SUBJECT: The world this week : Business 12th - 17th April &NUM &WEBSITE | &NAME Email Thursday April 17th &NUM &NAME now ! | E-mail & Mobile Editions | &NAME &WEBSITE Classifieds for job listings , business opportunities and more : &WEBSITE Classifieds put you in front of our audience of senior business executives , professionals , academics and other specialists . &WEBSITE Classifieds . Full contents Business this week &NAME 17th &NUM From &NAME print edition A new overseer The Securities and &NAME Commission picked &NAME &NAME as head of the new accountancy regulator . The head of the &NAME &NAME Federal Reserve Board for the past decade , his tricky task will be to re-establish confidence in the profession . See article : An overseer for &NAME 's accountants &NAME announced that &NUM profits had fallen by &NUM compared with a year ago to $ &NUM billion despite &NAME 's leading financial-services conglomerate benefiting from thriving retail banking . Meanwhile , &NAME of &NAME profits rose by &NUM to $ &NUM billion . J.P. &NAME &NAME is likely to face legal action for its role in helping Enron to disguise its debts . &NAME &NAME and &NAME have faced scrutiny for assisting the failed energy trader ; &NAME recently paid $ &NUM to settle with regulators . Brave new &NAME &NAME announced plans to emerge from Chapter &NUM bankruptcy . It appointed a new chief financial officer , rebranded itself as &NAME , the name of its retail long-distance operation , shifted its headquarter from &NAME to &NAME and agreed to pay creditors a third of what they are owed . &NAME added a little cheer to the embattled technology sector , reporting that profits for the latest quarter were a shade higher than a year ago at $ &NUM billion . General &NAME exceeded expectations with a profit of $ &NUM billion in the first quarter , up &NUM on a year ago , after a healthy performance at its car businesses . An American judge cut by half a $ &NUM billion bond that &NAME &NAME must pay into court to appeal against a $ &NUM billion award made to smokers in a class-action &NAME . The let-off will allow the tobacco giant to give $ &NUM billion to American states as part of a &NUM deal by tobacco firms to pay $ &NUM billion to settle claims ; &NAME &NAME claimed that it could not afford both . Waging war Institutional shareholders attacked &NAME 's ;fat-cat &NUM ; bosses . &ORG , which controls a fifth of the stockmarket , criticised executives at &NAME Bank , &NAME and &ORG , among others , for their excessive pay packets and urged members to put pressure on companies to curtail such extravagances . See article : We 're ( still ) in the money &NAME , a German electronics company famed for its radios and TV sets , filed for bankruptcy . It pulled the plug after years of losing out to cheaper Asian manufacturers . mmO2 , British &NAME 's demerged mobile-phone business , pulled out of the &NAME , selling its operation there for just euro&NUM ( $ &NUM ) . mmO2 said that it would take a charge of &NUM billion ( $ &NUM billion ) ; the fate of its struggling German operation could be decided soon . Fear of flying Asian airlines suffered more misery as panic over &NAME spread . &NAME &NAME 's shares fell after a leaked memo suggested that it would ground its fleet next month if the &NAME epidemic caused business to deteriorate . See article : &NAME infects global business Pilots at &ORG agreed on a wage cut of $ &NUM a year ; mechanics agreed to forego $ &NUM . But flight attendants postponed their decision , leaving the fate of the airline in doubt . Continental Airlines reported a first-quarter loss of $ &NUM . That 's &NAME Sir &NAME &NAME said that he would quit as executive chairman of &NAME , the &NAME derivatives exchange , at the start of July after &NUM years in the post . He will remain on the board of Euronext , the European exchange that bought LIFFE in &NUM . The &NAME Board of Trade jealously guarded its position of pre-eminence in American government-bond trading by threatening to &NAME its clearing house , the Board of &NAME &NAME Corporation . Its offence : talking with &NAME , a potential rival to &NAME , about clearing services as it attempts to cut over-reliance on the &NAME exchange as a source of business . Bucking the global trend , the Bank of &NAME raised its key interest rate by a quarter point , to &NUM . See article : &NAME forecast &NAME Economic uncertainty depressed the value of buy-outs in &NAME for the first time since the beginning of the &NUM . Despite some big headline-grabbing deals , private-equity firms spent just euro53.7 billion ( $ &NUM billion ) in &NUM , a fall of &NUM compared with the year before . &NAME 's thrifty cannabis smokers grow perhaps half their supplies at home , according to a new report . The many ( legal ) suppliers of equipment and seeds for such domestic horticulture allow greenfingered puffers to sidestep traditional ;retailers &NUM ; . Did your company &NAME in the past &NUM years ? &WEBSITE &WEBSITE . You can use this voucher yourself , or send it as a gift to a friend or colleague . This survey is intended for senior managers and board members familiar with their firm 's &NAME . All information provided will be anonymous . Take the &NAME management survey today . 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