■ Manufacturing
Rolls Royce doing fine
The chief of British aircraft engine maker Rolls Royce PLC said yesterday that the company's earnings outlook would not be hurt by its recent suspension of production of engines for the Airbus A380. "We make deliveries to Airbus, Boeing, Bombardier, Gulfstream, Embraer, Cessna and a whole range of other companies. This represents a relatively small proportion of our turnover," chief executive John Rose told reporters during a visit to Malaysia. He said the firm's deliveries for the next two years are "completely unaffected by the orders in the shorter term."
■ Internet
Google offers Korean e-mail
Google Inc launched a Korean-language version of its free e-mail service yesterday in an effort to strengthen its presence in South Korea. The launch of Google's Korean-language Gmail service came a month after it announced a US$10 million investment in a planned research center in the country. Google started its Korean-language search site in 2000 and began offering its English-language Gmail service two years ago in South Korea, where many Internet users have preferred local free e-mail services. Local search engine Naver controls more than 60 percent of South Korea's search traffic.
■ Environment
`New Kyoto' wanted
After repeatedly blocking domestic carbon trading, Australia said yesterday it would now push for Asia-wide emissions trading to combat global warming as part of a planned "new-Kyoto" pact. The turn-around comes as an opinion poll showed most Australians believe Canberra should sign Kyoto. Environment Minister Ian Campbell told Australian Broadcasting Corp radio that Canberra wanted to forge a "New Kyoto" out of a six-nation alliance of the world's biggest polluters -- China, India, the US, Australia, South Korea and Japan. Australia, which has failed to ratify Kyoto Protocol, is already feeling the brunt of global warming with the worst drought in 100 years eating into economic growth.
■ Automobiles
Hyundai faces probe
South Korea's fair trade watchdog is investigating the Hyundai Motor group on suspicion of unfair trading, company officials said yesterday. "Hyundai Motor and some of its subsidiaries are being investigated by the Fair Trade Commission for suspected unfair trading inside the group," a group spokesman said. "The investigation started around Sept. 11 and is expected to last until Friday." The spokesman said Hyundai Motor and its affiliates including Hyundai Card, Hyundai Glovis and Hyundai Capital were the target of the investigation. Hyundai Glovis is the group's auto shipping unit and Hyundai Capital provides consumers with loans to buy cars.
■ Telecoms
Alfa Group eyes Vodafone
Russian conglomerate Alfa Group is seeking to buy 20 percent of British mobile phone giant Vodafone, valued at about £15 billion (US$28.6 billion), the Times said yesterday. Alfa's telecoms arm, Altimo, has targeted Vodafone with a view to either a joint venture or a merger as it seeks to grow outside Russia, the newspaper said. "We are in negotiations with Vodafone, and with other large Euro-pean telecoms companies," it quoted Kirill Babaev, a vice-president of Altimo, as saying. But a Vodafone spokesman denied the report.
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on Friday expressed concern over the rate at which China is diversifying its military exercises, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday. “The rates of change on the depth and breadth of their exercises is the one non-linear effect that I’ve seen in the last year that wakes me up at night or keeps me up at night,” Paparo was quoted by FT as saying while attending the annual Sedona Forum at the McCain Institute in Arizona. Paparo also expressed concern over the speed with which China was expanding its military. While the US
SHIFT: Taiwan’s better-than-expected first-quarter GDP and signs of weakness in the US have driven global capital back to emerging markets, the central bank head said The central bank yesterday blamed market speculation for the steep rise in the local currency, and urged exporters and financial institutions to stay calm and stop panic sell-offs to avoid hurting their own profitability. The nation’s top monetary policymaker said that it would step in, if necessary, to maintain order and stability in the foreign exchange market. The remarks came as the NT dollar yesterday closed up NT$0.919 to NT$30.145 against the US dollar in Taipei trading, after rising as high as NT$29.59 in intraday trading. The local currency has surged 5.85 percent against the greenback over the past two sessions, central
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