THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, April 18, 1996 TAG: 9604180348
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
LENGTH: Medium: 75 lines
More than 23 million Ford Motor Co. cars, vans and light trucks made from 1984 to 1993 are equipped with a type of ignition switch that has caught fire in some vehicles. There are about 900 reports of fires from the switches, and in some cases a fire occurred even when the vehicles were parked and shut off, according to officials at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The switches are in all 1984-93 Ford, Mercury and Lincoln models except Ford Taurus, Mercury Sable and the Probe, which Ford makes with Mazda, according to NHTSA and Ford documents. Ford's investigation is ongoing. (Associated Press) InfiNet to market, test its services in Portugal
InfiNet Co., a Norfolk-based company that provides services for utilizing the global Internet computer network, said that it signed an agreement with a Portuguese company to market its services in the European country. InfiNet said the agreement with Portugalnet will help it test how to best develop international partners. Through Portugalnet, InfiNet said it will help media outlets establish a presence on the Internet's World Wide Web using various InfiNet publishing tools. InfiNet is owned, in part, by Norfolk-based Landmark Communications Inc., parent of The Virginian-Pilot. (Staff) Peninsula yard contracts to overhaul carrier Nimitz
The Navy has awarded a contract to Newport News Shipbuilding to ready for the planned overhaul and refueling of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Nimitz. The contract, valued at $17.9 million, is for spare parts. The Nimitz is scheduled to arrive at the Peninsula shipyard in 1998. The Navy has already given Newport News Shipbuilding a contract to prepare the support barge the yard uses during refueling to store spent nuclear fuel. The shipyard completed a $1.8-billion refueling of the carrier Enterprise in 1994. (Staff) Bell Atlantic, Nynex revive merger talks
Bell Atlantic Corp. and Nynex Corp. have revived talks that could result in a merger creating a communications company second in size only to AT&T Corp, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. A Bell Atlantic-Nynex combination would result in a company with more than $27 billion in annual revenue, more than $3 billion in earnings and more than 36 million residential and business customers from Maine to Virginia. The two companies hope to announce a merger as early as next week, the Journal said, quoting executives close to the talks. (AP) Passenger activity up at Peninsula airport
The Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport reported that its March passenger traffic soared 53.4 percent. Last month 35,995 passengers flew through the Peninsula airport, up from 23,464 in March 1995. All three airlines serving the airport - United Express, USAir Express and ValuJet - are growing faster than the national average at the airport, said David Mercer, airport commission chairman. Mercer said the airport is planning to expand its parking lot. (Staff) Family channel gets highest-ever ratings
International Family Entertainment Inc. of Virginia Beach said its flagship unit, The Family Channel, registered its highest-ever prime-time ratings in the 1996 first quarter: 1.4 percent of all viewing households during the time period, according to Nielsen Media Research. IFE said the latest ratings, a 52 percent increase over the same period last year, were boosted by strong viewership for two Family Channel original movies. In percentage terms, IFE said, The Family Channel posted the largest gains of all major cable networks in prime-time viewership by people in the 18-49 and 25-54 age groups. (Staff) by CNB