Japan, ASEAN, break trade deadlock
BANDAR SERI BEGWAN, Brunei, May 5 (UPI) -- Japan and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations have reportedly broken their deadlock over free-trade issues during a meeting in Brunei.
The two sides tentatively agreed Friday to sign a free-trade deal in November, the Kyodo news agency reported Saturday.
Japan and ASEAN ministers have been at odds over what percent of goods should be traded tariff-free.
Japan wants 92 percent of goods traded between Japan and ASEAN to be tariff-free with 7 percent of goods categorized as sensitive or highly sensitive, to have some protection, Kyodo said.
Under the tentative agreement reached Friday, auto goods would be mostly tariff-free while rice is expected to be protected, Kyodo said.
Japan and the 10-member ASEAN have set an August target date to hammer out an agreement that could then be signed during the ASEAN summit in Singapore in November.
'Living wage' for LAX hotel staff blocked
LOS ANGELES, May 5 (UPI) -- A judge has barred Los Angeles from extending "living wage" protections to workers at hotels near the city's airport.
Superior Court Judge David P. Yafee Friday rejected an ordinance to guarantee wages and benefits equal to $10.64 an hour for workers at hotels near the Los Angeles International Airport.
Yafee rebuked Los Angeles' labor and political leaders, saying they violated the public's constitutional rights by not giving voters a say, the Los Angeles Times reported Saturday.
Yafee accused union leaders and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa of "bad faith" for engaging in complex political machinations when they were supposed to be helping the 3,500 workers at airport-area hotels.
The ordinance was considered groundbreaking because the city's living wage had previously applied only to workers at government contractors and other firms with a direct financial relationship with Los Angeles, the Times reported. City and union leaders said they would try again next year to enact a similar ordinance.
'Smoke' shop bests Lockheed Martin
LONDON, May 5 (UPI) -- A London drug paraphernalia shop has won a fight against U.S. aircraft giant Lockheed Martin to keep the Web domain name ukskunkworks.co.uk.
Lockheed Martin had brought a complaint against Skunk Works, a head shop with a motto of "in the leaf we trust," the Times of London reported Saturday.
The multibillion-dollar aircraft company said it should have the domain rights because Skunk Works is the name of its California research laboratory that developed the F-117 Nighthawk stealth fighter and the F-22 Raptor, the Times reported.
In rejecting Lockheed's 1,000-page argument, Nominet, which administers British domain names, gave the U.S. company credit for using the humorous Skunk Works moniker.
Its "original use of the name 'skunk works' was humorous, and a sense of humor may be appropriate to this situation," Nominet said in its ruling.
"There may be some comfort for LMC in the fact that many people have as little wish to be associated with military aircraft as have LMC to be associated with illegal drug use."
Ad pioneer Edward Boyd dead at 92
LOS ANGELES, May 5 (UPI) -- Advertising pioneer Edward F. Boyd, who broke color barriers by featuring African-Americans in Pepsi-Cola ads, has died in Los Angeles at age 92.
Boyd died Monday from complications of a stroke he suffered in March, the Los Angeles Times reported Saturday.
Boyd received national attention this year with the release of the book "The Real Pepsi Challenge: The Inspirational Story of Breaking the Color Barrier in American Business," by Stephanie Capparell, an editor at the Wall Street Journal, the Times said.
Boyd was responsible for the groundbreaking ad in 1947 featuring a 7-year-old African-American boy reaching up for a bottle of Pepsi held by his mother.
"Jackie Robinson may have made more headlines, but what Ed did -- integrating the managerial ranks of corporate America -- was equally groundbreaking," said Donald M. Kendall, retired chairman and chief executive officer of PepsiCo.
Pepsi hired Boyd, an African-American himself, at a time when businesses mostly ignored black consumers or used insulting images of them, Kendall said.
