Overall, the number of individual income-tax audits reached a 10-year high in 2007 – and the IRS plans to increase that number this year.

The push comes as the agency faces heavy pressure from Congress to raise additional revenue and shrink the nation's $290 billion "tax gap," the difference between what's collected and what should be collected.

IRS research indicates that much of the tax noncompliance is committed by self-employed workers, such as consultants and small-business owners, whose taxes aren't withheld from their pay and whose income isn't reported separately.

This year, "we will continue to focus on audits of high-income individuals," said Linda Stiff, the IRS's acting commissioner.

In addition, agents have increased audits of taxpayers involved in partnerships and businesses organized as "S corporations."

For the vast majority of taxpayers, the odds of getting audited remain low. Only about 1 percent of all individual returns filed in recent years have been audited. But the chances now are higher than just a few years ago.

The IRS relies on numerous techniques to choose which returns to audit. Many are selected using a secret computerized-scoring system that the IRS recently updated, which is based on a continuing research project involving in-depth audits of thousands of returns. Computer programs assign each tax return a score that evaluates the potential for inaccuracies, based on the IRS's experience with similar returns.

Others are picked because of "mismatches" – which means that something a taxpayer reported doesn't match what was reported separately to the IRS by employers or financial institutions.

Some returns get audited because they were done by a tax preparer the IRS suspects of wrongdoing.

Then there are those that get selected because of a tip from confidential informants, such as a former business partner or ex-spouse.

The Supreme Court yesterday protected the makers of medical devices that have passed the most rigorous federal review standards from lawsuits by consumers who allege that the devices caused them harm.

The court ruled 8 to 1 against the estate of a New York man who was seriously injured when a balloon catheter manufactured by Medtronic burst during an angioplasty in 1996. Charles Riegel, who died three years ago, and his wife sued under New York law, alleging that the device's design was faulty and its labeling deficient.

Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for the majority, said federal law preempts the imposition of liability under state laws for devices that have undergone the Food and Drug Administration's pre-market approval process, the most rigorous of the FDA's testing procedures.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was the lone dissenter. Congress did not intend the preemption clause, Ginsburg wrote, "to effect a radical curtailment of state common-law suits seeking compensation for injuries caused by defectively designed or labeled medical devices."

Courts are filled with lawsuits over preemption, which New York University law professor Catherine M. Sharkey called "the fiercest battle in products liability litigation today."

The Supreme Court this year took several cases that invoke federal preemption. Cases still to be heard include lawsuits in state courts that seek to punish cigarette makers and drug manufacturers.

The court ruled in 1996 that devices approved by the FDA under a less-rigorous process were not protected from state lawsuits. The agency agreed with that.

In 2004 the government reversed its position, and when the case decided yesterday was argued in December, the government said such suits undermine the FDA's authority.

Allianz, Europe's biggest insurer by gross premiums and the owner of Dresdner Bank AG, said it earned 665 million euros ($974.62 million) in the October-December period, down by more than half from nearly 1.4 billion euros a year earlier. The company blamed the slip on a bad quarter for Dresdner.

Revenue rose 4 percent gain to 25.9 billion euros ($37.9 billion) in the fourth quarter compared with 24.8 billion euros in the same quarter a year earlier.

Allianz shares rose 3 percent to 121.03 euros ($177.38) in Frankfort.

Allianz's U.S. units include Bill Gross' Pimco, one of the world's largest bond managers; Fireman's Fund; Oppenheimer Capital; and fund managers Nicholas-Applegate and RCM Capital.

For the year, the company confirmed its preliminary figures released last month, earning 8 billion euros ($11.7 billion), up 13 percent from 7 billion euros it earned in 2006. Revenue also rose to 102.6 billion euros ($150.4 billion) in 2007 compared with 101.1 billion euros in 2006.

"Despite challenging conditions in 2007, we were able to further improve our operating efficiency and profitable growth, and to achieve a record result for the year," said chief executive Michael Diekmann.

He said the results, despite the fourth-quarter narrowing, came because of "the well-diversified business activities of the group" which meant "we were less vulnerable to shocks and cycles in individual markets and segments."

Though the company's core insurance operations, including health and life insurance, as well as property and casualty insurance, were improved, the overall results were pulled lower by Dresdner, Germany's third-biggest bank, and its investment banking arm, Dresdner Kleinwort.

For the year, the bank's operating profit came in at 730 million euros ($1 billion), or about half the 1.4 billion euros it earned in 2006.

The report by Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill shifted the state's fledgling budget debate to whether new taxes should be part of the solution — an approach the Republican governor has opposed.

It also sparked the kind of partisan sniping that Democrats and Republicans had so far avoided in hopes of preventing a repeat of the protracted budget debate that paralyzed the capital last summer.

Schwarzenegger last month pegged the shortfall at $14.5 billion through June 2009, but Hill said it has grown to $16 billion. She said Schwarzenegger's proposal for the 2008-09 budget year was flawed because it fails to set funding priorities or correct the state's chronic imbalance between spending and revenue.

"A decline in revenue means we have a larger shortfall than the governor projected," she said. "Our recommendations will affect all Californians in some way. However, we think that will benefit all Californians in the long run."

Overturning a lower court decision that AIG could withhold the documents as privileged, a unanimous five-judge panel of the Appellate Division of New York State Supreme Court ruled that the two former AIG executives are entitled to the legal memoranda, which include some related to AIG’s allegedly fraudulent 2000 loss portfolio reinsurance deal with General Re Corp.

Yesterday’s appeals ruling stems from then-New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer’s 2005 lawsuit charging Messrs. Greenberg and Smith with fraud related to the Gen Re deal and other allegedly sham transactions designed to manipulate AIG’s financial statements. AIG itself was originally a defendant, but settled with regulators in 2006, paying $1.6 billion.

Messrs. Greenberg and Smith have argued in part that they relied on the advice of legal counsel in the transactions cited in the attorney general’s lawsuit, and have sought copies of all legal memoranda related to the transactions prepared at the time they were AIG officers.

AIG refused to turn over the documents, and a New York judge ruled that they were protected by AIG’s attorney-client privilege.

The Appellate Division panel reversed that ruling, though, finding that the two former executives have a qualified right to inspect the memoranda.

The complaint seeks a permanent injunction and civil penalties against Mr. Bennett, as well as the surrender of ill-gotten gains. A lawyer for Mr. Bennett did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment on Tuesday.

Late Friday, Mr. Bennett, 59, pleaded guilty to a 20-count criminal indictment, including charges of conspiracy, securities fraud, bank fraud and making false filings with the S.E.C. Mr. Bennett, a British citizen, faces life in prison on the criminal charges under federal sentencing guidelines.

In his guilty plea last week, he admitted to concealing the fraud from the company’s auditors and investors and from the buyout firm Thomas H. Lee Partners, which bought a stake in Refco in 2004 and has been sued on accusations that it did not follow up on red flags at the company.

Mr. Bennett has been free on $50 million bail since shortly after his arrest in 2005 and is restricted to his home in New Jersey, where he is subject to electronic monitoring.

Refco sought bankruptcy protection in 2005, soon after the company announced it had discovered $430 million in debt owed to a private entity controlled by Mr. Bennett.

Mr. Bennett was expected to go to trial on the criminal charges next month, along with two other former Refco executives, Robert C. Trosten and Tone N. Grant. Prosecutors said last week that they intended to proceed with the trial against Mr. Trosten, who was chief financial officer, and Mr. Grant, the former president. Both have denied wrongdoing.

Joseph P. Collins, a longtime lawyer for Refco, also is separately facing criminal charges in the matter.

Santo C. Maggio, Refco’s former executive vice president, pleaded guilty to criminal charges in December and agreed to forfeit $23 million. Mr. Maggio, who has long been cooperating with prosecutors, is expected to testify at any criminal trials in the matter.

Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines are close to a deal that would create the world's largest carrier and could jump-start what is expected to be the biggest airline consolidation wave in decades.

The long-awaited pact between Delta, the nation's third-largest airline, and No. 5 Northwest could come as early as today, following an agreement by the airlines' pilots unions for a common contract.

The marriage - pending regulatory approval - would create a new and expanded Delta with a fleet of 1,115 planes and 85,000 employees. It would fly more than 130 million passengers annually to more than 1,100 cities. The combination would bring together two airlines that each emerged from bankruptcy only a year ago.

While the deal could mean higher fares for some passengers in some markets, widespread or prolonged increases are less likely, because the two airlines have fewer routes that overlap, analysts said. Also, the combined airline could face increased competition from low-cost carriers looking to move into markets left behind by the combined carrier.

"The impact on fares will be neutral," said Terry Trippler, an aviation consultant who runs TripplerTravel.com, a travel advice Web site. "I can't find too many places where these two airlines combining would create a monopoly."

A deal could still be delayed or even scuttled, particularly if pilots don't come to an agreement on meshing their seniority lists and other issues. Delta and Northwest don't want to repeat the expensive labor issues that have stymied the merger of US Airways and America West.

If a deal is struck, the new airline would retain the Delta name and base its headquarters in Atlanta, where Delta has its largest airport hub. In hope of winning political support in Minneapolis, Northwest's hometown, the combined airline is likely to keep major operations there, including maintaining Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport as a second hub.

The deal is expected to encounter significant scrutiny from regulators.

Analysts believe the next combination could involve United Airlines, the nation's fourth-largest airline, and No. 6 Continental Airlines.

"The orchestra is playing and the dance is beginning, so you better pick a partner or you'll lose out," Trippler said.

The prospective Delta-Northwest deal marks the latest attempt at a merger in an industry that has seen a number of failed deals in recent years, including last year's hostile bid for Delta by US Airways and an attempt by United and Continental to tie the knot in 2001.

One investor group estimated that the Delta-Northwest merger could result in cost savings of $1.5 billion a year. The airlines together posted more than $31 billion in revenue last year.