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HAWAII
Former Maui Pine chairman resigns

Richard H. Cameron, former chairman of Maui Land & Pineapple Co. and a member of the Valley Isle family that partly owns the company, has resigned as a director.

Cameron has served as a director since 1984 and stepped down as chairman in 2003 amid heavy corporate losses. He is among a slew of Maui Pine officials who have departed following the appointment of David Cole, the company's chairman and chief executive, to turn operations around.

NATION
Icahn buys Time Warner shares

Financier Carl Icahn disclosed that his hedge funds initially bought stock in 12 companies, including more than 5 million shares in Time Warner Inc. and 10 million shares in Rite Aid Corp.

Icahn Management LP, the partnership that runs the hedge funds, also reported ownership of 4.5 million shares in Siebel Systems Inc. and almost 1.9 million shares in UnumProvident Corp. at March 31.

The hedge funds, Icahn Partners LP and Icahn Fund Ltd., began raising money last July to bolster Icahn's ability to push for change at companies he deems under-performing. Keith Meister, a senior investment analyst at Icahn's New York office, declined to comment on whether the billionaire plans to shake up management at all of the funds' holdings.

Icahn started proxy fights at the two largest holdings, Blockbuster Inc. and Kerr-McGee Corp., both of which have been previously disclosed. Icahn earlier this week won board seats at Dallas-based Blockbuster and in April reached an agreement with Kerr-McGee in which the Oklahoma City energy and chemical company promised to buy back $4 billion in stock at a premium.

Taser doesn't hurt heart, study says

An independent academic study of Taser electric-stun weapons has found that they do not cause heart-rhythm disturbances when used for short periods on healthy adults.

The report, which was made public yesterday, is the first to directly monitor the effects of Tasers on human heart rhythm. It appears to confirm earlier studies, performed on pigs, that show that Tasers are unlikely to cause ventricular fibrillation -- a potentially lethal heart disturbance -- when they are used for less than five seconds on healthy adults.

But the study did not examine other serious risks that some scientists have said may be associated with Tasers, including their effect on the blood and on body temperature. The study also did not examine the effects of repeated shocks or whether the Taser might be harmful to people who had used cocaine or other drugs.

Delphi says cost-cutting on track

Delphi Corp. executives sought to calm investors yesterday, saying the automotive supplier's cost-cutting efforts were on track even as it reported higher-than-expected first-quarter losses and continued to face an accounting investigation. Shares of the former General Motors subsidiary jumped 40 cents, or 11.8 percent, to close at $3.80 yesterday, still at the low end of their 52-week range of $3.20 to $11.01.