Sprint and Nextel said they had made Hart-Scott- Rodino filings with the FTC and Dept. of Justice, preliminary to work by both agencies on the pending merger.

The International Trade Administration (ITA) has issued the preliminary results of its antidumping (AD) duty administrative review of honey from China for the period of December 1, 2002 through November 30, 2003:

A myth about VoIP’s ability to handle 911 traffic may have been blown away by gunfire at the Ga. Public Safety Training Center. A Monroe County, Ga., test this month for the Assn. of Public Safety Communications Officials International (APCO) indicated to participants’ ears that -- contrary to widespread belief -- VoIP calls can transmit background sounds such as gun shots from callers’ premises well enough to give responders crucial clues about emergencies and how best to address them, CEO James Cavanagh of the Consultant Registry told us. He’s an APCO and National Emergency Numbers Assn. member who prompted the experiment. Cavanagh acknowledged the testing was preliminary and purposely unscientific, but added: “The gauntlet’s been thrown down. Initial results indicate it was not as bad a problem as we thought it was.”

A myth about VoIP’s ability to handle 911 traffic may have been blown away by gunfire at the Ga. Public Safety Training Center. A Monroe County, Ga., test this month for the Assn. of Public Safety Communications Officials International (APCO) indicated to participants’ ears that -- contrary to widespread belief -- VoIP calls can transmit background sounds such as gun shots from callers’ premises well enough to give responders crucial clues about emergencies and how best to address them, CEO James Cavanagh of the Consultant Registry told us. He’s an APCO and National Emergency Numbers Assn. member who prompted the experiment. Cavanagh acknowledged the testing was preliminary and purposely unscientific, but added: “The gauntlet’s been thrown down. Initial results indicate it was not as bad a problem as we thought it was.”

Touchstone Home Entertainment’s The Village, in its first week available, was the top-rented DVD in the U.S., Rentrak said its preliminary Home Video Essentials data for the week ended Jan. 16 showed. Rentrak said the thriller earned $8.64 million on DVD in the week. Warner Home Video’s Troy - last week’s #1 DVD - slipped to #3, earning an additional $6.71 million for a total of $17.01 million to date. The only other new top-10 DVDs were Paramount Home Entertainment’s comedy Without a Paddle at #2 ($8.07 million) and Fox Home Entertainment’s action film Paparazzi at #4 ($4.01 million).

Take-Two Interactive’s Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas for PS2, in its 12th week, was again the top- rented videogame in the U.S., Rentrak said its preliminary Home Video Essentials data for the week ended Jan. 16 showed. Rentrak said the game earned an additional $453,880 in the week, for a total of $10.61 million to date. The only new game in the top 10 was LucasArts Entertainment’s Mercenaries for PS2 at #7 ($122,787). Need for Speed Underground 2 from Electronic Arts (EA) for PS2, in its 9th week, was again #2 ($254,383 in the week, $3.29 million to date), while Microsoft’s Halo 2 for Xbox, in its 10th week, was again #3 ($160,004 and $4.36 million), the Xbox version of Need was again #4 ($149,615 and $2.04 million), Activision’s Call of Duty: Finest Hour for PS2, in its 9th week, was again #5 ($144,596 and $1.79 million) and EA’s NFL Street 2 for PS2, in its 4th week, was again #6 ($127,814 and $399,559). Rounding out the top 10 were 3 more PS2 games, each in its 11th week: Konami’s Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater up 2 at #8 ($105,773 and $1.46 million), THQ’s WWE Smackdown! Vs. Raw down 2 at #9 ($104,614 and $2.05 million) and Sony Computer Entertainment’s Killzone up 3 at #10 ($102,826 and $1.54 million).

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has issued a notice announcing the results of the preliminary review of certain petitions it received in connection with its 2004 Andean Trade Preference Act (ATPA) annual review, as well as the status of 2003 petitions that have remained under review.

The International Trade Administration (ITA) has issued its final results of the changed circumstances review of the AD duty order on certain corrosion-resistant carbon steel flat products from Japan. In these final results, the ITA has determined to revoke in part the AD duty order on certain corrosion-resistant carbon steel flat products from Japan with respect to nickel-plated steel foil, effective January 14, 2005.

The International Trade Administration (ITA) has issued the preliminary results of the following antidumping (AD) duty administrative reviews:

Take-Two Interactive’s Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas for PS2 was again the top-rented videogame in the U.S., Rentrak said its preliminary Home Video Essentials data for the week ended Jan. 9 showed. The title, in its 11th week, earned an additional $465,292, for $10.16 million to date. Need for Speed Underground 2 from Electronic Arts (EA) for PS2 was, in its 8th week, again #2 (an additional $253,569 and $3.03 million), while Microsoft’s Xbox sequel Halo 2, in its 9th week, was again #3 ($177,922 and $4.20 million), the Xbox version of Need was again #4 ($138,008 and $1.89 million) and Activision’s Call of Duty: Finest Hour for PS2, in its 8th week, was again #5 ($131,052 and $1.64 million). EA had 2 other PS2 games in the top 10: NFL Street 2 at #6 (up 5 in its 3rd week, $126,745 and $271,745) and Madden NFL 2005 at #8 (up 6 in its 22nd week, $104,150 and $5.57 million). Rounding out the top 10 were THQ’s WWE Smackdown! Vs. Raw at #7 (up 5 in its 10th week, $109,998 and $1.94 million), Atari’s Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3 for PS2 at #9 (down one in its 7th week, $103,476 and $1.36 million) and Konami’s Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater at #10 (down one in its 10th week, $98,684 and $1.35 million).