News In Brief

A $1 billion company that immediately will rank among the 10 largest energy traders in the US has been formed by Entergy Corp. and privately owned Koch Industries, the partners announced in Houston. Entergy-Koch L.P. will deliver and market electricity, natural gas, and other commodities, the announcement said.

The Nasdaq stock market could become a limited partner if merger discussions between the London Stock Exchange and the Dutch Bourse in Frankfurt, Germany, are successful, The Wall Street Journal and European newspapers reported. Those talks are to resume today, although prospects appeared uncertain at best because of the London exchange's desire to avoid becoming the junior partner. Nasdaq officials were unavailable for comment. A London-Deutsche Bourse merger is seen by analysts as the first step in an eventual Europe-wide stock exchange.

"Very, very bleak" prospects for the spring-summer season were forecast by tourism officials in Zimbabwe because of the combined political turmoil and seizures of white-owned farms by armed black squatters. Easter crowds at Victoria Falls, the nation's No. 1 attraction, were only in the dozens, with a reported high daily cancellation rate. Zimbabwe depends heavily on tourism as a source of hard currency and already has a 50 percent jobless rate.

(c) Copyright 2000. The Christian Science Publishing Society