Russian Baltica to supply alcohol-free beer to Islamic Iran
Moscow: Russia's Baltica Breweries company is planning to supply alcohol-free beer to Islamic Iran. Alcohol-free beer is the latest in the whole range of premium beverages produced by Baltica at its flagship brewery in St Petersburg and various regions of Russia. Prime-TASS economic agency says Baltica plans to capture 20 per cent share of the Iranian market with the sale of 300 thousand deca-litres of alcohol-free beer by the end of next year.

Baltica is eyeing the West Asian Muslim countries as a lucrative market for its non-alcoholic beer. Various brands of Baltica alcoholic beer is already being marketed in 28 countries including China and North Korea. Last month it signed a long term deal with the Scottish Courage for the distribution of its classical light beer through a network of pubs in the United Kingdom.
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Toyota rolls out first made-in-Europe car for Japan
Tokyo: Toyota Motor, the world's third-largest auto maker, has launched its first made-in-Europe car to be sold in Japan. Its huge success on the continent had inspired plans to import the model. The UK-built Avensis, developed as a strategic model exclusively for the European market, has sold about 600,000 units there since its launch in 1997. The new version, available in sedan, wagon and hatchback forms, debuted in Europe in March and will be sold in Japan later this year.

"The era of producing only in Japan for export to various regions of the world has ended," executive vice president Kazushi Iwatsuki said. The auto maker already sells US-made vehicles in Japan, but the Avensis would be the first European-built car to be sold at home. In addition to supporting Toyota's sales in the stagnant domestic market, the move is expected to help Japan's top auto maker avoid redundant expenses that would have been incurred from producing the cars in Japan.
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AOL profit rises
New York: AOL Time Warner has said that its quarterly profit nearly tripled, helped by asset sales and a legal settlement, but accounting probes and the rapid flight of subscribers from its America Online Internet unit hampered its turnaround effort. The second-quarter net profit — which included gains related to the sale of its stake in Comedy Central and a settlement of a lawsuit with Microsoft rose to $1.1 billion, or 23 cents a share, from $396 million, or 9 cents a share, a year ago.

The special items totaled $524 million. Revenue rose 6 per cent to $10.82 billion while operating income before depreciation and amortization (a closely watched measure of cash flow) fell 4 per cent. Agencies reported that but it was the AOL Internet unit's declines that drew the most attention from investors, as the number of subscribers plunged 846,000 in the quarter, far more than the 500,000 some analysts forecasted.
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