CANONSBURG, Pa. - Generic drug maker Mylan Laboratories Inc. announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has granted tentative approval for its abbreviated new drug application for Pioglitazone Hydrochloride tablets.

The tablets are the generic version of Takeda Pharmaceuticals' Actos tablets for diabetes treatment.

PITTSBURGH - Aluminum giant Alcoa announced one of its packaging businesses has agreed to distribute a South Korean company's flexible pouches, which are used for juice, cosmetics and health and beauty products.Under the agreement, Richmond, Va.-based Alcoa Flexible Packaging will distribute and support KSP's entire line of flexible pouches in the United States and Canada.

PITTSBURGH - A landfill has paid $36,000 to state environmental officials for allowing a truck without a state safety sticker to dump garbage more than a dozen times.Officials with the state Department of Environmental Protection said they discovered the violations in September during inspections at the Mostoller Landfill in Somerset and Brothers Valley townships.State environmental officials said the landfill allowed a truck to dump garbage at least 18 times despite not having a sticker. A state law requires all vehicle weighing more than 8½ tons to get authorization from state environmental officials.

ABUJA, Nigeria - Deadly violence in Ivory Coast has shut down cocoa exports from the world's largest producer, closing ports that ship more than 40 percent of the world's raw material for chocolate.Clashes that have pitted Ivory Coast's government and supporters against French forces come at the peak of Ivory Coast's main harvest, with overall production last year of 1.4 million tons.By The Associated Press