■INTERNET
MySpace’s share slips
MySpace’s share of the US online social networking market slipped while rival Facebook’s piece grew in the year leading up to this month, industry tracker Hitwise reported on Thursday. On a month-on-month basis, MySpace got 67.5 percent of the visits to social networking Web sites last month, compared with 75 percent in the same month last year, Hitwise said. Meanwhile, Facebook got 20.5 percent of US social networking visits, a 50 percent increase from what it saw a year earlier.
■AUTOMOBILES
Hyundai, union make a deal
South Korea’s largest automaker, Hyundai Motor, reached a deal with its union to end a protracted dispute that has cost more than US$600 million in lost production, the company said yesterday. Some 95 percent of the 45,000 union members voted on the deal covering working conditions and wages and endorsed it by a 54-43 margin. Under the deal, the company will abolish its all-night shift system next September. It also agreed to raise the monthly base salary by 5.61 percent and pay a bonus equivalent to three months’ salary.
■IRELAND
Nation slips into recession
Ireland has become the first country in the eurozone to slip into recession, official figures showed on Thursday. The Central Statistics Office said the once-booming economy shrank 0.3 percent in the first quarter and by 0.5 percent in the second — a recession is two or more consecutive quarters of contraction. The European Commission said Germany and Spain might be next, and Britain might also be on the brink.
■TRADE
S Korea, India push FTA
South Korea and India have reached agreement on a free trade deal after talks lasting two-and-a-half years, the South Korean trade ministry said yesterday. The two countries resolved “all outstanding issues” in negotiations here on a comprehensive economic partnership agreement, the equivalent of a free trade agreement, the ministry said in a statement. “Both sides expect that after completion of all domestic formalities, the agreement will enter into force in the first half of next year on a mutually agreed date,” the statement said.
■AUTOMOBILES
Tata to sell six units
India’s top vehicle maker Tata Motors is in talks with private equity funds to sell stakes in six units, a report said yesterday, as the company seeks to finance its Jaguar-Land Rover purchase. The Indian firm, which bought the British luxury icons early this year for US$2.3 billion, decided to sell off assets last month after canceling a convertible preference share issue when its share price tumbled. Tata is in talks to sell stakes in Tata Daewoo Commercial Vehicle Co, HV Excels, HV Transmissions, Tata Motors Finance, Tata Technologies and Telco Construction Equipment, the Economic Times said, quoting unidentified bankers.
■INVESTMENT
Vietnam posts fourfold rise
Pledged foreign direct investment into Vietnam in the first nine months reached US$57.12 billion, jumping more than fourfold from the same period last year, government officials and state media said yesterday. Malaysia topped the list of investment by country origin, with US$14.8 billion being invested in Vietnam so far this year. Taiwan came in second with US$8.6 billion, followed by Japan with US$7.2 billion.
STILL COMMITTED: The US opposes any forced change to the ‘status quo’ in the Strait, but also does not seek conflict, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said US President Donald Trump’s administration released US$5.3 billion in previously frozen foreign aid, including US$870 million in security exemptions for programs in Taiwan, a list of exemptions reviewed by Reuters showed. Trump ordered a 90-day pause on foreign aid shortly after taking office on Jan. 20, halting funding for everything from programs that fight starvation and deadly diseases to providing shelters for millions of displaced people across the globe. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has said that all foreign assistance must align with Trump’s “America First” priorities, issued waivers late last month on military aid to Israel and Egypt, the
‘UNITED FRONT’ FRONTS: Barring contact with Huaqiao and Jinan universities is needed to stop China targeting Taiwanese students, the education minister said Taiwan has blacklisted two Chinese universities from conducting academic exchange programs in the nation after reports that the institutes are arms of Beijing’s United Front Work Department, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) published yesterday. China’s Huaqiao University in Xiamen and Quanzhou, as well as Jinan University in Guangzhou, which have 600 and 1,500 Taiwanese on their rolls respectively, are under direct control of the Chinese government’s political warfare branch, Cheng said, citing reports by national security officials. A comprehensive ban on Taiwanese institutions collaborating or
France’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and accompanying warships were in the Philippines yesterday after holding combat drills with Philippine forces in the disputed South China Sea in a show of firepower that would likely antagonize China. The Charles de Gaulle on Friday docked at Subic Bay, a former US naval base northwest of Manila, for a break after more than two months of deployment in the Indo-Pacific region. The French carrier engaged with security allies for contingency readiness and to promote regional security, including with Philippine forces, navy ships and fighter jets. They held anti-submarine warfare drills and aerial combat training on Friday in
COMBAT READINESS: The military is reviewing weaponry, personnel resources, and mobilization and recovery forces to adjust defense strategies, the defense minister said The military has released a photograph of Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) appearing to sit beside a US general during the annual Han Kuang military exercises on Friday last week in a historic first. In the photo, Koo, who was presiding over the drills with high-level officers, appears to be sitting next to US Marine Corps Major General Jay Bargeron, the director of strategic planning and policy of the US Indo-Pacific Command, although only Bargeron’s name tag is visible in the seat as “J5 Maj General.” It is the first time the military has released a photo of an active
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