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GlaxoSmithKline on Wednesday reported that first-quarter profit fell 13.7 percent from a year ago as generic competition in the United States cut into sales of its anti-depressant and heart medication drugs. Profit for the three months ending March 31 was $2.58 billion. Revenue for Glaxo -- the world's second-largest drug maker after Pfizer Inc. -- rose 1.6 percent to $11.3 billion. In the key U... more

The leaders of Japan and the European Union expressed their "strong concern" Wednesday over high food and oil prices and highlighted the "urgent need" to address it. The comments, at the end of a Japan-EU summit in Tokyo, come as the world grapples with rising food prices. International food aid groups appealed this week for more donor money to cover the cost of food, and the UN's Food and Agricu.. more

Volkswagen said Wednesday that improved sales helped lift its first-quarter net profit by more than 25 percent and predicted a substantial increase in demand from Asia, Europe and South America. The Wolfsburg-based company, Europe's biggest car maker by sales, said it earned $1.5 billion in the January-March period, compared with around $1.1 billion the year before. Operating profit rose 21 percen.. more

Italian prime minister-elect Silvio Berlusconi believes Italian investors are ready to bid for ailing airline Alitalia -- but also warned that workers for the national airline faced job cuts, agencies report local media as saying. Berlusconi made his comments the day after Alitalia was rescued with an emergency short-term loan of €300 million ($478 million) from the Italian government, a governm.. more

Prime Minister Bruce Golding wants to permit licensing of casinos in Jamaica as a way to boost revenues, a move that is certain to ignite fierce opposition by religious groups who argue gambling encourages vice. During a budget debate in Parliament Tuesday, Golding said he has already green-lighted a proposal by a group of international investors to establish the Caribbean island's first casino. .. more

Troubled Italian airline Alitalia got an emergency short term loan of 300 million euros ($478 million) from the Italian government Tuesday, a government official told CNN. The airline must return the money by the end of the year, the official said. Outgoing Prime Minister Romano Prodi called the loan "an act of responsibility" aimed at staving off bankruptcy and the possibility of thousands of la.. more

Mobile phone maker Sony Ericsson has reported a 48 percent drop in first-quarter net profits, citing slower sales growth in some of its markets. Last month, shares in Sony Ericsson plummeted more than 7 percent after it warned that falling growth in the market for mid- and high-range handsets would hurt its results in the first quarter. Sony Ericsson said Wednesday it expects the global handset .. more

OPEC's secretary-general said Tuesday there are plans to boost oil production target capacity by 5 million barrels a day by 2012. Abdalla Salem el-Badri in separate comments in an interview with Dow Jones Newswires on the sidelines of a Rome energy forum said that members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries are planning to spend $160 billion (some €100 billion) over the next fou.. more

Kim Fenske drives a bus in Colorado by day, but when he's not working, he zooms around the mountains in a 2007 Toyota Prius. Fenske, an attorney by training who has also worked as a forest ranger, was an environmentalist long before hybrid cars like the Prius hit the market. In the early 1990s, he ran unsuccessfully for the Wisconsin state legislature on a renewable energy platform. But he recent.. more

Britain's antitrust regulator reported Tuesday that BAA's ownership of seven airports, including three major airports serving London, may not serve the interests of passengers or airlines. The preliminary report suggested that the Competition Commission may call for BAA to dispose of some of its facilities which include London's Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted airports. Were the London airports se.. more