■ Cameras
Sony boosts digital output
Sony Corp, the world's second-biggest consumer electronics maker, expects to increase digital-camera production next fiscal year by at least 20 percent to 30 percent to try to meet demand, a spokeswoman said. The company expects digital-camera shipments to match or exceed industry growth, said spokeswoman Aki Shimazu, confirming an earlier report by Dow Jones. It plans to produce and ship 15 million units in the year ending next March 31 up 50 percent from last fiscal year's 10 million units. A 20 percent to 30 percent increase in production would allow the company to ship 18 million to 19.5 million units in the year ending March 2006.
■ Pharmaceuticals
Firm stops drug defense
British drug maker Glaxo-SmithKline (GSK) said yesterday that it has abandoned its defense of the Chinese patent for a component of its popular diabetes drug Avandia following a chal-lenge by three Chinese competitors. The announce-ment came six weeks after US-based Pfizer Inc was stripped of a Chinese patent for its anti-impotence drug Viagra in a case that foreign businesses regarded as a test of China's commitment to protecting GSK's Chinese subsidiary announced its decision following a hearing yester-day morning at which China's State Intellectual Property Office declared that that company had waived its claim to a patent on rosiglitazone last week. The company didn't give a reason for the move. Lilian Xiao, a spokeswoman for GSK China Investment Co Ltd, said GSK's decision won't let Chinese compe-titors sell copies of Avandia, because the company still holds two other Chinese patents covering the drug.
■ Investment
Temasek diversifing
The Singapore government's investment arm plans to diversify its investment portfolio by shifting much of its focus from the city-state to the rest of Asia and to developed economies worldwide, the media reported yesterday. The cash-rich Temasek Holdings has this year bought stakes in South Korean, Indian, Indonesian and Malaysian corporations, particularly banks and telecom com-panies. "Temasek is shifting its investment stance from a Singapore-centric portfolio to a balanced global port-folio of one-third Singapore, one-third Asia outside of Japan and one-third developed economies, including Japan," its executive director Ho Ching was quoted as saying by The Straits Times. Temasek made an unexpected S$2.82 billion(US$1.6 billion) cash bid last week for the world's seventh-largest shipping group, Neptune Orient Lines.
■ Aviation
Air France ups surcharge
Air France said yesterday that it was increasing its fuel surcharge by 12 euros (US$14.82) on long-haul flights from Monday until there is a month-long dip in oil prices. The airline, which introduced a three-euro surcharge on all flights in May, said it would also increase the surcharge on medium-haul journeys by three euros, that on domestic flights by two euros and that to France's overseas territories by 10 euros. The new surcharge increases will remain in place until the price of a barrel of oil remains below US$35 for a consecutive 30-day period, the airline said. Its KLM unit said separately it would increase the fuel surcharge by an average of three euros per ticket for all fares from Sept. 1.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats
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