---

BACK TO TOP
|

KEEPING IT HAWAII

PHOTO COURTESY ARNA PHOTOGRAPHY Ruth Levin, park manager for the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, accepted the Travel Holiday Best in Show award yesterday at the Hawaii Visitors & Convention Bureau's annual Kahili awards luncheon. It was presented by Travel Holiday magazine publisher Jeff Foley, left, and Tony Vericella, the HVCB's president and chief executive. The publication claims a paid circulation of 652,677 and 1.6 million readers in the United States. It will publish a special national section on the awards and the HVCB's Keep It Hawaii program.

---

BACK TO TOP
|

ON THE MAINLAND

UAL chief cuts salary by 14%

CHICAGO >> UAL Corp. Chief Executive Officer Glenn Tilton cut his salary by an additional 14 percent, bringing his total pay reduction for this year to 25 percent.

Tilton announced the additional cut one day after Delta Air Lines Inc. Chief Executive Officer Leo Mullin gave up $9 million of his compensation. Some members of Congress have criticized executive pay at U.S. airlines as the industry asked for federal aid and some carriers sought bankruptcy protection.

Tilton's latest reduction, effective April 1, will lower his salary by $237,500 to $712,500, according to a statement from UAL, parent of United Airlines.

IMF warns housing bubble may burst

WASHINGTON >> One more threat for the fragile economy -- the possibility that America's booming housing market could be headed for a bust.

In a survey of global economic dangers, the International Monetary Fund warned yesterday that the U.S. housing market, after two years of record sales over and strong increases in home prices, could be headed for a fall.

The study said that based on past experience, a housing bubble in an industrial country has a 40 percent chance of being followed by a sharp drop in prices. It did not explicitly forecast a U.S. housing bust, but did raise concerns about its possibility.

Altria bonds and share decline

NEW YORK >> Altria Group Inc.'s bonds and shares fell on concern the prospect that the company's Philip Morris USA unit may seek bankruptcy protection increased after Illinois lawmakers rejected a bill to limit the amount of money tobacco companies must deposit to appeal legal judgments.

Philip Morris, the world's biggest cigarette maker, must come up with $12 billion by April 21 to appeal a $10.1 billion lawsuit it lost about misleading advertising. Philip Morris said it will continue to work with lawmakers for a resolution.

Philip Morris's 7.65 percent notes, which mature in July 2008, fell 9 percent to a six-month low of about 93 cents on the dollar, according to Trace, the bond price reporting system of the National Association of Securities Dealers. The yield climbed to 9.40 percent from 7.18 percent. The notes have plunged since mid-March, when they traded at about 109 cents on the dollar and yielded less than 3 percent. Other Philip Morris bonds and notes have experienced similar declines in the last few weeks.

Altria shares closed down $1.40 at $28.30 on the New York Stock Exchange. The stock had declined 15 percent since the March 21 judgment, reducing the New York- based company's market value by about $12 billion.

Mortgage rates fall for week

WASHINGTON >> Mortgage rates around the country fell this week, after climbing for two weeks in a row, reflecting gyrations in financial markets over the war in Iraq.

The average interest rate on a fixed-rate 30-year mortgage dropped to 5.79 percent, from 5.91 percent last week, Freddie Mac, the mortgage company, reported yesterday in its weekly nationwide survey.

In the middle of March, rates on 30-year mortgages declined to a record low rate of 5.61 percent. That rate was the lowest since Freddie Mac began tracking 30-year mortgages in 1971. Records that reach back earlier than Freddie Mac's indicate that the rate is the lowest since the early 1960s.

Time off may replace overtime, under bill

WASHINGTON >> Employers now required to pay some workers overtime would be able to offer paid time off instead under legislation a House panel approved yesterday.

The bill, agreed to by a House Workforce subcommittee, is Republicans' latest effort to revamp overtime pay requirements in the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act.

Business groups, emboldened by complete Republican control of Congress and the executive branch, have been pressing for revisions to the law, which requires pay at an hourly rate of time-and-a-half for some workers logging more than 40 hours a week.

The Labor Department last week proposed a drastic overhaul of the regulations that determine what jobs must receive overtime pay.

Akamai declines Al-Jazeera job

The Web site of Arab satellite news channel Al-Jazeera was refused assistance this week when it sought help from Akamai Technologies Inc. of Cambridge, Mass., in dealing with hacking attacks and massive interest from Web users.

"We think it's political pressure," said Nabil Hegazi, deputy managing editor of Al-Jazeera's English-language Web site.

Akamai's servers help customer Web sites deal with unexpected traffic, hacker attacks and Internet bottlenecks.

Akamai would not comment beyond a prepared statement that said it "worked briefly this week with Al Jazeera to understand the issues they are having distributing their Web sites," but decided not to continue the relationship.