U.S.

Yahoo Rejects Icahn's Bid for Control, Says Rebuffing Microsoft Was Right Yahoo! Inc., fighting billionaire investor Carl Icahn's bid to take control of the board, said it was right to reject Microsoft Corp.'s $47.5 billion offer and that its directors are the most qualified to boost Yahoo's value.

Mishkin Says Fed Should Tighten Regulation to Avert Asset-Price `Bubbles' Central bankers should strengthen regulation to avert a credit-fueled increase in asset prices and forgo raising interest rates in an attempt to reverse a future price surge, Federal Reserve Governor Frederic Mishkin said.

Stock-Index Futures Advance; Exxon, Lockheed Martin Shares Gain in Europe U.S. stock-index futures climbed, indicating the Standard & Poor's 500 Index will extend its weekly advance, as higher oil prices lifted energy shares and Nordstrom Inc. reported better-than-estimated earnings.

Fed, BOE Signal End of Rate Cuts as Price Pressures Increase, Crisis Eases The world's most powerful central banks are telegraphing the end of interest-rate cuts, and traders already anticipate the first steps in the opposite direction.

Buffett's Berkshire Boosts Kraft, Wells Fargo Investments on Share Decline Billionaire Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. took advantage of falling share prices in the first quarter to boost stakes in Kraft Foods Inc. and Wells Fargo & Co.

Latin America

Setubal Sees Brazil in `Transformation' as Funds Flock to Currency, Equity Banco Itau Holding Financeira SA's Roberto Egydio Setubal, head of Brazil's second-biggest non- government bank, said his nation is in a ``transformation'' that's creating the best conditions for business he's ever seen.

Argentina's Farmers Pin Tax-Repeal Hope on Disenchantment Over Fernandez Striking farmers in Argentina are counting on the plunging popularity of President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner to help force the repeal of higher export- taxes that have disrupted grain shipments.

Ortiz May Keep Mexico Interest Rate at 7.5% as Inflation Threatens Target Mexico's central bank will probably keep its benchmark interest rate unchanged for a seventh consecutive month as policy makers weigh above-target inflation against concerns economic growth is slowing.

Copper Heads for First Weekly Gain in May on Supply Outlook, Chile Concern Copper rose, heading for the first weekly gain this month, on expectations stockpiles monitored by the London Metal Exchange will extend declines and a labor strike will resume at Codelco, the world's largest copper producer.

Endesa's Enersis Is Recommended by Jim Cramer on Chilean Demand for Power Enersis SA, the Latin American investment unit of Spain's Endesa SA, was recommended by CNBC ``Mad Money'' host Jim Cramer because of high demand for power in Chile.

Soybeans Rise as Argentine Farmers Extend Strike Over Taxes, Block Exports Soybean futures rallied in Chicago on speculation that farmers in Argentina, the world's third-largest exporter of the oilseed, will continue a two-month dispute with the government over export taxes that has disrupted shipments.

Exclusive

China Earthquake $20 Billion Damages Expose Insurance Abyss for Government The most powerful earthquake in China since 1950 shows the nation's insurance industry is decades behind those of the world's biggest economies.

Nobel Laureate Scholes Says Financial-Market `Storm' May Not Have Passed Myron Scholes, chairman of Platinum Grove Asset Management LP and 1997 winner of the Nobel Prize in economics, said the worst of the crisis in credit markets may not be over.

London's `Little Cairo' Loses Night Life as Shisha Smokers Go Underground Ahmed Hassan says you'd have to be crazy to visit the illegal shisha dens that operate in the basements of some cafes along London's Edgware Road.

Recovery From Worst Housing Slump Since '30s Comes With a Guy Called Angel The way out of the worst U.S. housing slump since the 1930s goes through Angel Gutierrez.

Americans Want Bush Administration to Stem Dollar's Decline, Survey Shows Americans want Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to act to stop the dollar's decline, which has stoked the inflation eroding their household incomes.

French Boardrooms Are All Shook Up as Private-Equity Funds End `Beffa Era' Jean-Bernard Lafonta broke a tacit rule of French business etiquette last summer when his firm amassed shares of Saint-Gobain SA, the nation's oldest company, without seeking the consent of its chairman, Jean-Louis Beffa.