Union-Tribune A Rancho Santa Fe home was fully engulfed by flames in the Witch Creek fire, which destroyed more than 1,100 homes.

Larger, more frequent wildfires such as the blazes that ravaged San Diego County last fall could lead to escalating claims for homeowner's insurance companies for years to come, according to a report released yesterday. The report from A.M. Best, an insurance research firm and rating service, said catastrophic wildfires are rising on the radar screens of insurers as a potential major risk – joining hurricanes, tornados and earthquakes.

SAN FRANCISCO – Yahoo's board and management earned a reprieve after a weekend deal ended a bruising and acrimonious fight for control of the company with Carl C. Icahn, the activist investor. In a deal announced yesterday, Icahn agreed to drop his proxy bid to replace Yahoo's directors in exchange for three seats on an expanded board.

SAN FRANCISCO – Swiss pharmaceutical maker Roche yesterday offered $43.7 billion for the remaining shares of its U.S. biotech partner Genentech, seizing the opportunity offered by the weak U.S. dollar to grab a bigger share of earnings from such drugs as the blockbuster cancer treatment Avastin.

Women's apparel company Charlotte Russe got a dressing down from Wall Street yesterday after it announced a lower-than-expected third-quarter profit and warned of weaker sales through the year.

Macintosh and iPod sales helped boost Apple's fiscal third-quarter earnings 31 percent, beating Wall Street's expectations yesterday, but investors pummeled the stock after Apple issued soft guidance for the current quarter.

The expense of developing a once-weekly version of its diabetes drug, Byetta, led to a wider second-quarter loss, Amylin Pharmaceuticals reported yesterday. The San Diego-based company reported a loss of $64.8 million for the quarter ending June 30, or 47 cents a share, compared with a loss of $45 million, or 34 cents a share, in the same quarter of 2007.