■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 HUMAN ERROR: After the incident, the Coast Guard Administration said it would obtain uncrewed aerial vehicles and vessels to boost its detection capacity Authorities would improve border control to prevent unlawful entry into Taiwan’s waters and safeguard national security, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday after a Chinese man reached the nation’s coast on an inflatable boat, saying he “defected to freedom.” The man was found on a rubber boat when he was about to set foot on Taiwan at the estuary of Houkeng River (後坑溪) near Taiping Borough (太平) in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), authorities said. The Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) northern branch said it received a report at 6:30am yesterday morning from the New Taipei City Fire Department about a
IN BEIJING’S FAVOR: A China Coast Guard spokesperson said that the Chinese maritime police would continue to carry out law enforcement activities in waters it claims The Philippines withdrew its coast guard vessel from a South China Sea shoal that has recently been at the center of tensions with Beijing. BRP Teresa Magbanua “was compelled to return to port” from Sabina Shoal (Xianbin Shoal, 仙濱暗沙) due to bad weather, depleted supplies and the need to evacuate personnel requiring medical care, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) spokesman Jay Tarriela said yesterday in a post on X. The Philippine vessel “will be in tiptop shape to resume her mission” after it has been resupplied and repaired, Philippine Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, who heads the nation’s maritime council, said
CHINA POLICY: At the seventh US-EU Dialogue on China, the two sides issued strong support for Taiwan and condemned China’s actions in the South China Sea The US and EU issued a joint statement on Wednesday supporting Taiwan’s international participation, notably omitting the “one China” policy in a departure from previous similar statements, following high-level talks on China and the Indo-Pacific region. The statement also urged China to show restraint in the Taiwan Strait. US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and European External Action Service Secretary-General Stefano Sannino cochaired the seventh US-EU Dialogue on China and the sixth US-EU Indo-Pacific Consultations from Monday to Tuesday. Since the Indo-Pacific consultations were launched in 2021, references to the “one China” policy have appeared in every statement apart from the
More than 500 people on Saturday marched in New York in support of Taiwan’s entry to the UN, significantly more people than previous years. The march, coinciding with the ongoing 79th session of the UN General Assembly, comes close on the heels of growing international discourse regarding the meaning of UN Resolution 2758. Resolution 2758, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1971, recognizes the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the “only lawful representative of China.” It resulted in the Republic of China (ROC) losing its seat at the UN to the PRC. Taiwan has since been excluded from