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World Business Quick Take

■ AVIATION
Airline boosts entertainment
American Airlines is offering free on-demand video and audio entertainment for first-and business-class passengers on transcontinental flights and will test a media player on some flights between Los Angeles and Chicago. The airline said premium customers will get free on-demand movies, music and television on handheld devices with 7-inch (17.7cm) touch-screen monitors. American said it began offering the devices on Tuesday on Boeing 767-200 and 767-300 aircraft flying New York-Los Angeles and New York-San Francisco routes, and it will add them to Miami-San Francisco flights next month.

■ AUTOMOBILES
US sales stall
US auto sales stalled last month as a weaker housing market and higher gas prices hurt consumers, raising further doubts about the industry's outlook for the remainder of the year. Sales at General Motors Corp fell 2 percent, while Ford Motor Co sales dropped 6 percent. Declines for the top two US automakers had been expected after executives at both companies warned about results for last month. Even Toyota Motor Co posted its lowest monthly sales growth since August 2004 at just under 4 percent. But sales at Chrysler Group bucked the downtrend with a 10 percent gain, boosted by aggressive discounts.

■ BANKING
Goldman Sachs audited
Tax authorities have conducted an audit of the South Korean operations of US investment bank Goldman Sachs, the company said yesterday. The firm said its business in South Korea faced a "routine" tax audit but refused to confirm media reports that the National Tax Service is looking in particular at its investment in Jinro, a major distiller. Goldman Sachs' Seoul branch sold Jinro in 2005 to Hite Brewery for 3.4 trillion won (US$3.7 billion), reaping more than one trillion won in investment profits but only paying taxes on part of the profits, Yonhap news agency reported.

■ BANKING
Larger banknotes imminent
South Korea's central bank said yesterday it plans to issue large-denomination banknotes from 2009, more than three decades after the 10,000 won note (now worth US$10.70) was introduced. Since 1973, commodity prices have risen twelve-fold and the gross national income has become 150 times larger. Koreans who do not wish to use credit cards carry thick wads of notes or bank cheques which are issued in fixed sums. Personal cheques are very rarely used. The Bank of Korea plans to issue 100,000 won and 50,000 won bills in the first half of 2009 if the government approves the move.

■ PET FOOD
Officials step up probe
US food and drug officials were in Beijing yesterday to step up a joint investigation with Chinese authorities into tainted pet food products that have killed numerous animals in the US. The tainted wheat gluten has been found in nearly 100 brands of US pet food. Chemical melamine, a substance used in fertilizers and plastics, is used to enhance nitrogen-levels in the food and is believed to have led to kidney failure in pets. Adding melamine to food products is illegal in the US, but appears to be widely used in China. It is not known to be toxic to humans.


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