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HAWAII

Pacific Warehouse sells Kalihi building

Honolulu real estate investment company Watumull Properties Corp. has bought a 98,000-square-foot industrial warehouse building in Kalihi for an undisclosed price.

The company bought the leasehold property from Pacific Warehouse Inc., which is partly owned by some of the owners of Foodland Super Market Ltd.

The building, located at 801 Moowaa St., houses Business Cards Tomorrow and plumbing supplier Ferguson. It sits on land owned by Kamehameha Schools.

Southwest sets fares for ATA flights

Discount carrier Southwest Airlines has begun selling Hawaii tickets for flights available through its new agreement with ATA Airlines, effective Feb. 4.

Base fares for two daily one-way ATA flights from Honolulu to Chicago and on to any of 13 city destinations, are either $359 or $399.

Unrestricted one-way travel is $599, regardless of destination city: Baltimore/Washington, D.C.; Cleveland or Columbus, Ohio; Detroit, Mich.; Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood, Orlando or Tampa Bay, Fla.; Indianapolis, Ind.; Louisville, Ky.; Manchester, N.H.; Nashville, Tenn.; St. Louis, Mo.; or, effective March 4, Providence, R.I.

A customer service representative at the company's toll-free number said yesterday that passengers heading from a mainland city to Honolulu would have to book travel through ATA.

The agreement between Southwest and ATA does not allow the use of Southwest frequent-flier rewards on ATA flights. The so-called code-share deal was part of Southwest's acquisition of six gates at Midway Airport from ATA, which is under bankruptcy protection.

NATION

McDonald's CEO dies of cancer

CHICAGO >> Charlie Bell, who died eight weeks after stepping down as McDonald's Corp. CEO, was remembered yesterday for playing a key role in the fast-food chain's resurgence and helping to give it an edgier brand image.

Bell's seven-month stint as chief executive last year was cut short by his battle against colorectal cancer, which ended early yesterday with his death at age 44 in his native Sydney, Australia.

Besides being the company's first non-American CEO, analysts say his legacy will lie primarily in the turnaround strategy which he helped put in place in 2003 as president and chief operating officer under Jim Cantalupo and remains in place today.

Continental Air to cut $99 million

Continental Airlines unveiled additional salary and benefit cuts affecting thousands of employees yesterday, as it tries to reach its goal of half a billion dollars in reductions.

The latest round involves wage and benefit reductions and changes in work procedures that will lead to $99 million in savings for field services employees, which include domestic-airport ticket, gate, ramp, operations and cargo-agent employees. Some 11,800 employees are part of those groups.

With yesterday's announcement, the cuts hit $169 million, with $331 million still to go for Continental management to reach its goal.

The airline is seeking concessions from all of its employees by Feb. 28, citing the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars.

WORLD

Major changes in store for Swiss airline

BASEL, Switzerland >> Switzerland's struggling national airline yesterday suspended trading in its shares for a day and said it was considering major changes.

Swiss International Air Lines said its executive board was discussing another restructuring plan, adding to the string of shake-ups the company has faced since it was created out of the defunct Swissair in March 2002.

The airline declined to give details, beyond saying that the board meeting would focus on "part of its regional aircraft fleet."

Swiss media reports over the weekend claimed that the airline's management was planning to create a separate company to run its European operations with lower salaries and sell off aircraft.

The airline, known as Swiss, has felt the bite of high oil prices and competition from low-cost carriers in Europe, as have several U.S carriers.

Khodorkovsky decries witness intimidation

MOSCOW >> Citing fears of intimidation, lawyers representing the business partner of jailed oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky filed a motion yesterday waiving the right to call defense witnesses as their client's fraud and tax evasion trial drags on.

Khodorkovsky and his partner Platon Lebedev's defense team claim that prosecutors are putting pressure on possible witnesses, and have demanded a list of those the defense planned to summon.

Last week, Khodorkovsky accused prosecutors of confiscating documents to impede lawyers' work.

Prosecutor Dmitry Shokhin called the allegations false.

Mitsubishi will supply minicars to Nissan

TOKYO >> Mitsubishi Motors Corp., which has been seeking partnerships to bail itself out of its deep financial woes, will supply minicars to Nissan Motor Co., both sides said yesterday.

Tokyo-based Mitsubishi Motors will supply 36,000 minicars a year to Nissan starting in the first half of fiscal 2005, which begins April 1.

Nissan, which does not make its own minicars, now gets minicars from Suzuki Motor Corp.

Minicars are too tiny for many parts of the world, but they are extremely popular in Japan as a cheap way of getting around crowded streets.

69 arrested in China in bank fraud case

BEIJING >> Chinese authorities have arrested dozens of government officials and others accused in a scheme to steal $900 million from a state bank through fraudulent loans, news reports said yesterday.

Prosecutors intend to file charges against 69 people, including former employees of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, one of the country's four main state-owned commercial banks, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

The government has dismissed 80 officials accused of colluding in the scheme and some of them are among those being prosecuted, the China Daily newspaper said.

Sri Lanka hopes aid will reduce inflation

Sri Lanka's central bank governor said interest rates will fall as overseas aid to help the nation rebuild after the Dec. 26 tsunami boosts the currency and reduces inflation.

"Over a long period, we feel interest rates will come down," Central Bank of Sri Lanka Governor Sunil Mendis said. "If dollar funds are made available, the balance of payments situation will improve a lot, government borrowings will reduce and inflation will be low."

The Indian Ocean island nation is seeking about $1.8 billion in foreign aid after the tsunami, which killed more than 30,000 people in Sri Lanka and left almost 500,000 homeless. Mendis said Sri Lanka's economic growth, projected at between 5 percent and 5.5 percent by the government this year, wouldn't be curbed by the disaster.

Singapore exports hit a record high last year

Singapore's exports expanded by 17 percent to a record high last year, reflecting strong demand from China for oil and commodities and solid sales of electronics and pharmaceuticals to the United States and European Union.

Exports hit $82 billion in 2004, while total trade reached $355.3 billion, up 22.5 percent, state trade promotion agency International Enterprise Singapore said in a statement.

Fuji Television offers to buy radio company

Fuji Television Network Inc., Japan's biggest broadcaster, offered $1.7 billion to buy Nippon Broadcasting System Inc., a radio company whose largest shareholder has advocated a merger for the past 18 months.

Fuji TV offered $58.28 a share for the 87.6 percent of Nippon Broadcasting it doesn't own, 7 percent more than the closing price on Jan. 14, it said yesterday. The Tokyo-based station, which shows Formula One races in Japan, wants to buy at least 12.3 million shares to bring its holding to 50 percent.

Shell resumes output at Nigerian oil wells

Shell's Nigerian subsidiary has restarted oil production at five platforms shut down last month by protests in the troubled Niger Delta, but a pipeline leak has cut output elsewhere, a company spokesman said yesterday.

Shell restarted production late Friday at the Awoba North flow station, meaning that all five flow stations shut by the protests are now operating, said Royal Dutch/Shell Group of Cos. spokesman Simon Buerk from London.