Pak telecom strike

KARACHI: About 500 workers at Pakistan’s largest, state-owned telephone company have been detained after they went on strike to thwart a privatization bid. The industrial action, launched at the weekend to head off a plan to sell a 26 per cent stake in Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd had disrupted more than 200,000 phone lines. — AP

Flood of cell phones

STOCKHOLM: Sony Ericsson unveiled four new mobile phones from a basic handset with text and calling options to a more advanced phone with third-generation technology allowing downloading of music and games and videoconferencing. Meanwhile, Nokia, the world’s largest mobile phone maker, also unveiled seven new mobile handsets with cameras, fast Internet connections, on Monday. — AP

Petition dropped

SINGAPORE: A creditor of China’s main jet fuel supplier has dropped its court petition to put the troubled company under judicial management. SK Energy Asia, a subsidiary of SK Corp, a South Korean oil refiner, had submitted an appeal that China Aviation Oil (Singapore) Corp be put under judicial management, replacing the company team that is leading a debt restructuring. — AP

Busiest airport

FRANKFURT: The number of passengers travelling through Frankfurt’s airport reached 4.5 million in May, up by 2.6 per cent from the same time last year. Some 4.5 million people travelled to and from the airport last month as travelers took advantage of long weekends to take short vacation and holiday trips across Europe. — AP

Fugitive boss to return

SEOUL: The fugitive former head of South Korea’s Daewoo Group, Kim Woo-Choong, will return to South Korea on Tuesday and give himself up to investigators probing the collapse of his business empire, according to an aide. The former business magnate has been in exile abroad since the Daewoo Group collapsed in 1999 after one of the world’s biggest corporate accounting frauds. — AFP