Delta, Northwest deal OK’d

Delta, Northwest deal OK’d

ATLANTA — Delta Air Lines Inc. and Northwest Airlines Corp., squeezed by record high fuel prices and a slowing economy, are combining in a stock-swap deal that would create the world’s biggest carrier.

The boards of both companies gave the deal the go-ahead Monday.

Delta said the combined airline, which will be called Delta, will have an enterprise value of $17.7 billion. It will be based in Atlanta, and Delta CEO Richard Anderson will head the combined company.

Under the terms of the transaction, Northwest shareholders will receive 1.25 Delta shares for each Northwest share they own. The exchange ratio represents a premium to Northwest shareholders of 16.8 percent based on Monday’s closing stock prices.

Mothers forced to leave

SAN ANGELO, Texas — Texas officials who took 416 children from a polygamist retreat into state custody sent many of their mothers away Monday, as a judge and lawyers struggled with a legal and logistical morass in one of the biggest child-custody cases in U.S. history.

Of the 139 women who voluntarily left the compound with their children since an April 3 raid, only those with children 4 or younger were allowed to continue staying with them, said Marissa Gonzales, spokewoman for the state Children’s Protective Services agency. She did not know how many women stayed.

“It is not the normal practice to allow parents to accompany the child when an abuse allegation is made,” Gonzales said.

Can you hear them now?

HAVANA — Lines stretched for blocks outside phone centers Monday as the government allowed ordinary Cubans to sign up for cellular phone service for the first time.

The contracts cost about $120 to activate — half a year’s wages on the average state salary. And that doesn’t include a phone or credit to make and receive calls.

But most Cubans have at least some access to dollars or euros thanks to jobs in tourism or with foreign firms, or money sent by relatives abroad. Lines formed before the stores opened, and waits grew to more than an hour.

“Everyone wants to be first to sign up,” said Usan Astorga, a 19-year-old medical student who stood for about 20 minutes before her line moved at all.

Torch welcomed in Oman

MUSCAT, Oman — Thousands cheered and some danced with traditional daggers along the Olympic torch’s path through Oman’s capital Monday, a festive greeting that contrasted with disrupting protests elsewhere on the flame’s global journey.

Under tight security, about 80 torchbearers ferried the flame down into the heart of this hilly Persian Gulf sultanate’s capital, passing under historic stone arches and alongside the old souk, before winding along the edge of the Gulf coast against the backdrop of spectacular mountains.

The rare carnival-like atmosphere in tightly controlled Oman was a welcome respite for Olympic organizers seeking to avoid protests over China’s human rights record that marked torch stops in Paris, London and San Francisco.

College police gather for security summit

EDMOND, Okla. — Police on campuses across the country have spent the year since the Virginia Tech shootings trying to figure out how to keep such attacks from happening and how to respond when they do.

Hundreds of those officers spent Monday at the National Campus Security Summit, comparing notes, training and hearing from some of their colleagues who have gone through such a rampage.

Lt. Darren Mitchell, a Northern Illinois University officer who was on duty Feb. 14 when a gunman killed himself and five others at a lecture hall there, said his NIU comrades feel so strongly about preparation that even though they went through crisis training before the shooting, they went through more about a month after the killings to help answer a question: “How can we do it even better if we were to have something happen again?”

Media organizations sue North Carolina governor

RALEIGH, N.C. — Media organizations from across North Carolina sued Gov. Mike Easley on Monday, accusing his administration of violating the state’s public records law through the “systematic deletion, destruction or concealment” of e-mail messages.

The complaint filed in Wake County Superior Court asks a judge to declare that Easley violated the law because his staff told Cabinet agency employees to delete or destroy e-mails sent to and from the governor’s office.

Associated Press