Military ordered into gas fields
President Evo Morales ordered soldiers to immediately occupy Bolivia’s natural gas fields Monday and threatened to evict foreign companies unless they sign new contracts within six months giving Bolivia majority control over the entire chain of production.
Morales said soldiers and engineers with Bolivia’s state-owned oil company would be sent to installations operated by foreign petroleum companies.
Bolivia has South America’s second largest natural gas reserves after Venezuela, and all foreign companies must turn over most production control to Bolivia’s cash-strapped state-owned oil company, Yacimientos Petroliferos Fiscales Bolivianos, Morales said.
Morales, a strident leftist, had pledged to exert greater state control over the industry since he won the presidency in December.
Los Angeles
Napster debuts new music site
Napster Inc. launched a revamped music Web site Monday that allows limited free, on-demand access to more than 2 million songs.
Visitors to the site can listen to many songs five times before having to buy a copy for 99 cents or subscribe to Napster’s premium service.
The free service is supported by advertising on the Napster player. Songs purchased individually or as part of a subscription can be downloaded and transferred to portable devices.
As part of the move, Napster will add two new services.
NapsterLinks will allow users to attach song links to e-mails, instant messages, blogs and Web sites.
New York
New judge named in Quattrone case
For the second time in a week, a new judge has been assigned to oversee the case of Frank Quattrone, the former powerful investment banker whose obstruction-of-justice conviction was tossed out in March.
The new judge assigned to the case was U.S. District Judge George B. Daniels. He replaces Lewis A. Kaplan, who was briefly assigned to the case last week.
Prosecutors have not yet indicated whether they intend to retry Quattrone, who was accused of encouraging Credit Suisse First Boston Corp. employees to destroy old records as the firm was being investigated by securities officials.