Checklist

Regional

U The regulator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac plans to loosen capital requirements further and said it expects the U.S. mortgage-finance companies to take advantage of the easing by purchasing as much as $1 trillion in mortgage securities. Capital restrictions will continue to be lowered as the companies “complete their fundraising,” Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight Director James Lockhart said.

U Federal regulators should throw out $712,000 in fines imposed against Circuit City Stores Inc. for violating rules regarding next year’s switch from analog to digital television, the consumer electronics retailer said in a filing. The Richmond company said the Federal Communications Commission lacks jurisdiction to enforce the rule to keep consumers from buying TV equipment that won’t work without a converter box.

U Media General of Richmond completed the sale of its ABC television station WTVQ in Lexington, Ky., to Morris Multimedia for an undisclosed sum.

National

U The popular online hangout MySpace won a $234 million judgment in Los Angeles over junk messages sent to its members. MySpace says it thinks this is the largest award ever under the 2003 federal anti-spamming law known as CAN-SPAM. The award was against two of the Internet’s most prominent spam defendants, Sanford Wallace and Walter Rines.

U Billionaire investor Carl Icahn reportedly is snapping up Yahoo stock in preparation for a possible attempt to replace the Internet company’s board after the directors turned down Microsoft’s $47.5 billion takeover offer. Mr. Icahn bought as many as 50 million Yahoo shares, CNBC and the Wall Street Journal reported, giving him a 3.6 percent stake in the Internet pioneer.

U Craigslist countersued its minority owner, eBay Inc., accusing the online auctioneer of competing illegally with the classified advertising Web site. Craigslist’s complaint asserts that eBay broke laws in a series of actions relating to its own classifieds site Kijiji, which launched last year in the U.S.

U IAC/InterActiveCorp and Liberty Media Corp. say they resolved a legal skirmish regarding IAC’s plans to break into several parts. Liberty is dropping an appeal it filed disputing a March ruling by a Delaware judge who sided with IAC head Barry Diller on the breakup plans.

U Luxury home builder Toll Brothers Inc. said preliminary home-building sales in the latest quarter fell to $817.9 million, down 30 percent from the same period a year ago, and its average contract price hit a six-year low of $534,000 per home.

U Corporate Express NV said a sweetened $2.47 billion takeover bid from Staples Inc. is still too low.

International

U Airbus announced new delays on deliveries of the superjumbo A380, already almost two years late, saying the company is behind schedule in switching to automated production. Airbus said it will deliver 12 planes in 2008 instead of 13, and 21 planes in 2009 instead of 25.

U Royal Dutch Shell formally announced it is leaving the Iran South Pars project. The oil giant was rumored to be thinking about pulling out of the planned gas deal, purportedly because of pressure from U.S. politicians to divest from Iran.

U South Korean President Lee Myung-bak said Washington accepted his government’s plan to stop imports of U.S. beef if any new case of mad cow disease breaks out in the United States. U.S. beef imports are set to resume this month.

From wire dispatches and staff reports