AUTOMOTIVE

Report: More cuts on way at GM

Detroit —- General Motors Corp. will cut several thousand salaried jobs and further slash truck production in response to falling U.S. sales and Wall Street's demands for more action, The Associated Press reported Monday night. GM Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner is scheduled to discuss the changes at a news conference this morning.

DEALS

Waste Management bids for competitor

Industry leader Waste Management on Monday made an unsolicited offer to buy disposal company Republic Services Inc. for $6.19 billion in cash, aiming to block its biggest rivals from teaming up. The deal represented a counter-offer to Republic's planned acquisition of Allied Waste Industries announced in late June. The stock deal between No. 2 Republic Services and No. 3 Allied Waste Industries was worth $6.07 billion at the time. Republic said its board will review the $34-per-share offer from Waste Management and respond "in due course." The per-share offer represents a 22 percent premium to Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based Republic's closing stock price of $27.90 on Friday.

Spanish bank to buy British lender

Madrid, Spain —- Spanish banking giant Banco Santander said Monday that it has agreed to buy British mortgage lender Alliance & Leicester PLC in a deal valued at $2.5 billion.

Royal Dutch bids for Canadian firm

Royal Dutch Shell PLC on Monday offered to buy Canada's Duvernay Oil Corp. for $5.16 billion in cash, a move that would nearly double its North American natural gas production.

FINANCIAL

Interest rates fall in Treasury auction

Washington —- Interest rates on short-term Treasury bills fell in Monday's auction, with rates on three-month bills dropping to the lowest level since late April. The Treasury Department auctioned $24 billion in three-month bills at a discount rate of 1.610 percent, down from 1.865 percent last week. Another $23 billion in six-month bills was auctioned at a discount rate of 1.955 percent, down from 2.060 percent last week. Separately, the Federal Reserve said Monday that the average yield for one-year Treasury bills, a popular index for making changes in adjustable-rate mortgages, fell to 2.25 percent last week from 2.35 percent the previous week.

HEALTH CARE

Feds go after Indian drug maker

Washington —- Federal prosecutors allege that Ranbaxy Laboratories, a maker of generic drugs based in India, deliberately misled the U.S. government about the quality of its low-cost medicines. The Justice Department is demanding that Ranbaxy turn over documents that it hopes will prove the company fabricated data to persuade the U.S. government to approve its products. Ranbaxy called the allegations "baseless" in a statement Monday but said it would cooperate.

Pfizer to cut 275 jobs in Mich.

Kalamazoo, Mich. —- Pfizer Inc. is cutting 275 jobs at its biggest manufacturing plant, in Michigan. The job eliminations in Kalamazoo will affect supervisory and support staff as well as some operational staff such as project engineers, a Pfizer spokesman said Monday.

MANUFACTURING

Russia establishes tech conglomerate

Moscow —- Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has signed off on the creation of Russian Techologies, a vast state holding comprising military and industrial assets, which the government hopes will play a crucial role in developing the country's technology sector and diversifying the economy. Medvedev approved the transfer of assets in 426 companies to the holding, including a 51 percent stake in AirUnion, an alliance of Russian regional airlines.

MEDIA

Death Row Records auctioned

New York —- Death Row Records, the hip-hop label that released gangster rap albums by Tupac Shakur, Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg, has been auctioned for $24 million. New York-based Global Music Group Inc. said in a statement to The Associated Press on Monday that on June 24 it purchased Death Row, including its back catalog and current artist contracts.

RETAILING

Tiffany loses suit against eBay

EBay has scored an important victory against a legal nemesis. In a 4-year-old trademark lawsuit brought by jeweler Tiffany and Co., Judge Richard Sullivan of the U.S. District Court in Manhattan ruled Monday that the online retailer does not bear a legal responsibility to prevent its users from selling counterfeit items on its marketplace.

Wal-Mart to check sources of wood

Bentonville, Ark. —- Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said Monday that it will phase out questionable wood sources and increase the products it buys from sustainable forestry operations. The world's largest retailer is joining a World Wildlife Fund initiative to improve management of valuable and threatened forests.

TECHNOLOGY

Icahn fires back at Yahoo execs

New York —- Activist investor Carl Icahn said Monday that replacing Yahoo Inc.'s current board would ensure an acquisition deal with Microsoft Corp. In urging shareholders to vote for his slate of nine directors, Icahn said he was confident that the new board would "in very short order" present shareholders with an offer to sell the whole company or its search functions with large financial guarantees. Icahn made a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission Monday after Yahoo revealed late Saturday that it had spurned Microsoft's latest attempt to buy its online search engine in a joint proposal made with Icahn.

Apple sells 1 million iPhones in 3 days

New York —- Apple Inc. said Monday that it has sold 1 million iPhones in the three days following the release of the latest model on Friday. "IPhone 3G had a stunning opening weekend," Steve Jobs, Apple's chief executive, said in a statement Monday. But the launch was plagued by software problems. All the new iPhones had to connect to Apple's servers for activation, which quickly overloaded them.

Xbox 360 to add movie capability

Los Angeles —- Microsoft's Xbox 360 video game console will be able to stream thousands of movies over the Internet, thanks to a deal with Netflix. The arrangement was announced Monday at the E3 Media & Business Summit in Los Angeles.

Palm releases new version of Treo

Palm Inc., maker of the Treo e-mail phone, introduced a new version of the device for the first time in 18 months, stepping up competition with the iPhone and BlackBerry. The Treo 800w sells for $249.99 through Sprint Nextel Corp., Palm said Monday in a statement. New features include an updated operating system from Microsoft, making the model more suitable for business use, the company said.

TRANSPORTATION

Midwest to cut 1,200 workers

Milwaukee —- Midwest Airlines said Monday that it will reduce its work force by 1,200 as it grounds its 12 MD-80s. The cuts represent about 40 percent of current staffing at Midwest and its Skyway subsidiary.

Amtrak raises many fares 5%

Amtrak has raised fares on 13 routes in the Midwest and Northeast by 5 percent. The fares were increased this month because of agreements with labor unions and the rising cost of fuel on routes served by diesel locomotives, spokeswoman Karina Romero said Monday in an e-mail.

AirTran shares hit 52-week low

Analyst downgrades sent shares of AirTran Airways' parent company tumbling nearly 19 percent Monday to a 52-week low. "AirTran is expected to continue to generate negative cash flow from operations, and in the face of scheduled debt maturities and capital spending obligations, the company's modest cash balance could erode over the coming year," Moody's Investors Service said as it downgraded AirTran's debt rating to a lower degree of junk status.

Report: FedEx covets Dutch firm

FedEx Corp. is in preliminary talks to take over TNT NV, the Financial Times of London has reported. Buying the Dutch company would make FedEx the No. 2 express delivery service in Europe. Spokesmen for the companies declined to comment.

US Airways will write off millions

Tempe, Ariz. —- US Airways Group Inc. will take a $622 million accounting charge in its second quarter to reflect the effect of soaring jet fuel prices. US Airways said in a regulatory filing Monday that it decided to write down the amount of goodwill —- an accounting term referring to intangible value —- that it had on its books since combining with America West Airlines in 2005. US Airways also said it will book an $18 million charge to reflect the declining value of spare parts for its Boeing 737 aircraft.

Web boarding passes to carry ads

Several major airlines will begin displaying ads on boarding passes for customers who check in from home. Customers can print the boarding passes without ads if they want. Sojern Inc., which is selling the ads, said Delta Air Lines Inc. would begin using the ads today for flights to Las Vegas and on all other domestic destinations soon afterward. Northwest, US Airways Group Inc., Continental Airlines Inc. and UAL Corp.'s United Airlines have signed up and will begin using the ads in the months ahead, Sojern said. The airlines own a minority stake in Sojern and will split revenue from the ads. None of the parties would say how much they expect to make.

UTILITIES / ENERGY

Hydroelectric output cut in Ala.

Alabama Power Co., a subsidiary of Southern Co., has cut water flows from lakes to its hydroelectric plants because of the drought. Lost output from the dams will be made up from nuclear plants and generators burning coal and natural gas, Alabama Power spokeswoman Jan Ellis said Monday. Hydropower production has been below normal since the drought began in 2006, she said. "Alabama Power has cut releases from its hydroelectric dams to the minimums required to protect fisheries, endangered species, water quality, and critical municipal and industrial uses," the company said last Friday on its Web site. The company's 14 hydroelectric dams normally provide 5 percent of Alabama Power's annual supply, Ellis said. That fell to 4.1 percent last year because of the drought, she said.

Jet-fuel demand set to soften

Jet fuel's 100 percent rise over the past year to a record $4.36 a gallon apparently is setting the stage for its decline in the next six months. Fuel demand will fall 7.5 percent this year, or 95,000 barrels a day, and 104,000 barrels a day in 2009, according to the U.S. Energy Department. "People are responding to a doubling of prices, and the airline industry is one industry that is responding," said Edward Morse, chief energy economist at Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. "The markets will weaken significantly after the third quarter."