■TRADE
Seoul passes India pact
South Korea yesterday ratified a free trade deal with India that promises to slash tariffs on goods and services between two of Asia’s biggest economies. The agreement was passed in a vote by the National Assembly, two officials in the body’s secretariat said. An official vote tally was to be released later in the day, they said. The two countries signed the deal, known officially as a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, in August in Seoul.
■HOTELS
Hyatt IPO raises US$950m
Hyatt Hotels shares surged on Thursday, raising almost US$1 billion in an initial public offering (IPO) despite the tourism industry crisis, in Wall Street’s second largest flotation this year. The leading US hotel chain offered38 million shares at US$25 each for a total of US$950 million. The Chicago-based Hyatt Hotels, which is 85 percent owned by the wealthy Pritzker family, became the 18th company to launch an IPO on the New York Stock Exchange this year. Hyatt operates hotels in 45 countries.
■STEEL
POSCO building in Turkey
South Korean steelmaker POSCO said yesterday it had begun building a plant in Turkey to produce steel for automobiles. The plant, when completed by June, will have an annual capacity of 170,000 tonnes of steel for automakers that include Ford, Renault, Fiat, Hyundai Motor, Toyota and Honda, POSCO said in a statement. The company, the world’s fourth largest steelmaker by output, currently has 41 steel processing facilities in 12 countries.
■BANKING
Credit still tight: bank head
Bank of America Corp on Thursday said the credit environment would remain difficult into next year, as unemployment was likely to continue to rise. Brian Moynihan, head of the bank’s consumer and small business banking units, told investors that Bank of America was starting to see some stabilization in the credit card business, but challenges remained. In the third quarter, Charlotte, North Carolina-based Bank of America lost more than US$2.2 billion as loan losses kept rising, providing evidence that consumers are still struggling to pay their bills.
■FINANCE
Fannie Mae posts huge loss
US state-controlled mortgage lender Fannie Mae posted on Thursday another multibillion-dollar quarterly loss and said it needed an additional US$15 billion in taxpayer funds. Fannie Mae reported a net loss of US$18.9 billion in the third quarter, 35 percent smaller than a year ago but sharply higher than its US$14.8 billion loss in the second quarter. Combined losses to date stand at US$56.8 billion.
■TELECOMS
Droid hits markets
A Motorola Droid smartphone based on Google-backed software hit the US market yesterday, taking aim at mobile device powerhouses such as Apple, Nokia, and Research In Motion (RIM). Droid, which will work on the Verizon telecom network, joins growing ranks of smartphones based on an open-source operating system backed by Internet titan Google. Market tracking firm Gartner predicted that there would be at least 40 models of Android phones within a year, and that they would be the second place mobile platform by the end of 2012.
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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