July 29, 2002

Citigroup Inc. Chairman and Chief Executive Sanford "Sandy" Weill on Monday denied knowledge of an offshore entity (Delta Energy) central to a U.S. Senate probe into the bank's ties to the bankrupt energy trader Enron. Congressional investigators have accused Citigroup and J.P. Morgan of providing Enron with $8.5 billion in loans disguised as commodity trades conducted through offshore shell companies including Delta Energy.  Hey! How did that get there?  That isn't mine, I don't know whose that is. 3:48:44 PM

Sony has suffered a setback in its international fight against "mod chips" that enable its PlayStation video game machines to play illegally copied games. A federal judge in Australia ruled Friday that mod chips sold for the original PlayStation do not infringe on Sony copyright protections under Australian laws, which are similar to the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The decision comes a week after a Canadian man was sentenced to probation and fined $17,000 for selling mod chips and pirated games for Sony's PlayStation 2. [ ZDNet.com ] 8:53:35 AM

An Egyptian-American academic was convicted a second time Monday of tarnishing Egypt's image and other charges and sentenced to seven years in a case international human rights organizations had condemned as politically motivated. [ Albawaba ] 8:48:50 AM

Israel planned to hand over $15 million to the cash-strapped Palestinian Authority on Monday, the first of three installments of tax revenue that has been withheld from Palestinians for much of the past 22 months of fighting, both sides said. Israel had been demanding international supervision of the money to ensure it wouldn't be used to fund Palestinian militants, but agreed to place the cash under the responsibility of the new Palestinian finance minister, Salam Fayed.[ NY Times ] 8:23:49 AM

Some Top Military Brass Favor Status Quo in Iraq (washingtonpost.com). Despite President Bush's repeated bellicose statements about Iraq, many senior U.S. military officers contend that President Saddam Hussein poses no immediate threat and that the United States should continue its policy of containment rather than invade Iraq to force a change of leadership in Baghdad. [Daypop Top News Stories] 8:15:30 AM