News in brief
NEW YORK. Consumers gave some of the nation’s retailers a little relief in April after months of dismal sales, gravitating toward less expensive discounters and wholesale clubs but generally still shying away from stores selling clothes and other non-necessities.
Monthly sales reports issued Thursday were better than expected, but still pointed to a consumer contending with rising gas prices, sagging home values and worries about jobs. AP
LONG ISLAND, NEW YORK. Cable TV provider Cablevision Systems revealed plans Thursday to offer high-speed wireless Internet service across its coverage area, which is principally on New York’s Long Island. Chief Operating Officer Tom Rutledge said the company had the “critical mass” to offer a wireless broadband service. AP
SANTA CLARA, CALIF. Software security firm McAfee says more than half a million PCs worldwide have been affected by the worst sustained attack seen in three years. A fake media file containing a music track by one of several leading performers infects PCs with software that produces continual pop-up windows, as well as compromising the security of the PC. METRO
BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg forecast Thursday that Belfast would become a leading hub for global investment within a decade. But that can only happen, he said, if the city tears down dozens of Berlin Wall-style barriers that still divide Irish Catholic and British Protestant. AP
WILMINGTON, DEL. Ford Motor Co. welcomed a significant investment by billionaire Kirk Kerkorian and executives told shareholders Thursday that it underscored the strength of turnaround plans for the second largest American car company.
Executives said their work to return Ford to profitability by 2009 was taking hold, just over a week after Kerkorian’s Tracinda Corp. said it had acquired a 4.7 percent stake in the company. AP
WASHINGTON. The number of newly laid off workers seeking unemployment benefits dropped much more than expected last week. The Labor Department reported Thursday that applications for unemployment benefits fell to 365,000, a decline of 18,000 from the previous week. Economists had been looking for a much smaller decrease of around 5,000. AP