■PHARMACEUTICALS
British giant to axe jobs
British giant GlaxoSmithKline is to cut up to 4,000 more jobs as it restructures its workforce and focuses increasingly on emerging markets, the Sunday Times reported yesterday. The majority of the jobs will be lost in the US and Europe, the newspaper said. GlaxoSmithKline, which employs just under 100,000 staff globally, is expected to reveal plans for the job cuts when it releases its annual results on Thursday, the report said. Its Anglo-Swedish rival, AstraZeneca, announced on Thursday it plans to axe 8,000 more jobs worldwide by 2014, extending a cost-cutting drive despite soaring profits.
■MEDIA
News Corp settles lawsuit
News Corp said on Saturday it had reached a US$500 million settlement over lawsuits filed by Valassis Communications Inc against a division of Rupert Murdoch’s entertainment and media giant. In legal action begun in 2006, Valassis accused News America Marketing of unfair business practices and seeking to monopolize the market for in-store coupons known as free standing inserts. Valassis said under the terms of the settlement News America Marketing will pay Valassis US$500 million, a sum that includes the jury award, and enter into a 10-year shared mail distribution agreement.
■JAPAN
Profits increase 14 percent
Japan’s listed companies saw their profits rise 14 percent in the October to December period for a third straight quarter-on-quarter gain, a newspaper survey showed yesterday. The survey, conducted by the leading business daily the Nikkei, covered 438 non-financial firms that had released their October to December earnings reports by Friday. It excluded start-up markets. The pretax profits represented a 120 percent gain from a year earlier to about ¥1.78 trillion (US$20 billion), the Nikkei said. The survey showed an impressive turnaround after combined pretax profits plunged to ¥93 billion in January to March last year in the midst of the global financial crisis, the daily added.
■MINING
Association expels Doe Run
Peru’s mining, oil and energy association (SNMPE) said on Saturday it had expelled US mining company Doe Run from its roster for not cleaning up its pollution problems, which environmentalists say are among the worst in the world. Doe Run in 1997 took over La Oroya mining complex and the Cobriza copper mine in Peru’s central Andean mountain region, where it mines for lead, copper, zinc, silver, gold and a series of byproducts, including sulfuric acid. SNMPE said expelling Doe Run from the association would not affect its mining business, but it noted that the company was presently in “a serious financial crisis.”
■BANKING
S Korean bad loans down
South Korean banks’ bad-loan ratios dropped to 1.22 percent of total lending at the end of December as they reduced the amount of non-performing loans through sales and write-downs. The ratio declined 26 basis points from three months earlier, with the total of non-performing loans falling to 15.7 trillion won (US$13.5 billion), the Financial Services Commission said yesterday in an e-mailed statement. Excluding 3 trillion won of one-off bad loans from restructuring debt at two Kumho Asiana Group units, the ratio was 0.99 percent, meeting the government’s 1 percent target, the regulator said.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
NOVEL METHODS: The PLA has adopted new approaches and recently conducted three combat readiness drills at night which included aircraft and ships, an official said Taiwan is monitoring China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) exercises for changes in their size or pattern as the nation prepares for president-elect William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday. Tsai made the comment at a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, in response to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ting-yu’s (王定宇) questions. China continues to employ a carrot-and-stick approach, in which it applies pressure with “gray zone” tactics, while attempting to entice Taiwanese with perks, Tsai said. These actions aim to help Beijing look like it has
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,