust or other fragments from tailpipes and smokestacks.

Washington Post: The House easily overrode President Bush's veto of a $307 billion farm bill last night in what appeared to be the most significant legislative rebuff of Bush's presidency. But a legislative glitch is likely to force embarrassed Democratic leaders to pass the bill all over again today -- and prompt a second showdown with Bush next month.

Bloomberg: NRG Energy, seeking to become the largest independent power company in the U.S., made an unsolicited offer to buy Calpine for $9.6 billion in stock. The takeover would double NRG's capacity in the U.S. to about 45,000 megawatts, enough to power 36 million homes, and it also stands to benefit from Calpine's focus on using cleaner-burning natural gas as lawmakers seek to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions. Calpine is the largest U.S. producer of electricity from gas-fired plants.

Reuters: The Jacksonville Police and Fire Pension Fund, a Florida pension fund, has filed a lawsuit against American International Group and four top officials, including Chief Executive Martin Sullivan, for allegedly issuing false and misleading statements relating to the insurer's finances that inflated the prices of AIG securities. The complaint, filed in U.S. district court in Manhattan, seeks class-action status.

Wall Street Journal: While blunders and bad luck have cost shareholders of seven large Wall Street companies about $364 billion in stock-market value since their share prices peaked in 2006 and 2007, you wouldn't know it from the halfhearted response to proposals giving investors a direct say on executive pay. At Citigroup, J.P. Morgan Chase, Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley, proposals that would let investors weigh in every year with a nonbinding vote on compensation got an average of just 37% of shareholder votes, according to the latest tallies.

Financial Times: A report into the rogue trading scandal at Societe Generale due tomorrow will be critical of the culture and behavior of France's second-biggest bank. The report is expected to detail how the bank flouted its own controls, making it easier for Jerome Kerviel, former trader, to build up $79 billion in alleged unauthorized positions.

Women's Wear Daily: Prada Group has finally zeroed in on an executive to head its growing American business, poaching Valentino's Graziano de Boni, according to market sources. Mr. de Boni will become president and chief operating officer of Prada USA effective July 1, filling a post that has been vacant for more than two years as the fast-growing Italian luxury group decides whether to launch an initial public offering this year. He submitted his resignation at Valentino yesterday.

Variety: This weekend Paramount faces the sort of problem any studio would love to have: Its blockbuster hit "Iron Man" has its first real competition, but from another Paramount release: "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," which opens today in 4,260 U.S. theaters.

Nature: Aerospace giant EADS Astrium this week is expected to announce detailed plans for turning the cargo ship it built for the European Space Agency into a manned spacecraft. The craft, first used in March, is a 20-ton vessel for carrying food, water, oxygen and experiments to the International Space Station and was designed to burn up on re-entry after its mission is completed. But the new design would include a re-entry capsule for three people and new safety features.

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Quote of the Day
"Bush's rhetoric is completely disconnected from everything on the ground," Martin Indyk, head of the Brookings Institution's Saban Center for Middle East Policy and a former U.S. ambassador to Israel, tells the New York Times, after Israel said it is negotiating with Syria in spite of Bush administration objections, on the same day the Arab world helped broker a Lebanese peace agreement that gives Hezbollah de facto control over government decisions there. Mr. Bush sought to isolate both Syria and the Lebanese militant group it supports during his recent trip to the region. "While he's giving his speech against appeasement last week, Hezbollah was taking over control of the Lebanese government."

From: The WSJ