NEWS IN BRIEF

Maersk halts Iran service
LONDON: Maersk Line, the world's biggest container shipping company, has stopped port calls to Iran as Western sanctions pressure on the Islamic Republic mounts, a spokeswoman said yesterday. Many of Iran's imports, including food and consumer goods, are transported by sea via container and bulker ships. While food and consumer items are not targeted by sanctions, a growing number of Western firms, especially shipping related companies, are pulling back from trade with Iran due to the complexities of deals, whilst also fearing losing business elsewhere. "Maersk Line has ceased to call in Iran," a spokeswoman for the unit of Danish group A.P. Moller-Maersk said.

Gold One sacks 1,435 workers
JOHANNESBURG: South Africa's Gold One mining firm sacked 1,435 people, more than 75 percent of its workforce at one facility yesterday, after a week-long illegal strike. "The company dismissed approximately 1,435 of the total 1,900 employees at its Ezulwini Operation," the firm said in a statement. Amid rising anger at South Africa's failure to tackle vast income gaps that plague the country 18 years after the end of Apartheid, miners, truckers and other workers have downed tools demanding higher pay.

P&G chief defends plan
CINCINNATI: Procter & Gamble Co.'s CEO stood behind the company's plan for increasing profit and sales at a drama-free annual meeting notable for the absence of William Ackman, the activist investor who has pushed hard for change in recent months at the world's largest maker of household products. Chief Executive Bob McDonald defended the strategy of developing major new products while the company at the same time seeks to cut $10 billion in costs.
Yesterday’s meeting, held in P&G's hometown of Cincinnati, came as something of a respite for McDonald months after Ackman's Pershing Square Capital Management took a stake in P&G, putting pressure on the CEO and the board to improve performance.

Germany helps Hays beat forecasts
LONDON: More relaxed labor laws for temporary workers in Germany helped push British recruitment firm Hays to a better than expected first quarter, easing the gloom in some other key markets. Fees from Hays's IT-focused German market grew a record 25 percent on a like-for-like basis up to Sept. 30, highlighting the growing importance to Hays of the euro zone's largest economy, where group headcount has grown sixfold since 2005. At 11:45 GMT, Hays's shares, which have fallen 16 percent over the past six months, were up 6.7 percent at 80.2 pence. Germany now accounts for a fifth of group profit, with the UK representing around 30 percent. In the Asia Pacific region, which contributes 32 percent of group fees, a contraction in Australia and New Zealand followed a slowdown in demand for natural resources in China.