Traders to visit Brazil

NEW DELHI: A 40-member delegation of top Indian companies and senior government officials is visiting Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on June 9 to attend the Forum on Regionalism and South-South Cooperation. The forum will be a platform for India and Mercosur countries on South-South cooperation and investment promotion, as also to discuss issues of common interest in multilateral forums such as the WTO. — HNS

US firm to buy SDB stake

SHANGHAI: China’s Shenzhen Development Bank Co (SDB) says its board has agreed to sell an 18 per cent stake to US private equity firm Newbridge Capital Ltd, in a rare deal giving effective control of a state-owned mainland bank to a foreign company. A notice by the bank stated negotiations on the long-awaited deal were concluded over the weekend. — AP

SK Telecom fined $10m

SEOUL: South Korea’s largest mobile phone carrier SK Telecom has been fined more than $10 million for unfair business practices. SK Telecom would be ordered this week to pay $10.2 million for illegally subsidising its subscribers to buy mobile handsets. KTF Co and LG Telecom Ltd, the second and the third largest mobile carriers in South Korea have urged the ministry to take immediate action to ease SK Telecom’s market dominance. — AFP

Tourism up in Singapore

SINGAPORE: Singapore’s tourism industry bounced back strongly in April from the same month last year when the city-state was hammered by an outbreak of SARS. The wealthy Southeast Asian nation saw 651,860 arrivals in April, more than double the figure the previous year, when the SARS scare was at its height. — AP

CEA to buy 10 A330s

BEIJING: China Eastern Airlines (CEA) is on the verge of finalising a deal with Airbus Industrie to buy 10 A330 aircraft. “We will likely place the order officially some time next month at a cost of over $800 million,” the official said, “The new aircraft will be used to replace some of our retiring A300s.” He ruled out competitors Air China and China Southern Airlines making similar orders in the near term. — AFP

Ban on video games

BEIJING: China has set up a censorship committee to monitor imported video game content to weed out any that could threaten ‘national unity’ or ‘divulge state secrets’. “Online games with content threatening state security, damaging the nation’s glory, disturbing social order and infringing on other’s legitimate rights will also be prohibited,” said a Ministry of Culture. — AFP

First BSE-immune cow

TOKYO: Japan’s second largest beer maker Kirin Brewery said its pharmaceutical unit and a US biotech company have jointly developed the world’s first technology to breed cows that are immune to mad cow disease. A cow was already carrying the first foetus and the calf would be born next year. — AFP

Ghosn to hit sales target

TOKYO: Carlos Ghosn, the man who turned around Nissan Motor, reiterated his global sales target while forecasting China will become the third largest market for the Renault-controlled Japanese carmaker in four years. Nissan’s chief executive told a business audience of 1,250 that he was confident the company would hit its global sales target of 3.6 million units. — AFP