Past-due credit cards on the rise

March 24, 2004

WASHINGTON -- The percentage of credit card payments that were past due shot up to a new record in the final quarter of last year, but delinquency rates for some other types of consumer loans dropped, painting a mixed picture of how Americans are handling their debt.

The seasonally adjusted percentage of credit card accounts 30 or more days past due rose to 4.43 percent in the fourth quarter of 2003, the American Bankers Association reported in a quarterly survey released Tuesday. That surpassed the previous all-time quarterly high of 4.09 percent set in the third quarter of last year.

In the latest employment report, there were some 8.2 million people unemployed in February, with the average duration of 20.3 weeks without work. That marked the highest average duration of joblessness in over 20 years.

Swiss drug maker seeks French firm

PARIS -- Swiss drug giant Novartis AG said Tuesday that a white knight bid for France's Aventis SA would make sense -- but only if the French government changed its "negative attitude" toward the possible merger.

Novartis said its own feasibility study had endorsed a combination with Aventis -- currently the target of a 46 billion euro ($57 billion) hostile offer by a smaller French rival, Sanofi-Synthelabo SA.

Aventis, the maker of allergy pill Allegra and the blood-clotting drug Lovenox, confirmed it was talking to Novartis about a possible merger.

Record industry sues more downloaders

LOS ANGELES -- The recording industry sued 532 people Tuesday, including scores of individuals using computer networks at 21 universities, claiming they were illegally sharing digital music files over the Internet.

This latest wave of copyright lawsuits brought by the Recording Industry Association of America on behalf of recording companies marks the first time the trade group has targeted computer users swapping music files over university networks.

The RIAA filed the "John Doe" complaints against 89 individuals using networks at universities in states including Arizona, California, Virginia, New York, Indiana, Maryland, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Wisconsin.

Lawsuits against 443 people using commercial Internet access providers were also filed in California, Colorado, Missouri, Texas and Virginia. The recording group did not name which Internet access providers the defendants were using.

Tyco jurors continue deliberations

NEW YORK -- Jurors in the trial of two Tyco International executives accused of looting the company of $600 million focused on the concept of "criminal intent" Tuesday for the second time during their four days of deliberations.

In making the request to have the term explained again, the panel asked state Supreme Court Justice Michael Obus to "go slowly."

The judge told the jurors: "A defendant is not guilty of larceny if he believes he had the authority to take the property. If he is aware that he is not authorized to take the property, then taking the property is a crime."

The jurors finished deliberating for the day without reaching a verdict and were to continue Wednesday.

-- The Associated Press