- Newsmaker:Gubernatorial Candidate-s Firm Guilty of Fraud
There-s been a stunning blow to the Republican challenger in California-s gubernatorial race against Democratic incumbent Gray Davis. Last night, the company run by businessman-candidate Bill Simon was hit with a jury verdict of $ 87 million for fraud. Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, a writer, broadcaster, scholar and observer of California-s political scene, looks at the irony of Simon-s founding his campaign on business ethics. - Reporter-s Notebook: Bankruptcy Payoffs for Failed Execs of Failed Firms
Just as the FBI was arresting former WorldCom CFO Scott Sullivan, and Controller David Myers on charges of fraud, Financial Times was publishing Part II of its three-part series, -The Barons of Bankruptcy.- US Managing Editor Lionel Barber recounts the amazing story of making a $ 3.3 billion success out of failure, despite the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs, hundreds of billions of dollars in lost investments.
Powell Opens -Second Front- in Southeast Asia
Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines are among the ten Southeast Asian nations signing a treaty today with the US that-s designed to -prevent, disrupt and combat- the spread of terrorist groups in countries with large Muslim populations. This -second front- is reportedly made up of Al Qaeda members who fled Afghanistan and are forming independent -super cells.- Secretary of State Colin Powell, a former military man, denies that the US is merely using the terrorist threat to establish US bases in the region. We assess the risks and rewards of US involvement, as well as Powell-s standing within the Bush administration, with a State Department correspondent, defense analysts from the Cato Institute and Kennedy School of Government, an expert on Asian terrorist organizations.