BUSINESS BRIEFS
Delta emerges from bankruptcy
Advertiser Staff and News Services
ATLANTA — Delta Air Lines, the third-largest U.S. carrier, exits bankruptcy today with less debt, 6,000 fewer workers and 60 new overseas routes that may determine whether it will become profitable again.
By shuffling planes, Atlanta-based Delta undertook the industry's fastest international expansion without buying new jets. That global bet may be more important after airlines said U.S. fare growth stalled last quarter.
"From a standpoint of revenue mix and network strategy, the cards are really lining up pretty nicely right now for Delta," said Fitch Inc. analyst William Warlick in Chicago.
ABDUCTED OIL WORKERS FREED
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — Seven Chinese oil workers and two Africans abducted during a rebel attack on a Chinese oil field near the Somali border were released yesterday.
The Red Cross was taking the men to a safe location to be turned over to the Ethiopian and Chinese authorities, said Patrick Megevand of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Ethiopia.
The Ogaden National Liberation Front claimed responsibility for the attack on the Chinese-owned oil exploration field in eastern Ethiopia on April 24 that killed 65 Ethiopians and nine Chinese workers.
S. KOREAN TYCOON LINKED TO ATTACK
SEOUL, South Korea — Police questioned one of South Korea's richest men yesterday following media reports that he and his bodyguards abducted and beat eight people after his son was hurt in a scuffle with bar employees.
Kim Seung-youn, 55, chairman and CEO of the Hanwha Group, South Korea's ninth-largest business conglomerate, and his bodyguards allegedly seized the men last month and took them to a mountainous area south of Seoul where they were threatened and beaten, the Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported Saturday.
