Italian authorities have opened an investigation into pasta manufacturers over alleged price fixing.

Italy's regulator said it would examine the practices of Italian pasta manufacturers to see whether they were uncompetitive.

The probe follows a warning from the federation in July that pasta prices would surge by 20% by the autumn.

High wheat prices were blamed for the sharp rise, but consumer groups accused pasta makers of behaving like a cartel.

Italian authorities will investigate whether members of the Industrial Union of Pasta Makers, which represents about 85% of the market, colluded to fix the price of spaghetti, fettuccine and other favourite pasta dishes.

Mitt Romney might have still been a bit bleary-eyed this morning when he twice confused Senator Barack Obama with Osama bin Laden when referring to the latter's new recorded message.

But he paused to talk about the threat of radical Islam, taking John Edwards, one of his Democratic opponents, to task for comments he made several months ago that criticized the "global war on terror" as a bumper sticker for President Bush.

"I think that is a position which is not consistent with the fact," Mr. Romney said. "Actually, just look at what Osam -- uh -- Barack Obama, said just yesterday. Barack Obama calling on radicals, jihadists of all different types, to come together in Iraq. That is the battlefield. That is the central place, he said. Come join us under one banner."

The comment set off some confusion among the press corps. Glen Johnson of the Associated Press was momentarily frantically searching for comments made by Mr. Obama, another Democratic presidential contender, about jihadism and Iraq.

It turns out, of course, Mr. Romney was talking about the new audiotape from bin Laden calling on insurgents in Iraq to unite.

Oops.

Countrywide Financial, the nation's largest mortgage lender, said yesterday that it will offer to refinance or modify about $16 billion in home loans through the end of 2008, a move that could affect 82,000 borrowers.

Lenders have come under increasing pressure from policymakers and consumer advocates to help borrowers who are struggling to hold on to their homes. Critics say lenders have done little to stem an alarming rise in foreclosures since problems surfaced earlier this year, fueled by risky, or subprime, borrowers. They want lenders to restructure the debt in a way that makes the loans affordable.

[...]

The lender, which is based in California, is focusing on borrowers with so-called 2/28 and 3/27 adjustable-rate mortgages, which offer low rates for the first two or three years of the loan, respectively, and then adjust to a much higher rate for the remaining 28 or 27 years.

Countrywide said its main goal is to reach at-risk borrowers who are current on these types of loans, notify them that their rate is about to reset and develop more affordable options for them if necessary.

One target group is made up of 52,000 subprime borrowers. Countrywide said it will try to refinance their loans, worth about $10 billion, into less expensive deals.

[...]

At this point, Cecala said, most lenders are convinced that they can recoup more money by selling a foreclosed home than they can by restructuring a loan that could later fail.

In that sense, what Countrywide is doing is "aggressive and unique," he said, and politically savvy. The company is scheduled Friday to release third-quarter earnings that show huge losses because of delinquencies and defaults. This initiative may be designed to highlight that it is addressing its problems, he said. "There's no question that the timing of this announcement is not coincidental."

Merrill Lynch to report $2.5bn added loss
By New York Times

Merrill Lynch is expected to report on Wednesday that it will add about $2.5bn more to the $5bn worth of write-downs it has already announced, according to a person briefed on the situation.

Merrill reports its third-quarter earnings this morning. The bank announced earlier this month that it expected to write down $5bn because of losses in its fixed-income unit.

Most of the losses, the bank said, were tied to the decline in value of complex debt instruments called collateralised debt obligations, whose value has diminished in recent months as credit markets have been hit by a collapse in the subprime mortgage market.

A Merrill spokesman declined to comment.

The additional write-down, coming so soon after the company's $5bn charge, may raise more questions about the leadership of E. Stanley O'Neal, Merrill's chief executive, and the ability of his top executives to assess the firm's risk exposure.

Here's something: Google has apparently switched over to using in-house machine translation software. The wacky part is that someone entered the phrase "sarkozy sarkozy sarkozy" and asked for it to be translated from French to English...

Electrons spin, disks whirr...

And the result came back: "Blair defends Bush".

Not sure whether to file that under "Funny ha ha", or "Funny peculiar".