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World business quick take

■Toys
Wal-Mart dumps pregnant doll
Barbie having babies? Stick to playing nurse and Rapunzel, say Wal-Mart shoppers. Barbie's long-time pal, Midge -- now married and pregnant -- was yanked from Wal-Mart Stores Inc shelves earlier this month after customers complained about the doll, a company spokeswoman said. Midge is sold as part of the "Happy Family" set, wearing a tiny wedding ring and a detachable stomach with a curled-up baby inside. Her husband, Alan, and 3-year-old child Ryan are sold separately. Melissa Berryhill, a Wal-Mart spokeswoman, declined to comment on whether shoppers objected specifically to the doll being sold alone, which may suggest teenage pregnancy, rather than being sold with the rest of the family. "We make every decision on which items to carry based on customer demand, and that was the reason for this. Customers were unhappy with the offering," Berryhill said. Some shoppers said they were not convinced Wal-Mart's priorities were on target. "Wal-Mart pulling Barbie because she's pregnant, but they still sell guns and ammo?" said Laura Jamieson of San Francisco.

■ Phone services
StarHub starts in Singapore
StarHub Pte Ltd launched residential fixed-line telephone services yesterday in a quest to shake the monopoly of Singapore Telecommunications Ltd in the city-state. Analysts however said SingTel's dominance in the residential fixed-line phone market, in which it has 1.2 million customers, remained secure. StarHub is Singapore's second-largest telecoms provider and has so far been offering mobile-phone, broadband-Internet and cable-television services. It has also been offering fixed-line services to selected commercial buildings for some time. StarHub is targeting a modest 5,000 subscribers in its first year.

■ Retail
US retailers give up hope
US retailers, including the world's biggest, Wal-Mart Stores Inc, have all but given up hope that post-Christmas shopping sprees will kick-start sluggish sales, even as bargain hunters make their annual pilgrimage to the malls. Armed with gift certificates and unwanted presents on the day after Christmas, consumers hit shopping centers, some opening as early as 7am, to pick up half-priced holiday decorations, winter coats and even cashmere sweaters. But Wal-Mart lowered its sales forecast for December, saying a last-minute surge in demand was too little and too late to make up for a slow start, and sounding another grim note for a sector already braced for what is forecast to be the weakest sales season in more than 30 years.

■ Productivity
Japan's economy falls further
Japan's economy showed further signs of trouble in November as factory production posted its largest fall in a year and more people gave up their hunt for jobs, government data showed yesterday. Industrial output plunged a sharper-than-expected 2.2 percent from October, in the third straight month of decline, hit by lower production of train carriages, personal computers and electronic toys, the trade ministry said. A surprise drop in Japan's unemployment rate over the month to 5.3 percent from a record high 5.5 percent in October was misleading as it mainly reflected a decline in the number of people trying to find work, economists said.

Agencies
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