UAL becomes profitable after six years
New York: UAL, the parent company of United Airlines, has posted a second-quarter profit, in the US second quarter of the current fiscal. The profit is its first since 2000 and was on the back of strong revenue and cost cuts.

UAL last week disclosed preliminary second-quarter results, saying its profit would be more than double Wall Street estimates.
UAL said profit amounted to $119m, or 93 cents per share, reversing a loss in the second quarter of '05. Excluding one-time severance charges of $22m, earnings per share were $1.09.

Operating revenues rose 16 pc to $5.11bn. UAL said it earned 0.6 cents per seat mile, compared with 0.29 cents per seat mile a year earlier.
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Wal-Mart staff sets up first union in China
Beijing: Employees of US retailer Wal-Mart have set up their first trade union in China. Analysts said the move could lead to more unionisation in the sector.

Twenty-five employees of a Wal-Mart store in Quanzhou, in the south-eastern province of Fujian, established the union, a branch of the state-controlled All-China Federation of Trade Unions, a news agency said.

Wal-Mart Stores, which set up shop in China in 1996 and employs more than 30,000 at stores across the country, has long resisted pressure in the United States to unionise its workers there to win better pay and benefits.
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Cadbury salmonella infested chocolates recall may hit profits
New York: Cadbury-Schweppes which recalled chocolate products that had traces of salmonella is expected to as much as £40m ($75m) in profits this year because of lower sales and costs linked to the outbreak, according to analysts.

Cadbury on June 23 announced the withdrawal of seven varieties of chocolate from UK stores and two from Ireland after finding 'minute' levels of salmonella at one of its sites.

Goldman Sachs on July 25 reduced its full-year pretax profit estimate by £15m, or around 1 pc as a 'preliminary cautious measure', based on £5m in product recall costs and £20m of lost sales.
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Glenn Stevens to head the Reserve Bank of Australia
Sydney: The Australian government has appointed Glenn Stevens as the next head of the country's central bank. Currently the deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia, Stevens, will take over when Governor Ian Macfarlane retires in September.

Stevens, a career central banker who joined the RBA in 1980, has long been the front-runner for the position and is considered a safe choice by market analysts.
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