News In Brief

Following the lead of other telecommunications giants, Cable & Wireless PLC said it will cut 4,000 jobs. C&W also warned that its profit for the year's first quarter will fall as much as 20 percent below expectations. The layoffs, affecting mostly the company's US and British operations, will come over the next 12 months, the company said. Earlier this week, Motorola announced 7,000 jobs would be eliminated in its cellphone division. Lucent and Nortel also have laid off thousands of workers, and Swedish cellphone giant Ericsson has predicted heavy first-quarter losses. C&W is based in London.

Kennecott Utah Copper warned it will need to cut jobs because of soaring energy prices, although a spokesman was not yet ready to announce how many workers would be affected or whether the move would lead to a production decrease. Magna-based Kennecott is the US's third-largest copper company and one of the state's biggest employers. It is a subsidiary of British-owned mining giant Rio Tinto PLC.

(c) Copyright 2001. The Christian Science Monitor