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Internet: AOL expects more ads
AOL Time Warner Inc's Time Inc unit Chairman and Chief Executive Ann Moore expects fourth-quarter advertising sales at the magazine division to exceed sales in the third quarter, Moore told financial news network CNBC. "I'm optimistic that the fourth quarter is going to beat the third quarter," Moore, who is in charge of 140 magazines at Time Inc, said on CNBC. "We are through the worst of the year." Moore wants to concentrate on creating some new magazines at the publication unit and slow down from the rapid acquisition pace the unit had been on in recent years, she said. "I think we want to foster some new startups," Moore said. "Those muscles have atrophied a little bit."

Mobile phones: Motorola bars evidence
A US judge, ruling on an US$800 million lawsuit against Motorola Inc, said a Maryland doctor failed to produce scientific evidence he developed brain cancer from using a wireless telephone made by the company. The decision by US District Judge Catherine C. Blake that the plaintiff can't link cellphone use with brain cancer threatens similar lawsuits against wireless telephone makers that are pending in her court, said Norm Sandler, a Motorola spokesman. Blake held that evidence cited by lawyers for Dr. Christopher J. Newman that using wireless telephones causes malignant brain tumors had not gained wide scientific acceptance. She refused to qualify any of the scientific witnesses cited by Newman's lawyers as experts who could testify in the case against Motorola.

Semiconductors: Worldwide sales rise 2.2%
Worldwide sales of semiconductors rose 2.2 percent in August from the previous month, confirming demand for chips is recovering, an industry report said. Sales rose to US$11.93 billion in August from US$11.68 billion in July, boosted by demand for semiconductors used in mobile phones, consumer goods such as DVD players and digital cameras, and personal computers ahead of the school season, the Semiconductor Industry Association said in a Business Wire statement. "The August data confirms that the semiconductor industry is in the midst of a broadly based upturn," SIA President George Scalise said in the statement.

Growth forecast: China revises its estimate
Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji has forecast the country's economy will grow "somewhat faster" this year than last year's 7.3 percent, state media said yesterday. The report from Xinhua news agency corrected a previous dispatch which had quoted the premier as saying the economy would increase by as much as 7.8 percent this year. "The situation in China is getting better and better for every passing year," Zhu said according to the agency. Zhu made the remark at a meeting Monday with 51 foreign experts who had received the "friendship award" honoring contributions to social and economic development in China, Xinhua said. China's economy gained 7.8 percent in the first half from the same period last year. Chinese officials have expressed increasing confidence in recent months that economic growth will exceed the government's seven percent target this year because of massive state spending and rising exports. The central bank said this year's growth may top 7.5 percent.

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