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A Management Shell Game
What if they gave a business scandal and no one came? Royal Dutch/Shell plunged deeper into crisis last week as new details emerged about how the Anglo-Dutch oil giant overstated its reserves. But for the moment investors don't seem to care. Shell's stock barely budged after a report in the New York Times alleged that the newly appointed chairman, Jeroen van der Veer, was one of several executives who may have known about the reserves shortage two years before the company cut its official estimate by 20% in January.

Even a deepening investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission failed to spark a sell-off. The reason: after the January surprise, Shell now trades at a 15% discount to its British rival BP, based on estimated earnings. With oil at over $32 per barrel, all oil majors are reporting hefty profits.

INDICATORS A Special Relationship America 's trade deficit rose to an all-time high of $43.1 billion in January, while Britain 's trade gap hit its own record, $10.1 billion, for the same month. Growing Pains The British government gave the go-ahead for the commercial farming of genetically modified maize, the first biotech crop to be grown in the U.K. Anti-GM activists are threatening to rip the crops from the ground. I Want My MTV! U.S. media giant Viacom ended a dispute with EchoStar that left 9 million of the satellite TV provider's customers without access to Viacom channels, including MTV and Nickelodeon, for two days.

Merrill Lynch analyst Mark Iannotti says it's "increasingly difficult to have confidence" in Shell's senior management. Still, he — like others — is sticking to his "neutral" rating for the stock.

Sins Of Emission
In its efforts to combat climate change, the European Commission seems to be producing its own hot air. Brussels boasted last week that all provisions of the 1997 Kyoto protocol on climate change are now legally binding. As part of the Kyoto deal, the E.U. agreed to lower greenhouse gas emission levels by 8% below 1990 levels between 2008 and 2012. But legislation alone won't bring emissions down: E.U. levels crept up in 2001 for the second straight year, and most member states are forecast to miss the Kyoto targets.

"With current trends, we could not reach our goals," says a Commission source. "More efforts are needed." Focus now falls on the E.U.'s internal emissions trading scheme — the first of its kind in the world — planned for launch next year. Under the system, governments will grant more than 12,000 industrial sites an emissions allowance. If a company squeezes its levels under the limit, it can sell its remaining allowance to a firm that's unable to honor its own. National plans outlining the allocations are due in Brussels before April — but so far, none have been submitted. For the environment, that's cold comfort. — by Adam Smith

Penalty Time
Officials in charge of Germany's 2006 soccer World Cup preparations were left red-faced after Karl-Heinz Wildmoser, president of German club 1860 Munich, was arrested along with three others on suspicion of pocketing bribes worth €2.8 million from the construction firm picked to build a stadium for the tournament.

The Bottom Line
	We're acting on behalf of the millions of people who are saying 'Enough is enough.'
		MIKE CALLAHAN, general counsel of Yahoo, as the Web company teamed up with three U.S. rivals to sue prolific e-mail spammers