■ Deutsche bankCEO Ackermann charged
Deutsche Bank AG Chief Executive Officer Josef Ackermann has been charged with embezzlement tied to payouts for Mannesmann AG executives when the German wireless company was bought by Vodafone Group Plc, the prosecutors office in Dusseldorf, Germany said. Four other managers including former Mannesmann CEO Klaus Esser and IG Metall union head Klaus Zwickel have also been charged with embezzlement, Hans-Reinhard Henke, the head prosecutor in Dusseldorf, told reporters at a briefing. The regional court will now give the accused time to respond to the charges and will then decide whether to open criminal proceedings. The charges could lead to a maximum sentence of 10 years imprisonment for the managers, including Ackermann, who was on Mannesmann's supervisory board at the time.
■ Mobile Phones
New models released
NTT DoCoMo Inc, KDDI Corp, and J. Phone Co have cut prices for their mobile phones fitted with cameras by as much as 80 percent after a surge in inventories following the release of new models, Nikkei English News reported. Some cellphone models released last year are on sale for 1 yen, Nikkei said, without citing anyone. Some large retailers are selling KDDI's au-brand video-camera model at 70 percent below the brand's introductory price last year, the report said. KDDI is Japan's second-largest mobile phone operator. NTT DoCoMo's D251i handsets are selling below ¥5,000 (US$42), down 80 percent since they were introduced last July, the newswire said. Models introduced last July by Vodafone Group Plc's J-Phone Co are selling between ¥1 and ¥100, it said.
■ US accord
Singapore firms benefit
Singapore's recent agreement with the US to eliminate tariffs on most of their two-way commerce will save companies up to S$300 million (US$178 million) a year, a Singaporean trade official said. Chemicals companies will be the biggest beneficiaries, saving S$178 million in tariffs, followed by an estimated S$54 million gain for minerals suppliers and a S$48 million advantage to electrical and electronics companies, Tommy Koh, Singapore's chief negotiator for the US free-trade agreement, said in a speech. "Those who'll benefit the most will be US multinationals based in Singapore," said Koh. US companies, such as Agilent Technologies Inc and Hewlett Packard Co, account for 60 percent of Singapore's shipments to the US, the city-state's biggest export market.
■ Cordless Phones
China may release service
China may allow Little Smart, a pilot cordless phone service operated by the country's two biggest fixed-line carriers, to go nationwide in May, Beijing's Morning Post reported, without citing sources. That would allow China Telecommunications Corp and China Netcom Communication Group Corp to set up networks in Beijing, Shanghai and other cities, the newspaper said on its Web site. China so far has limited Little Smart, which is cheaper than regular cellular service, to smaller centers. Licensing it in wealthy cities such as Guangzhou will increase competition for the country's mobile duopoly, China Mobile Communi-cations Corp. and China United Telecommunications Corp.
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