BRIEFCASE MOULTON LOGISTICS EARNS CERTIFICATION.

Byline: - From Staff and Wire Reports

VAN NUYS - Direct marketing heavyweight Moulton Logistics has received ISO 9000 certification for its sharp workplace acumen.

Though generally the domain of larger firms, the fulfillment house sought out the prestigious rating to give it a competitive edge in job contracts. The certification was given after careful review of Moulton's systems manual by independent auditors.

Masry named CEO of clean air group

THOUSAND OAKS - Attorney and Thousand Oaks Councilman Edward Masry was named president and chief executive officer of a company that manufactures a product that reduces emissions and improves gas mileage.

Masry will direct Save the World Air Inc.'s expansion of engineering, production, market and distribution capacities of the Zero Emission Fuel Save product line.

In tests the ZEFS device was shown to have dramatically decreased hydrocarbon, carbon monoxide and noxious gas emissions by 71 percent overall and increase gas mileage 49.3 percent during highway operation.

Gas prices continue to spiral downward

At $1.42 a gallon, the average price of regular self-serve gasoline fell for the sixth consecutive week throughout Southern California, the Automobile Club of Southern California reported Friday.

The price of regular unleaded gasoline in the Los Angeles area is 5.3 cents lower than last Friday, and 62 cents lower than the record high set in May, according to the Auto Club.

Market analysts say the lower price of oil, coupled with a weakening economy, continues to push prices at the pump lower.

Sales of new homes reach new low point

WASHINGTON - Wary about making big financial commitments, Americans pushed sales of new homes in September down to their lowest point in a year. Rising layoffs and new uncertainties raised by the terrorist attacks darkened the mood of prospective buyers.

New-home sales dropped 1.4 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 864,000, the lowest level since August 2000, when a rate of 839,000 homes were sold, the Commerce Department reported Friday.

Last month's drop came on top of a 2.9 percent decline in new-home sales in August, according to revised figures. The government had previously reported that sales rose 0.6 percent.

Battle for Hughes may end very soon

DETROIT - The winning suitor in the long-running battle for Hughes Electronics Corp. and its lucrative DirecTV home satellite television unit could be determined as soon as this weekend.

General Motors Corp.'s board will meet today with an eye toward picking either News Corp. or EchoStar Communications Corp. as the buyer for the money-losing Hughes subsidiary, The Wall Street Journal and the New York Times reported this week.

At stake: a chance to obtain Hughes' DirecTV unit, the largest home satellite TV provider in the nation with more than 10 million subscribers. GM refused to confirm its directors were meeting, though GM spokeswoman Toni Simonetti characterized negotiations as ``pretty active.''

Browsers denied access to MSN.com

NEW YORK - Microsoft's premiere Web portal, MSN.com, denied entry to millions of people who use alternative browser software such as Opera and told them to get Microsoft's products instead.

The decision led to complaints from the small but loyal Opera community that Microsoft Corp. was abusing its status as the Internet's browser leader. Microsoft later backed off and said Friday it would support the other browsers after all.

Browser products affected included Opera, Mozilla and Amaya, said Kevin Reichard, editorial manager for Internet.com's BrowserWatch site.

Big losses reported for Toshiba, NEC 

TOKYO - Two major Japanese electronics makers, Toshiba Corp. and NEC Corp., reported huge losses for the first fiscal half Friday and warned that plunging global demand and looming uncertainties following the terrorist attacks mean even bigger losses for the whole year.

A third electronics concern, Sanyo Electric Co., said its profits fell by 68 percent.

Toshiba lost 123.1 billion yen ($1 billion) for the April-September period in contrast to a profit of 53.9 billion yen a year earlier. Sales fell 11 percent to 2.5 trillion yen ($20 billion) from 2.8 trillion yen a year ago.

For the fiscal year ending in March, Toshiba expects to lose 200 billion yen ($1.6 billion) on sales of 5.5 trillion yen ($45 billion).

Web domain ruler shares take dive

SAN JOSE - Shares in VeriSign Inc., which oversees the database of dot- com and other Internet addresses, plunged nearly 20 percent Friday over worries about the company's outlook.

VeriSign's third-quarter results, released late Thursday, exceeded expectations, but key metrics in the company's core domain-name registration business were lower than anticipated, analysts said.

A measurement of the average time it takes to collect bills was reported to be about 80 days, up by about 10 days from the second quarter, said Jordan Klein, an analyst at UBS Warburg.

``If it's going up and up, it raises questions about your ability to collect your receivables,'' he said.

Shares closed down $10.52, to $42.82, in heavy trading on the Nasdaq stock market. They recovered 8 cents after hours.

Another barometer - deferred revenue from sales booked in advance - grew 3 percent to $585 million. That was at the low end of the guidance provided by the company at the end of the second quarter.