KANO, Nigeria, Dec. 25--A Nigerian court on Monday ordered the arrests of three of the defendants in a trial over a drug test conducted by Pfizer in 1996 which Nigerian authorities say killed 11 children and left others disabled.
The northern state of Kano is suing Pfizer for $2 billion in damages and pressing criminal charges over the testing of the antibiotic Trovan on children in Kano during a meningitis epidemic that killed 12,000 children in six months, Reuters reported.
The federal government is suing for an additional $6.5 billion and also pressing criminal charges.
Pfizer denies accusations that Trovan harmed children and that the company did not obtain proper regulatory and parental approval. It says it was meningitis that killed the children or damaged their health, while Trovan saved lives.
The High Court in Kano on Monday held a hearing in the state’s criminal case against Pfizer.
Lawyers for Pfizer were present but Judge Shehu Atiku complained that individual defendants should have been there too and issued arrest warrants against three of them.
Pfizer is arguing in a separate process in a Lagos court that the defendants were not properly served criminal summons and therefore were not technically charged or obliged to appear in court.
The civil and criminal cases launched by the state and federal governments since May have developed into a tangle of unresolved petitions and side issues, dragging on from one adjournment to the next. No witness has been heard and no substantive issue tackled.
Atiku adjourned the Kano state criminal case to Jan. 29 to hear a motion in which Pfizer challenges the court’s jurisdiction.

An elderly woman holds a plate of food she received at a distribution point for homeless people in Moscow in this file photo.

MOSCOW, Dec. 25--The Duma, the lower house of Russian parliament elected Dec. 2, opened Monday for the first time since the elections, with a special focus on poverty in Russia.
“The difference between the rich and the poor is the biggest national problem,“ the doyen of the assembly, Jores Alfiorov, said in his opening statement to 423 out of the 450 elected members gathered, AFP reported.
“We must fight poverty before adopting all the amendments of the fiscal law,“ said Alfiorov, a Communist Party member, the second-largest party represented in the chamber after the pro-Kremlin United Russia party.
The average monthly Russian income in 2006 was 8,243 rubles ($287, 200 euros). Some 13 percent of the people in Moscow live under the poverty level, while it is two percent higher in the rest of Russia.
According to the municipal statistics committee, 10 percent of Moscow’s residents earn 41 times more than the poorest 10 percent.
Russian Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov called for the deputies to support the government, “like the preceding Duma did“. “Our objective is to present to Russians a reasonable model of retirement,“ he said, adding, “we must keep our promises.“
Numerous parties headed their electoral campaign with slogans proclaiming “social justice“ in Russia.
United Russia gathered 64.3 percent of the vote and 315 mandates, or more than two-thirds in the Duma. The Communists took 57 mandates and the ultra-nationalistic Vladimir Jirinovski LDPR party gained 40 mandates.
Liberal parties Yabloko (1.59 percent) and Union of Right Forces (SPS, 0.96 percent) did not get the minimum seven percent votes needed to enter the Duma. Some 63 women hold office in the new Duma.

Lee Myung-Bak coasted to victory in South Korea’s election by promising to be an “economy president“ but his party must win upcoming general polls to keep bold reform plans on course, analysts say.
Lee, the country’s first president-elect from a business background, must also grapple with global financial uncertainty and a possible slowdown in the United States, South Korea’s third largest trading partner, AFP wrote.
The 66-year-old, credited with helping to drive Korea’s earlier meteoric growth when he was CEO of Hyundai Engineering and Construction, has presented a slew of pro-business policies.
“I am optimistic about corporate investment,“ the conservative leader said after his landslide election victory Wednesday. “The economic environment will totally change for entrepreneurs.“
In contrast to incumbent Roh Moo-Hyun, Lee stresses small government.
He promises to reform the public sector, stabilize labor-management relations and promote investment through deregulation and tax adjustments.
“Regulations should be removed or eased if they are a stumbling block to business activities,“ he has said, vowing to create “a pro-business and pro-market environment“.
Lee’s key election pledge, dubbed 747, is to raise annual growth to seven percent during his term, and lay the foundations to transform South Korea into the world’s seventh largest economy in 10 years, while raising per-capita income to $40,000 in the same period. He aims eventually to create about 600,000 new jobs every year.
But analysts rule out any drastic changes, at least until general elections in April. Lee’s Grand National Party does not now have a parliamentary majority.
“It seems unrealistic to expect immediate political and economic reform measures to be taken by the new administration due to political gridlock,“ US brokerage house, Goldman Sachs, said in a report.
An April election victory can provide “a strong mandate to the new administration to implement reform measures of pro-market and pro-growth policies,“ it said.
South Korea, the world’s 13th largest economy, averaged 4.4 percent growth over the past decade of liberal governments compared to an average eight percent before the 1997 financial crisis.
Youth unemployment is around seven percent, with companies reluctant to invest.
“It will be a major task for the next government to harness idle money and put it into investment,“ Seoul University finance professor Yun Chang-Hyun told AFP.
Many firms which have ample reserves have not ploughed them into investment and are only interested in raising their stock price, he said.
LG Economic Research Institute’s Lee Cheol-Yong said the next government could face “rough sailing“ if negative external factors such as a slow US economy combine with an April election defeat. “It is not easy for the next government to achieve its target due to unfavorable external factors,“ he said.
Lee was also cautious about some of Lee Myung-Bak’s pledges.
“Drastic tax cuts are possible only after the next government achieves high economic growth. Otherwise, it will be troubled with a widening fiscal deficit,“ he said.
Analyst Lee also opposes any major cuts in welfare spending, saying this is already a far lower percentage of the budget than in the United States.
“The next government can reform systems for a market-oriented economy but must moderate the extent of changes because a drastic revamp may cause turbulence,“ he said.
There is also broad public opposition to allowing conglomerates to own banks, Lee said. Candidate Lee had suggested an easing of restrictions.
The central bank Friday released a cautious outlook for 2008, citing inflationary pressure, high oil prices, the won’s steady rise and US subprime mortgage defaults.

ROME, Dec. 25--Italian construction materials giant Italcementi said on Monday that it would close its subsidiary in Sicily, Calcestruzzi, in protest at Mafia extortion.
Italcementi said in a statement that it was closing down in Sicily, a historic base for the Italian Mafia, “as a sign of a refusal to submit to, or to show any compliance with“ the Mafia, AFP reported.
The Italian employers’ federation Confindustria, which has decided to expel companies paying a so-called Mafia tax known as “pizzo“, welcomed the decision which affects seven cement distribution points on the island.
The head of Confindustria in Sicily, Yvan Lo Bello, has been placed under police protection. The local headquarters of the organization, at Caltanissetta in central Sicily, was ransacked in November in what was seen as a reprisal by the Mafia, known on the island as the Cosa Nostra.
The 26 Calcestruzzi employees concerned will handle only current contracts and the maintenance of the installations.
Italcementi recently began legal action over what it termed “irregularities“ it had uncovered.
The company said the decision to close down in Sicily was not a “capitulation“ to the Mafia but a step that was indispensable so that the irregularities could be investigated, those responsible moved and practices changed, and “so that such behavior cannot happen again.“
Calcestruzzi handled only three percent of supplies of cement in Sicily and its annual sales totaled seven million euros ($10 million).
Italcementi employs 23,000 people around the world and has annual sales of six billion euros, press reports said.
A recent study by the Sicilian university in Palermo on the costs of illegal activity estimated that the “pizzo“ tax amounted to 2.0-4.0 percent of the value of each construction and public works contract on the island.
The study, financed by the Chinnici Foundation, named after an Italian magistrate murdered by the mafia in 1983, estimated that each company in the construction sector was obliged to pay the mafia on average 17,000 euros per construction site.

Toyota made an estimated 9.51 million vehicles this year, up 5 percent from 2006.

NAGOYA, Japan,
Dec. 25--Toyota Motor Corp. raised its sales forecast for 2008 to 9.85 million vehicles, cementing the company’s lead as the world’s most profitable carmaker.
Sales will rise 5 percent from an estimated 9.36 million this year, the Toyota City, Japan-based automaker said in a release on Tuesday. Toyota plans to make 9.95 million vehicles, also a 5 percent increase. The company previously forecast sales of 9.8 million next year, Bloomberg wrote.
Toyota, close to ending General Motors Corp.’s 76-year reign as the world’s largest automaker by sales, needs to sell more vehicles in emerging markets to achieve its targets, as demand for automobiles is forecast to decline in the US and Japan, the company’s two biggest markets. Toyota opened a factory in St. Petersburg, Russia, last week and will add production in China next year.
“Toyota will solidify its position as the top carmaker in 2008,“ said Hitoshi Yamamoto, who manages the equivalent of $5.5 billion in Japanese equities as chief executive officer of Fortis Asset Management in Tokyo. “The company’s cars give it an edge.“
Toyota made an estimated 9.51 million vehicles this year, up 5 percent from 2006. GM said on Dec. 3 its production will total about 9.26 million in 2007.
Sales and production figures for Toyota include vehicles built by its Daihatsu Motor Co. and Hino Motors Ltd. subsidiaries.
The automaker earned net income of 1.64 trillion yen ($14 billion) in the year ended March 31 compared with General Motors $1.98 billion loss for the calendar year. GM in November reported a record $39 billion quarterly loss.
Toyota rose 1.3 percent to close at 6,100 yen at 3 p.m. on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The stock has fallen 23 percent this year, compared with a 9.7 percent drop in the benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa,
Dec. 25--Platinum drifted down from a record high in thin holiday-season trading, but the white metal stayed near highs as underlying sentiment was supported by concerns over tight supplies and robust industrial demand.
Tokyo precious metals rose to catch up with gains made during a public holiday in Japan a day earlier, with the benchmark platinum futures contract jumping to a record high, Reuters reported.
Cash platinum was trading at $1,515/1,525 an ounce as of 0237 GMT, down from a record high of $1,526/1,530 per ounce reached late in US trading on Monday.
“Fundamentals are strong due to supply concerns in South Africa, while demand from the industrial sector is expected to stay strong,“ said Shuji Sugata, manager at Mitsubishi Futures and Securities in Tokyo.
“Other precious metals prices are relatively strong, which are also keeping platinum prices supported,“ Sugata said.
Supply disruptions at some mines in South Africa, the world’s top producer, have resulted in a deficit this year and are likely to leave the market in a deficit again next year.
Aquarius Platinum said last week it lost an attributable 250 ounces of platinum group metals a day due to a strike at its Marikana mine in South Africa.
The yen’s dip against the dollar and the strength of cash platinum spurred active buying in Japanese platinum futures.
The key Tokyo Commodity Exchange platinum contract for December 2008 delivery reached a record high of 5,347 yen per gram, up about 83 yen or 1.6 percent from Friday’s close. Tokyo financial markets were closed for a public holiday on Monday.
It closed the morning session at 5,335 yen.
“Platinum prices in Tokyo were helped by the dollar’s strength against the yen. But it was important to see them break through a record high today,“ Sugata said.
Gold drifted down, but the strength in platinum kept the cash price above $800 per ounce. Gold was trading at $806.40/807.20 per ounce compared with $812.30/813.10 on Monday. Japanese gold futures jumped in line with the cash price, but they were off session highs.

TOKYO, Dec. 25--Japan will spend 215 billion yen ($1.9 billion) on a package of measures to ease the pain felt by the public from high oil prices, which includes cutting expressway tolls and boosting financing help for small firms.
The amount is seen increasing further as it does not include costs to subside home heating oil in cold areas, suggesting that government efforts to rein in a burgeoning fiscal deficit are stalling, Reuters wrote.
The government will set aside 43 billion yen under the supplementary budget for fiscal 2007/08 and another 172 billion yen under the state budget for next fiscal year for the package, formalized at a meeting of cabinet ministers on Tuesday.
“There is nothing good about rising crude oil prices for Japan’s economy,“ with the damage being felt broadly among companies and households, Economics Minister Hiroko Ota told a news conference. “We took steps focusing on areas that are most hard hit,“ she said.
Items on the spending list are increasing in financing support for small firms hit by rising costs, cuts in late night expressway tolls to help truck drivers and subsidies to sustain bus and plane transportation at remote areas.

BRASILIA, Brazil, Dec. 25--Brazil is living an “exceptional moment“ with declining unemployment and poverty, and a booming economy, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said.
“I am finishing this year very happy and very optimistic for the future of Brazil,“ he said Sunday in his regular weekend radio interview. “I think we are living an exceptional moment in Brazil,“ he was quoted by AFP as saying.
Lula stressed statistics showing unemployment had dropped to 8.2 percent in November, to its lowest level in five years, and the average wage had risen 1.3 percent to 1,143 reals ($635) per month.
He also noted that “companies are boosting their production capacity“ and investment was rising, especially in the vibrant automobile sector.
“Brazil is preparing for a big cycle of sustainable growth,“ he stated. “On this Christmas Eve, I can say to the Brazilian people that I am working with the certainty that 2008 will be infinitely better than 2007.“
Brazil’s economy, Latin America’s biggest, grew around 4.7 percent this year and is expected to increase another 4.4 percent next year. Inflation is put at around four percent.