The news at a glance

Markets: Mideast unrest sends oil soaring

The price of a barrel of oil this week rose to a two-year high, while gold shot past $1,400 an ounce, amid escalating tensions in the Middle East and North Africa, said Stephen Kirkland in Bloomberg.com. Brent crude oil, the European benchmark, hit $105.78 a barrel in London, up more than 4 percent since Feb. 1; West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. standard, jumped 6.4 percent in a single day—to $95.42 a barrel—in New York. International stock indexes began the week with precipitous falls in Paris, Frankfurt, and other trading centers. The Mideast and North Africa account for 36 percent of the world’s annual output of crude.

Traders fear the unrest could lead to disruption in oil supplies, said the Associated Press, especially if the turmoil spreads from Bahrain to Saudi Arabia, its neighbor on the Arabian Peninsula. Saudi Arabia “sits atop the world’s largest proven reserves of conventional crude oil.” Any hint of instability in Saudi Arabia “could send oil prices surging across the world, threatening a continued global economic recovery.” In Bahrain, the majority population of Shiite Muslims has long chafed under Sunni rule.

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Energy: BP plants its flag in India

In its second big purchase of oil and natural gas reserves in two months, BP has agreed to pay $7.2 billion for a 30 percent stake in Reliance Energy, the flagship of “India’s fast-growing oil and natural gas business,” said Vikas Bajaj in The New York Times. In January, BP signed a $7.8 billion deal with Rosneft, Russia’s largest energy producer, to drill in the Arctic. The tie-up with Reliance reflects BP’s recent strategy of partnering with strong local firms to explore for energy.

Biotech: Sanofi finally lands Genzyme

Ending “nearly nine months of back and forth between the two companies,” France’s Sanofi has agreed to acquire Genzyme, a Massachusetts biotech firm, for $20.1 billion in cash, said Greg Keller in the Associated Press. The addition of Genzyme’s portfolio of treatments for rare genetic diseases positions Sanofi “at the forefront of the market in lucrative drugs” for such disorders. Genzyme shareholders, for their part, gain the right to continuing cash payments “contingent on the success of several drugs.”

Magazines: Time gives Griffin the boot

Time Inc., the magazine-publishing division of Time Warner, is searching for a new CEO following the abrupt departure of Jack Griffin, said Georg Szalai in HollywoodReporter.com. Griffin had been on the job since September, after Time lured him away from Meredith, publisher of Ladies’ Home Journal and Better Homes and Gardens. Veteran Time managers complained that Griffin’s “way of interacting with the staff was seen as disruptive,” in particular his tendency to introduce sweeping reorganizations without discussing them first with department heads.

Retailing: Borders turns to Chapter 11

Bowing to “the inevitable,” Borders Group has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy-court protection, said Jim Milliot and Judith Rosen in PublishersWeekly.com. Bankruptcy rumors have dogged the company since December, when the bookstore chain missed payments to top publishers. The company will shutter about 200 stores, some 30 percent of its network, in the next several weeks as it attempts to gain control over its costs and debts. Like other brick-and-mortar booksellers, Borders has seen profits and revenue tumble since the emergence of Amazon.com and other e-retailers.