Hooters Air flying to Myrtle Beach

ATLANTA - Hooters Air, an airline started by the restaurant chain famous for chicken wings and scantily clad waitresses, has begun service from Atlanta to Myrtle Beach, S.C.

Hooters Air will fly four days a week to the beach and golf resort area of Myrtle Beach. Flights between Atlanta and Newark, N.J., are to start March 20.

Greenspan: Flexible market endured jolts

WASHINGTON - A diversified and innovative global financial system helped the U.S. economy weather a string of jolts - from the terrorist attacks to fears about a war with Iraq - Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said Friday.

"Despite all of that, the American economy has been able to struggle along without collapsing into a much deeper recession, which would have most certainly been the case if these shocks had occurred 20 or 30 years ago," Greenspan said.

A more open and flexible international financial system that has developed over the years has allowed lenders to become more diversified and borrowers far less dependent on specific institutions or markets for financing.

Report: Marriott studies hotelier bid

LONDON - Marriott International is considering an offer for Six Continents PLC, owner of Holiday Inn, Inter-continental hotels and several chains of pubs, a newspaper reported Friday.

The Financial Times said that Marriott, which operates more than 2,000 hotels worldwide under management contracts, is considering an offer to rival the hostile takeover bid worth 5.6 billion pounds ($8.8 billion) made by food and drinks entrepreneur Hugh Osmond.

In a statement, Six Continents said its board "will give serious consideration to any proposal that might be attractive to shareholders and has reasonable prospect of delivery."

New Tyco board acts to tighten governance

HAMILTON, Bermuda - Responding quickly to a shareholders' plea, the new board of directors of Tyco International Ltd. said Friday that it will study in detail whether the conglomerate should move its headquarters from Bermuda.

The board also took steps toward increasing administrative oversight and ethics and adopted new severance guidelines for senior executives.

The 10-member board acted one day after the annual meeting in which a surprisingly large percentage of shareholders voted for resolutions to tighten governance as a way to enhance the troubled company's credibility.

Federal-Mogul holds stock to pay liability

DETROIT - Bankrupt auto parts-maker Federal-Mogul Corp. has proposed setting aside half of its stock to pay off hundreds of millions of dollars in asbestos liability claims.

The Southfield, Mich.-based company filed a reorganization proposal Thursday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware, spokesman Jim Fisher said Friday. If approved, the company's bondholders and those claiming injury from asbestos would share in its ownership; current stockholders would get nothing.

GE's Immelt seeks 10% profit growth

FAIRFIELD, Conn. - General Electric Co. will try to return to at least 10 percent annual profit growth by making acquisitions, boosting research and expanding abroad, Chief Executive Jeff Immelt said in his letter to shareholders.

Shares of General Electric rose 35 cents to $24.30 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.