■Electronics
Solectron to cut 12,000 jobs
Solectron Corp, the world's No. 2 maker of electronics for brand-name companies, will fire an additional 12,000 workers. The company forecast its ninth straight quarterly loss, and the shares fell 8.8 percent. Solectron predicted a third-quarter loss, excluding some costs, of US$0.01 to US$0.04 a share and said sales in the quarter ending in May will be US$2.6 billion to US$2.9 billion. The company, which had 75,000 employees in December, was expected to earn US$0.01 on sales of US$3.1 billion, the average Thom-son Financial estimates. The job cuts are on top of 40,000 firings already completed since 2001 and previously announced plans for another 1,000 by the end of August. Solectron, which assembles computers and networking gear for com-panies such as Hewlett-Packard Co and Cisco Systems Inc, has closed plants and moved produc-tion to lower-cost regions as clients have scaled back orders.
■ Tourism
Thai hotel bars Americans
A hotel on the Thai island of Koh Samui is refusing to accept American guests as a protest against the US invasion of Iraq. Wirat Pongchababnapa, owner of the Pavilian Resort on Lamai Beach, said American tourists were no longer welcome. "We think the United States is immoral and shows no respect for the UN resolution. [Bush] has started a war for no reason," the Bangkok Post quoted Wirat as saying yesterday. "If American tourists come to us, we will tell them politely that we cannot welcome them and we will give them a ride to other places." A Tourism Authority of Thailand official said the war was unlikely to affect tourism on Koh Samui.
Agencies
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
STATE OF THE NATION: The legislature should invite the president to deliver an address every year, the TPP said, adding that Lai should also have to answer legislators’ questions The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday proposed inviting president-elect William Lai (賴清德) to make a historic first state of the nation address at the legislature following his inauguration on May 20. Lai is expected to face many domestic and international challenges, and should clarify his intended policies with the public’s representatives, KMT caucus secretary-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said when making the proposal at a meeting of the legislature’s Procedure Committee. The committee voted to add the item to the agenda for Friday, along with another similar proposal put forward by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The invitation is in line with Article 15-2