IN BRIEF (Page 13)

China Unicom Q3 up 35%

China Unicom Ltd, the smaller of the country's two mobile operators, posted a 34.9 percent increase in the first three quarters of 2008 in the absence of a one-off loss made last year.

The cellular operator, which completed its merger with fixed-line service provider Netcom in September, said its net profit in the first nine months was 6.99 billion yuan, compared with 5.18 billion yuan a year earlier.