DIGEST
The Senate began considering legislation to overhaul the nation's bankruptcy laws. A final vote is expected next week on the measure, which is being pushed strongly by the credit card industry to make it harder for consumers to erase debts through bankruptcy filings. But an amendment approved yesterday would bar credit card companies from penalizing or terminating card holders who pay their balances in full every month.</br></br>U.S. inflation remained low in August, partly because of global economic troubles. The Labor Department said its consumer price index rose a seasonally adjusted 0.2 percent, the same as in July. So far this year, prices are rising at a 1.6 percent annual rate, compared with 1.7 percent for all of last year. Excluding food and energy prices, which many economists believe are too volatile to be a good measure of inflation, prices for other goods and services increased only 0.2 percent in August. For the year to date, these "core" prices are rising at a 2.5 percent annual rate, compared with 2.2 percent last year.</br></br>Philippine Airlines, ravaged by labor conflicts and citing "enormous losses," said it plans to shut down on Sept. 23 after 57 years of operation. A shutdown would make PAL the biggest Philippine firm to fold during Asia's economic crisis. Philippine President Joseph Estrada immediately called an emergency meeting with the airline's management and union officials in an effort to keep Asia's oldest national airline flying.</br></br>U.S. farm exports in the first seven months of the year totaled $29.6 billion, well below the $31.2 billion in the year-earlier period, the Commerce Department said. The agency also reported that the U.S. agricultural trade surplus for January through July was $8 billion, down from $10.3 billion a year earlier. Large crops around the world, the strength of the U.S. dollar and Asian economic troubles have combined to take a heavy toll on U.S. farm exports this year.</br></br>Chiron, a biotechnology company based in Emeryville, Calif., agreed to sell its diagnostics business to Germany's Bayer for $1.1 billion in cash. The company said that after selling Chiron Diagnostics it would focus on treatments for serious diseases, including cancer and infectious diseases; on developing vaccines; and on providing a safe blood supply.