Nike cancellation could cost jobs
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Nike Inc.'s decision to cancel orders from a Pakistan-based producer of hand-stitched soccer balls because of labor violations could cost the supplier more than 4,000 jobs, its general manager said Tuesday.
Saga Sports, which employs 8,000 to 9,000 people, exported products valued at 2 billion rupees (almost $33 million) last year, said the company's general manager, Rizwan Dar. He said soccer balls for Nike accounted for 70 percent of the company's business.
Nike accused Saga Sports of having soccer balls hand-stitched inside private homes, raising the potential for the use of underaged workers and unsafe working conditions.
S. Korea carrier buying 25 planes
SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea's flag carrier Korean Air said Tuesday it will buy 25 aircraft from Boeing Co. for around $5.5 billion, the largest aviation deal in the nation's history.
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Under the agreement, Boeing will deliver 15 passenger aircraft and 10 freighters to Korean Air Co. — the world's biggest mover of air cargo — over a 10-year period beginning in 2009, the airline said in a statement.
Korean Air will purchase 10 long-haul 777-300s and five medium-range 737-900/700 passenger jets, as well as 10 freighters, five 747-8Fs and five 777-200s. It has an option on an additional eight planes.
Winn-Dixie ends bankruptcy
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Winn-Dixie Stores Inc. emerged from bankruptcy Tuesday, 21 months after the grocery chain filed for Chapter 11 protection because of huge financial losses caused by competitive pressures.
The new Winn-Dixie is much smaller than the troubled company that filed for bankruptcy on Feb. 20, 2005.
It has 522 stores in five states and employs about 55,000 people. It had 920 stores in eight states and the Bahamas and 79,000 employees when it sought bankruptcy protection.
The company also sold warehouses, manufacturing plants and corporate jets.
5 ex-traders off the hook
NEW YORK — The federal government ended prosecutions Tuesday against five former New York Stock Exchange supervisory floor traders, all but ending an effort that had brought mixed results amid claims that traders were being arrested for behavior long tolerated on Wall Street.
In a statement from the office of U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia, prosecutors announced they had "concluded that continued prosecutions in these cases are not in the interests of justice."
The five were among 15 NYSE specialists accused of using their inside positions to earn an estimated $20 million illegally for themselves and their firms.
Last month, prosecutors won their third jury conviction against a specialist when a jury in U.S. District Court in Manhattan found David A. Finnerty guilty of securities fraud.
Judge Denny Chin immediately cast doubt on the verdict, saying issues related to the prosecution needed scrutiny.
Among them, he said, was the likelihood that many individuals were aware of the practice by which specialists sometimes conducted trades to allow their firms to profit on the transactions rather than giving the best possible price to those buying or selling a stock.
Ex-Volkswagen official arrested
BERLIN — The former head of Volkswagen AG's employee council, Klaus Volkert, was arrested Tuesday amid an investigation of a corruption scandal at the automaker, prosecutors said.
Volkert's arrest came a week after prosecutors in Braunschweig, near VW's Wolfsburg headquarters, charged former Volkswagen personnel chief Peter Hartz with 44 counts of breach of trust in the scandal.
The investigation revolves around whether VW managers and members of its works council received illegal privileges including lavish foreign trips paid for by the company.