Southwest Airlines plans to increase the number of gates it leases at Philadelphia International Airport next year, allowing the low-cost carrier to significantly boost its daily flight schedule.

By next spring, Southwest expects to lease a dozen gates at the airport, meaning it could double the schedule of 53 flights a day it has now, according to airline and airport officials.

Southwest's expansion could further pressure US Airways to cut prices. In 2004, when Southwest invaded US Airways' Philadelphia turf, average one-way fares dropped 26 percent.

The Canadian government Thursday outlined an aid package of 1.5 billion Canadian dollars ($1.3 billion) for its softwood lumber industry, an action that may exacerbate Canada's long-running trade dispute with the United States.

The plan provides Canadian lumber producers with 800 million Canadian dollars worth of loan insurance, tax relief and grants for companies and lumber towns to help them cope with the effects of an average tariff of 20.96 percent imposed by the United States on their exports.

Profit at Nintendo, which makes Super Mario video games and GameBoy Advance handheld machines, slipped 21 percent in the company's fiscal first half because of slumping sales of consoles and game software.

The Kyoto, Japan, video game maker said Thursday that its group net profit for the six months ended Sept. 30 dipped to 36.6 billion yen ($308 million) from 46.45 billion yen a year earlier. Sales fell 6 percent.

The company said GameCube console sales in North America were 630,000 for the half, down 36 percent from a year ago, as buyers held off ahead of the introduction of next-generation consoles.

Moscow police have launched citywide sting operations aimed at shutting down producers and sellers of counterfeit music, movies and software, in a clampdown on piracy that threatens Russia's bid to join the World Trade Organization. A government official said the operation would last two weeks.

This is cache, read story here