Southern Progress Corp., a subsidiary of Time...

Southern Progress Corp., a subsidiary of Time Inc., has an agreement in principle to purchase Southern Travel magazine from the New York Times Co. Magazine Group, the companies announced. Terms were not disclosed . . . Japan’s Ministry of Finance now can go directly to companies to investigate suspicious trading instead of having to go through the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The broadened powers took effect Tuesday, along with changes permitting trading of cash-settled index futures and options.