By SARAH ELLISON, SUSAN PULLIAM and DENNIS K. BERMAN
from The Wall Street Journal

Dow Jones & Co.’s board, frustrated with the pace of the Bancroft family’s negotiations with News Corp., said it would take over talks on the future of the company. The move, coming after more than two weeks of little progress between the parties, increases the likelihood of a deal to enable Rupert Murdoch’s media giant to buy Dow Jones, the owner of The Wall Street Journal.

The Bancrofts, whose far-flung members have controlled Dow Jones for generations but aren’t directly involved in operating the business, have been ambivalent and divided about a sale from the start. When the $5 billion News Corp. bid became public in May, family members holding a majority of votes opposed the deal and didn’t respond. But within the family there was disagreement, with some members, especially younger ones, arguing to consider Mr. Murdoch’s offer. Some worried that an independent Dow Jones couldn’t thrive on its own.

Three weeks ago, the family suddenly put out the word that Dow Jones might need to seek a partner and that it would consider options, a signal the company was for sale. Soon after, family members were in a face-to-face meeting with Mr. Murdoch and a swift resolution seemed likely.

Since then, though, family members seemed to renew their wariness, and have worked through several drafts of a proposal to safeguard the editorial independence of Dow Jones. As the family and its advisers haggled over the proposal, some directors became increasingly concerned that the slow pace was endangering buyout prospects.

Yesterday, the Bancrofts’ four board representatives finished revising the editorial proposal but decided to ask the board to review it before forwarding the document to News Corp. The family had previously insisted that it alone negotiate with Mr. Murdoch about editorial independence. If the sides reached an agreement, the family would have then empowered the board to begin buyout talks. Some independent directors were opposed to this strategy because they felt negotiating editorial independence separately gave the board less leverage on price. Now, both those components have been ceded to the board.

read more at THE WALL ST. JOURNAL

By HAMID AHMED, Associated Press Writer
from Yahoo! News

BAGHDAD - A suicide truck bomber struck the city hall in a predominantly Sunni area in northern Iraq on Thursday, killing at least 13 people and wounding 70, an Iraqi commander said.

Several mortars or rockets slammed into the U.S.-controlled Green Zone, raising fresh concerns about the thousands of Americans who live and work in the heavily fortified area in central Baghdad.

The explosion occurred about 10:30 a.m. in the town of Sulaiman Bek, located 100 miles north of the capital and just outside the border with Diyala province, where thousands of U.S. troops are engaged in an offensive against al-Qaida in Iraq.

The local Iraqi army commander blamed al-Qaida for the bombing, saying it was the latest in a series of strikes by the terror network against government officials, whom they accuse of collaborating with the U.S. and the Iraqi government.

Maj. Gen. Anwar Hama Amin, the commander of the Iraqi army’s 2nd Brigade who gave the casualty toll, said the target apparently was the mayor, who has lost five relatives in previous assassination attempts. The blast heavily damaged the city hall, along with several nearby houses and stores.

Thamir Mohammed, a 28-year-old newlywed, said he was on his way to city hall to do some paperwork to get a new ration card now that he has a family when the blast occurred, knocking him off his feet and wounding him in the head and legs.

read more at YAHOO! NEWS