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The United Arab Emirates has requested the purchase of a new U.S. missile defense system developed by Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N: Quote, Profile, Research), a deal that could be worth $7 billion, if approved, two sources familiar with the discussions told Reuters on Wednesday.

Col. Bill Lamb, who manages the U.S. Missile Defense Agency’s Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) program, confirmed that an unidentified country had requested a sale of the sophisticated system and that the Pentagon was discussing it with lawmakers.

Lamb, who said the deal would be worth “close to” $7 billion, declined to identify the buyer or give other details.

Two sources familiar with the request, who asked not to be named, identified the potential buyer as the UAE. One said the deal could be formally announced in June or July.

Once the Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency notifies Congress about the proposed sale, lawmakers have 30 days to object, although such action is rare.

“As far as I know, everyone who’s looked at it thinks it’s a good idea,” said one of the sources.

This same source noted that the defensive nature of the weapon system made it more palatable to U.S payday loans. lawmakers than the sale of satellite-guided munitions to Saudi Arabia, which had provoked some criticism.

The Pentagon has spent $11 billion over the past 17 years to develop the new missile defense weapon, which is designed to defend troops, population centers and critical facilities against short- to medium-range ballistic missiles of a type that could be fired by Iran or North Korea. 

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Societe Generale trader Jerome Kerviel may have had internal help when he built up massive stock market bets that led to the world’s worst trading scandal, a report published by the French bank said on Friday.

The report also blamed weak supervision and poor control systems for the rogue trading scandal which shook the world’s banking establishment earlier this year.

The internal report said Kerviel, the junior trader blamed by France’s second-biggest bank for $7.7 billion in trading losses, may have been helped by an assistant but added there was no conclusive proof of this.

“We have discovered indications of internal collusion involving a trading assistant, a middle office operational agent,” said the report.

“Due to the current on-going criminal investigation, we have been unable to question this employee on this subject creditreport. The possibility of such internal collusion must therefore be confirmed by the courts,” it added.

The bank has consistently said Kerviel acted alone.

The internal report, the second published by SocGen into the debacle, said the unidentified assistant had manually entered a large number of fraudulent transactions done by Kerviel.

It said the assistant registered “several abnormally high intra-monthly provision flows, without having obtained any valid explanations as to their validity.” 

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The world’s top airlines warned on Thursday that soaring fuel prices were hitting profits, prompting some to increase fares, and global leader American Airlines announced thousands of job cuts to counter higher costs.

Airline stocks fell sharply in Asia and Europe after stock in American’s parent AMR Corp (AMR.N: Quote, Profile, Research) shed a quarter of their value as investors fretted over the cost of jet fuel, which is most airlines’ single-biggest expense.

The airline industry is struggling to cope with oil prices that have surged 170 percent since the start of last year as economic uncertainty threatens growth.

“(The oil price) is going to actually send some (smaller) airlines into bankruptcy,” said Nick van den Brul, analyst at Exane BNP. “The best position for an airline is to have a good hedge already in place … a euro exposure to the dollar and also the ability to cut costs.”

The cost of jet fuel traded in Singapore JET-SIN has risen by more than half this year alone and analysts expect more cost cutting, particularly among U.S free credit report.com. carriers as an economic slowdown puts people off traveling.

American said it would begin charging passengers to check in their bags and will retire 75 aircraft from its ageing fleet.

Air France-KLM (AIRF.PA: Quote, Profile, Research), the world’s biggest airline by revenue, warned that soaring fuel prices would slash operating profits this year, knocking its shares down nearly 9 percent to two-month lows even as it reported higher 2007 operating profit.

Chief Executive Jean-Cyril Spinetta warned that Air France would have to brace for a 1.1 billion euro ($1.73 billion) rise in fuel costs this year. He said the airline would implement a 150 million euro ($236.4 million) cost savings plan. 

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U.S. officials investigating possible bribes examined, and then returned, electronic equipment carried by two BAE Systems executives when they were served subpoenas last week, a BAE spokesman said on Monday.

Mike Turner, the chief executive of Britain’s biggest military contractor, and Sir Nigel Rudd, a BAE non-executive director, were served subpoenas when they entered the United States, company spokesman Greg Caires said.

The U.S. Justice Department is investigating BAE’s compliance with anti-bribery laws when it clinched Britain’s biggest arms deal, a series of warplane sales to Saudi Arabia valued at up to $80 billion, in the mid-1980s.

When they served the subpoenas, U.S. officials also examined the laptops and wireless handheld devices of both men, said Caires.

He said the equipment was then returned and the men were allowed to resume their business in the United States.

Caires declined to comment on the substance of the subpoenas and said he did not know how long the men’s electronic equipment was taken from them.

The U.S pay day loans. Justice Department declined comment. In June 2007, BAE said it had been notified that the Justice Department had began investigating BAE’s compliance with anti-bribery laws, including dealings with Saudi Arabia.

The U.S. investigation came after the British government’s Serious Fraud Office dropped an inquiry into the deal in December 2006. Then-Prime Minister Tony Blair said at the time that the probe threatened national security. 

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Investors suing Yahoo Inc (YHOO.O: Quote, Profile, Research) over its rebuff of Microsoft Corp’s (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research) $47.5 billion buyout bid have filed a new case that adds company co-founder David Filo as a defendant, but they say much of their complaint is being kept under seal at Yahoo’s demand.

The lawsuit previously named the Internet company and its board as defendants. In an amended version, the plaintiffs have sued the board and Filo, who is not a director, saying they failed to respond in good faith to Microsoft’s offer. The company itself is no longer a defendant.

The complaint, filed in Delaware Chancery Court by two Detroit pension funds that hold Yahoo shares, was edited by the company, which wants parts to remain confidential. Numerous portions of the 47-page lawsuit were omitted in the publicly filed version, which was dated Thursday.

Yahoo spokeswoman Diana Wong on Friday declined to comment on the lawsuit.

Lawyers for the shareholders say the full complaint should be made public, and they sent a letter to Chancellor William Chandler on Friday of the Delaware court requesting a hearing on the matter.

“These redactions are hiding neither trade secrets nor state secrets,” said Mark Lebovitch, a partner at law firm Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann LLP who represents the plaintiffs payday advance lenders. “They are hiding evidence of the Yahoo board’s improper actions in response to Microsoft’s offer. They are hiding evidence of breaches of fiduciary duty.”

Yahoo is trying to shield information about the cost of employee severance plans that the plaintiffs want to eliminate and information about Yahoo’s strategic planning prior to Microsoft’s bid, according to the plaintiffs’ letter.

Many Yahoo shareholders are unhappy over the Silicon Valley company’s refusal to accept Microsoft’s bid. Financier Carl Icahn on Thursday launched a campaign to replace the board with directors who would reopen talks with the software maker. 

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More than four years after the meltdown of Italy’s Parmalat SpA, the food company is set to begin presenting its case to a U.S. jury on Thursday accusing Citigroup Inc of playing a key role in its collapse.

Citigroup is the first defendant to go to trial in the United States over accusations of helping conceal corrupt activity by former Parmalat insiders. Parmalat, which collapsed in December 2003 and emerged from bankruptcy in 2005, is seeking $2.2 billion in damages from the biggest U.S. bank.

Citigroup is seeking $699 million of damages on its own claims, saying it was a victim of Parmalat’s fraud.

Opening statements in the civil trial, being held in Bergen County Superior Court in Hackensack, New Jersey, about 15 miles from Manhattan, are scheduled for Thursday morning, according to a court official. A jury has already been selected.

The trial is expected to take at least two months and involve testimony by about 30 witnesses.

Parmalat is involved in dozens of legal cases in Italy and the United States payday advance. Its chief executive, turnaround specialist Enrico Bondi, has accused some 50 defendants of helping prior Parmalat management hide debt and inflate results.

Parmalat originally sought $10 billion from Citigroup, contending the bank turned a blind eye to the activities of former company officials while it earned lucrative financial services fees. Last month, however, the judge overseeing the case narrowed the scope of Parmalat’s claims.

In that ruling, Judge Jonathan Harris threw out claims accusing Citigroup of fraud, racketeering and unjust enrichment, as well as a claim for punitive damages. Parmalat was allowed to pursue a claim that Citigroup aided and abetted a breach of fiduciary duties by former Parmalat insiders. 

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Toyota said the strong yen and weaker U.S. sales took a bite out of January-March earnings and projected worse was to come - a 27% plunge in its full-year profit.

It would be the first drop in full-year profit in seven years for the automaker.

The results and outlook released Thursday highlight how the tough North American auto market is hammering profits. Meanwhile, unfavorable currency swings added to a growing list of problems for Toyota Motor Corp., including soaring material and energy costs and a stagnant auto market in its home market of Japan.

"There is no mistake that things are seriously tough - even for Toyota," said Tsuyoshi Mochimaru, auto analyst at Lehman Brothers in Tokyo.

Still, the company appeared to be faring better than its American rivals. GM lost $3.3 billion in the first quarter. Ford (F, Fortune 500) had a surprise profit of $100 million for the same period but expects to lose money this year as the U.S. auto market deteriorates.

Honda Motor Co. (HMC), Japan’s No. 2 automaker behind Toyota, said last month that its January-March profit declined 86% compared with the same period a year ago because of a corporate tax levied on its Chinese joint venture. Nissan Motor Co. (NSANY) reports earnings next week.

For the fiscal fourth quarter, the automaker reported a 28% drop in net profit to $3.05 billion. It was the first decline in quarterly profit since April-June 2005.

Sales rose 3.8% in the most recent quarter to $63.14 billion.

Toyota (TM) had been on a roll with the success of its fuel-efficient models, including the Prius and the Corolla subcompact, which have gotten a boost from rising gas prices.

For the fiscal year ended March 31, Toyota racked up record profit of $16.54 billion - up 4.5% from the previous year. That was in line with the projection Toyota gave in February.

Annual sales grew 9.8% to $252.8 billion, also a record for the company.

But recent credit woes in North America have dampened sales in recent quarters.

"We are facing a severe business environment," President Katsuaki Watanabe said same day payday loans. "Toyota considers this headwind as a valuable opportunity to turn it into a more flexible and stronger company."

Toyota projects this fiscal year’s profit will tumble to $12.0 billion, while annual sales are seen falling 4.9% to $240.4 billion.

The last time the company’s profit declined was in the fiscal year ending March 2002; the last time annual sales fell was in the year ending March 2000, mainly because of a weak dollar.

Toyota - the world’s second-biggest automaker after General Motors Corp. (GM, Fortune 500) - also warned it will need to spend more in technology research and carry out cost cuts to stay competitive.

The recent shift to smaller cars is a crunch for the makers because those vehicles are cheaper and have smaller profit margins than trucks and other gas guzzlers.

Toyota has been steadily boosting sales in recent years at a pace some analysts say is on track to overtake General Motors as the world’s No. 1 automaker in annual vehicle sales.

For the fiscal year ended March 31, Toyota sold 8.91 million vehicles around the world. That was slightly below the 8.93 million vehicles it had expected to sell for the fiscal year, but still 4.5% better than a year earlier.

North American vehicle sales, which had been strong for Toyota in the past, fell for the last fiscal quarters, according to the company. Japanese sales have also been stagnant recently.

Toyota said it expected to sell 9.06 million vehicles globally for the fiscal year through March 2009, up 1.6 from the year just ended.

Toyota shares slid 1.8% to $52.7 in Tokyo. The results were released just as the market closed. 

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Oil major Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L: Quote, Profile, Research) has pulled out of a planned gas project in Iran, after coming under pressure not to participate from U.S. lawmakers who were concerned about Iran’s nuclear programme.

A spokeswoman said on Saturday that the world’s second-largest non government-controlled oil company by market capitalisation was pulling out of Phase 13 of the giant South Pars gas field but may yet join later stages of the field’s development.

Shell, Spain’s Repsol (REP.MC: Quote, Profile, Research) and the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) signed a Memorandum of Understanding in January 2002 to develop Phase 13 in a project to be known as Persian

LNG.

At the time, Shell said deliveries of liquefied natural gas — gas cooled to liquid under pressure for transportation in special tankers — could begin in 2007.

However, United Nations sanctions on Iran related to its nuclear programme, which it claims is for power generation but which the U.S cashadvance. and European states believe is aimed at developing weapons, and criticisms of the deal from U.S. politicians and investors, slowed progress.

Meanwhile Iran grew impatient and threatened Shell with eviction from the project if it did not commit formally.

The spokeswoman for the Anglo-Dutch company said: 

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Hard goods retailer Canadian Tire Corp. has reported first-quarter net earnings of $66.7 million, up 19.8 per cent from the year-earlier period's profit of $55.7 million.

That represents 82 cents per share, up from 68 cents, the company said Thursday as it released its results ahead of its annual meeting.

Earnings excluding non-operating gains and losses were $55.2 million or 68 cents per share, a 4.9 per cent decrease from a year earlier fast cash advance loan.

Canadian Tire's retail sales rose 1.9 per cent to $1.84 billion from $1.81 billion.

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InterContinental Hotels Group Plc (IHG.L: Quote, Profile, Research), the world’s largest hotelier, reported a 22 percent rise in first-quarter profit and said it was well placed for further growth despite an economic downturn.

The Britain-based company, which operates InterContinental, Crowne Plaza and Holiday Inn hotels, said it had seen little impact from the credit crunch on its ability to sign new deals.

“Since the credit crunch began, and let’s say that was the end of September, we’ve signed 418 deals around the world, and most of those were in the (United) States,” Chief Executive Andrew Cosslett said on a conference call on Wednesday.

The company added 5,267 net new rooms in the first quarter, more than double the increase in the same period last year.

InterContinental has a 3-1/2 year target to open 50,000 to 60,000 net new rooms by the end of 2008 cash advance. The total stood at 53,000 at the end of the first quarter.

“(We are) well on track to exceed the target,” Cosslett said. “Our outlook for the rest of the year remains positive.”

Underlying operating profit was 55 million pounds ($108 million) for the three months to March 31, up from 45 million last year. The average profit forecast of five analysts polled by Reuters was 53.9 million, in a range of 51.5-57.0 million.

The profit figure excluded 7 million pounds of liquidated damages as a result of one hotel leaving the pipeline. Cosslett said such events were “fairly routine” in the business and that it only highlighted it because the size was bigger than most. 

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