Resignations

Brokerage Bear Stearns Cos. confirmed Tuesday that longtime Chief Executive James "Jimmy" Cayne had stepped down, marking the third CEO departure from a major investment bank since the sub-prime mortgage crisis began to hammer Wall Street last spring. Cayne, whose exit had been rumored on Monday, handed the company's reins to its president, Alan Schwartz, as expected.

Two televangelists have resigned their posts as regents at Oral Roberts University, as the debt-ridden school tries to regroup after a spending scandal involving its former president. The university also settled Thursday with one of three professors who filed a wrongful-termination suit against the school. Benny Hinn and I.V. Hilliard resigned from the board of regents, where they were involved in making major school decisions, university spokesman Jeremy Burton said Thursday.

Orange County supervisors accepted outgoing Sheriff Michael S. Carona's hand-picked successor as the new acting head of the law enforcement agency on Tuesday, setting aside concerns that the appointment was improper and that political calculations played a role in the selection.

A right-wing party quit Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's governing coalition Wednesday in protest of the revived peace talks with the Palestinians, but the move poses no immediate threat to his rule. Avigdor Lieberman, leader of the hawkish Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel Our Home) faction, said he opposed an approach that sought peace through territorial concessions. "Negotiations on the basis of land for peace are a crucial mistake," he told reporters.

A top architect of the Bush administration's policy of greater diplomatic engagement announced his resignation Friday amid signs that U.S. efforts on key issues have been losing momentum. R. Nicholas Burns, the State Department's third-ranking official and one of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's closest aides, said he would leave his post in March for personal reasons.

A senior British Cabinet minister resigned Thursday in a row over political donations, prompting fresh criticism of Prime Minister Gordon Brown's leadership. Work and Pensions Secretary Peter Hain said he was leaving to clear his name after electoral authorities referred to the police questions about the funding of his unsuccessful campaign to become deputy Labor Party leader.

Sears Holdings Corp. abruptly announced the departure of President and Chief Executive Aylwin B. Lewis on Monday, leaving a management void at the top of the department store chain controlled by Chairman Edward S. Lampert. The change comes as the company tries a high-stakes restructuring to reconnect with customers and reinvigorate slumping sales. Lewis, 52, who also resigned from the board, was an executive at fast-food chain Yum Brands Inc.

The administrator of Kaiser Permanente's Fresno hospital stepped down Monday, days after the release of a federal report that criticized the way the medical center responded to complaints about a doctor who handled high-risk pregnancies. In a written statement released late Monday, Kaiser said Fresno hospital administrator Susan Ryan had resigned, effective immediately. Last week, the U.S.

Five months ago, Detroit Mayor Kwame M. Kilpatrick and chief of staff Christine Beatty testified that they did not have a romantic relationship. They continued to deny a relationship out of court as well, as they had for several years. But that was before the Detroit Free Press published a cache of text messages between the two, many of them flirtatious or sexual, and others referring to meetings in hotels.

The state House speaker resigned his post on Monday after a series of embarrassing revelations, including not filing state personal income-tax returns and being involved in questionable fundraising. Republican Lance Cargill, at 36 the nation's youngest House speaker, told members of the House's GOP majority of his resignation by telephone during a conference call. He later issued a statement.