IN BRIEF

Aruze plans to build casino in Philippines

Aruze Corp., a Japanese maker of arcade machines, plans to spend about 250 billion yen ($2.4 billion) to build and operate a casino in Manila, Philippines.

Aruze, the largest shareholder of Las Vegas-based Wynn Resorts Ltd., expects as early as next month to get government approval for the project, which includes a hotel, amusement facilities and a commercial complex. Operations are expected to start around April 2010, Aruze said in a statement.

DETROIT

General Motors stops shifts, lays off staffs

Sagging pickup truck and sport utility vehicle sales have forced General Motors Corp. to shut down one shift each at four North American factories and lay off about 3,500 workers.

The world's largest automaker by sales said Monday that the cuts, to take effect starting this summer, were brought on by weak demand due to high gasoline prices and an economic downturn.

The cuts will affect pickup factories in Pontiac and Flint, Mich., and Oshawa, Ontario, as well as the full-size SUV plant in Janesville, Wis. The layoffs represent just over 4 percent of GM's hourly manufacturing work force of about 80,000 in North America.

The company said the cuts mean it will make about 88,000 fewer pickups and 50,000 fewer large SUVs this calendar year.

WASHINGTON

Interest rates increase in Treasury auction

Interest rates on short-term Treasury bills rose in Monday's auction with six-month bills climbing to the highest level since early March.

The Treasury Department auctioned $20 billion in three-month bills at a discount rate of 1.42 percent, up from 1.32 percent last week. Another $20 billion in six-month bills was auctioned at a discount rate of 1.7 percent, up from 1.68 percent last week.

The discount rates reflect that the bills sell for less than face value. For a $10,000 bill, the three-month price was $9,964.11 while a six-month bill sold for $9,914.06.

Bank of America will modify mortgages

Bank of America Corp., seeking approval of its Countrywide Financial Corp. takeover, plans to modify at least $40 billion of mortgages during the next two years to keep customers in their homes.

The move will help as many as 265,000 homeowners, Liam McGee, president of the bank's global consumer and small-business unit, said in Los Angeles at a U.S. Federal Reserve hearing on the purchase. The company will donate $2 billion to communities in the next 10 years, including funds for organizations giving advice on foreclosures, he said.

Bank of America, based in Charlotte, N.C., is trying to persuade regulators to approve the $4 billion Countrywide takeover, which will give the bank a role in one of every four U.S. home loans. NEW YORK

Visa earnings increase 28 percent in quarter

Visa, the world's largest credit and debit card processor, said Monday its profit rose 28 percent to $314 million in the first three months of the year as customers around the world charged more to their cards.

Visa posted a fiscal second-quarter profit of $314 million, or 39 cents a share, up from $246 million in the same period a year earlier.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial predicted, on average, earnings of 46 cents per share. Analysts tend to exclude one-time items from their forecasts, and Visa's earnings per share reflecting a normalized tax rate and excluding certain factors including litigation amounted to 52 cents a share.

Net operating revenue rose 21.8 percent to $1.45 billion from $1.19 billion.

LOS ANGELES

Warner Bros. launches pair of new Web sites

Warner Bros. is launching two Web sites to capture new ad revenue and a younger generation of viewers, the company said Monday.

KidsWB.com, geared for children, debuted Monday, featuring animated characters from the Warner Bros. library, which includes Bugs Bunny, Scooby Doo and DC Comics heroes like Batman.

TheWB.com -- with full episodes of shows such as "Friends" and "Smallville" and made-for-online shows -- is to launch in a beta test format next month, according to Time Warner's Warner Bros. Television Group.

Both sites will be supported by ad revenue, with deals already in place with Mattel, McDonald's Corp. and Johnson & Johnson, the company said.

RadioShack earnings miss Street forecasts

RadioShack Corp., the third-largest U.S. electronics retailer, plunged the most in almost six years after first-quarter profit fell more than analysts estimated on slowing sales of wireless-telephone plans.

RadioShack declined $2.37, or 13.54 percent, to close at $15.13 on the New York Stock Exchange, the steepest drop since August 2002.

Profit dropped to $38.8 million, or 30 cents a share, from $42.5 million, or 31 cents, a year earlier, Fort Worth, Texas-based RadioShack said in a statement.

Sales declined 4.4 percent to $949 million.

SAN JOSE, Calif.

Retired eBay chief gets $10 million in 2007

Retired eBay Chief Executive Meg Whitman received compensation valued at $10 million in 2007, a pay package that included $787,936 for personal air travel, according to a securities filing by the company on Monday.

Whitman, a billionaire who owns a 2 percent stake in online auctioneer eBay, the second largest holding, retired in March after 10 years at the helm.

Her 2007 pay package included a salary of $995,016, a bonus of $243,013 and $1.4 million in non-equity incentive pay, according to the company's proxy statement.

NEW YORK

Treasury prices rise as traders watch, wait

Treasury prices rose in quiet trading Monday as investors waited for the Federal Reserve's decision on interest rates later this week.

The benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose 0.31 points to 97.31 and yielded 3.83 percent, down from 3.87 percent late Friday, according to BGCantor Market Data.