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■ EXPORTS
Bureau predicts solid growth
Taiwan's exports in the second half of the year are expected to continue to register solid growth, the Bureau of Foreign Trade said on Friday. The bureau said exports in the first five months of this year totaled US$93.86 billion, up 6.8 percent year-on-year. The nation registered a trade surplus of US$9.13 billion during this period. The officials said exports to the nation's major trading partners showed various degrees of growth, except for Brazil, which registered a modest decrease of 5.2 percent. Robust growth was also recorded in exports to India, Spain, Russia, Vietnam and Mexico.

■ ELECTRONICS
Kenwood discusses JVC
Matsushita Electric Industrial Co is talking to fellow Japanese firm Kenwood Corp to take over its ailing subsidiary JVC after talks broke down with a US investment fund, reports said yesterday. JVC, which stands for the Victor Co of Japan, has been a drag on otherwise profitable Matsushita. The Nikkei Shimbun and Kyodo News, citing unnamed sources, said that the presidents of Matsushita and Kenwood met in the past week to discuss JVC. Matsushita has been talking with US-based TPG over a straight-out purchase of JVC. But the reports said negotiations were in trouble, in part over the sale price.

■ AVIATION
Airline to pay for meaty meal
A Malaysian court has ordered national flag-carrier Malaysia Airlines to pay an Indian man 20,000 ringgit (US$5,700) in damages for serving him meat on board after he asked for a vegetarian meal, news reports said yesterday. Arvind Sharma, 44, said he vomited after he was served chicken on a flight from Bangalore to Kuala Lumpur in March 2003, the New Straits Times reported. M. Rajalingam, a magistrate in northern Penang state, ruled that Sharma -- a member of the priestly Brahmin caste who said he had never eaten meat in his life -- should be compensated for the depression, shock, mental anguish and humiliation he suffered, the newspaper said.

■ AVIATION
Russia eyes No. 3 spot
Russia expects to become the world's third-largest maker of commercial aircraft, Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said yesterday, as the government seeks to return the aviation industry to its Soviet-era position. Russia will account for 10 percent of global commercial aircraft production by 2020, Ivanov told the St Petersburg International Economic Forum. Russia last year created OAO Unified Aircraft Corp, combining its main aircraft designers and manufacturers, in an effort by Russian President Vladimir Putin to create an aerospace giant to compete with Boeing Co and larger rival Airbus SAS.

■ SATELLITE RADIO
Input urged on merger
After three-and-a-half months of industry lobbying, congressional hearings and intensive Wall Street analysis, the US public will have a chance to say whether it thinks the proposed merger of the US' only two satellite radio companies is a good idea. The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued a public notice on Friday seeking comment on the proposed merger of licensees Sirius Satellite Radio Inc and XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. The FCC will decide whether it is in the public interest for both licenses to be controlled by a single company. The merger is also subject to approval by the US Department of Justice.


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