BRIEFCASE.

Byline: -- Staff and Wire Services

Medical center gets new CEO 

GLENDALE -- The head of a hospital in Washington state has been named the new president and chief executive officer of Glendale Adventist Medical Center, officials said Thursday.

Morre Dean, who held the same position at Walla Walla General Hospital in Walla Walla, Wash., will assume leadership of the 448-bed hospital beginning 2007.

He succeeds Scott Reiner, who was promoted to senior vice president of Adventist Health, the hospital's Roseville, Calif.-based owner.

BP settles final '05 blast lawsuit

GALVESTON, Texas -- BP PLC settled on Thursday the last remaining death-related lawsuit from the 2005 Texas City refinery blast that killed 15, wounded 170 and brought accusations of lax management at the oil company.

Just as jury selection was beginning in what would have been the first civil case from the explosion to go to trial, the woman whose parents had been killed in the blast, and who had refused to settle, relented.

Eva Rowe, 22, walked away with an unknown amount, but the settlement also called for London-based BP to continue to release documents related to the case and to donate millions to schools and medical facilities, including one where victims were treated after the March 2005 explosion.

Gates says Vista pulls through

BRUSSELS, Belgium -- Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates said Thursday that the company's upcoming Windows Vista operating system has survived antitrust complaints by rivals who aimed to ``castrate'' it.

Gates made the comments during a European tour to promote Vista ahead of its release to business clients Nov. 30. The company finished work on the long-delayed software's code Wednesday, allowing it to meet -- on Jan. 30 -- its promise of general availability that month.

The Microsoft co-founder said Vista was not fundamentally affected by a long debate with European Union antitrust officials worried that new functions offered by the software might elbow into existing markets for security and Internet search, ultimately limiting consumer choice.

U.S. security vendors Symantec Corp. and McAfee Inc. had complained that Microsoft had deliberately delayed handing over information that would help them make their software compatible with Vista. That data have now been made available to them.

Boeing wins big Air Force pact

The Air Force awarded a lucrative contract Thursday for search and rescue combat helicopters to a team led by aerospace giant Boeing Co.

Chicago-based Boeing beat out rival Lockheed Martin Corp. and helicopter maker Sikorsky Aircraft for the contract to build 141 helicopters by 2019 for the Air Force's fleet of rescue aircraft, known as the Combat Search and Rescue program.

The initial contract award is for $712 million; the program could be worth as much as $13 billion.

Some Wall Street and industry analysts had thought Maryland-based Lockheed would win. The Lockheed version had a roomier cabin and three powerful engines and was cheaper than Boeing's.