■Electronics
AAFES to buy Chinese TVs
The US military will buy 45,000 high-definition televisions from Xiamen Overseas Chinese Electronics Co, one of China's biggest appliance makers, China's state-owned Xinhua News Agency said, citing the Xiamen Daily newspaper. The Army and Air Force Exchange Service, a purchasing agency, will take delivery now of 5,000 of the sets, capable of delivering sharper pictures than conventional TVs, Xinhua said. Xiamen Overseas will deliver the balance within a year. The report didn't give a value for the contract. Chinese appliance makers including Xiamen Overseas, Sichuan Changhong Electric Co and Konka Group Co may be assessed anti-dumping tariffs by the US after the US International Trade Commission ruled on Tuesday that cheap Chinese and Malaysian sets are hurting American producers.
■ Policy
Mercosur pledges effort
South American leaders agreed Wednesday to keep working toward greater regional integration by strengthening their countries' political and economic ties through the Mercosur trade bloc. The presidents of the Mercosur trading nations issued a communique at the end of a two-day summit here and expressed support for the group, whose members have been battered by economic crises over the last year. The leaders voiced their commitment to "the strengthening of Mercosur, with the aim of sustainable development of its member countries and their competitive insertion into the global economy." Mercosur members Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay held their biannual meeting at a riverside resort in the Paraguayan capital. Chile and Bolivia are associate members and Venezuela's president Hugo Chavez attended as a guest.
■ Computers
Microsoft defends actions
Microsoft Corp and the Bush administration defended their antitrust settlement, and the world's largest software maker urged a US appeals court to reject Massachusetts's call for tighter restrictions on its business practices. Micro-soft, which negotiated the settlement after the appeals court ruled the company illegally protected its Windows monopoly, said the agreement was approved by a trial judge who "considered but rejected" more restrictions. "The relief that Massachusetts seeks is so extreme that its own economist would not support several key aspects of it," Microsoft said in a brief filed with the appeals court in Washington. The settlement requires Microsoft to give computer makers freedom to promote rival software on personal computers powered by the Windows operating system. Windows runs 95 percent of the world's PCs.
■ Airlines
NZ warns air carriers
New Zealand's consumer watchdog, the Commerce Commission, has warned airlines to stop hiding extra charges that can add up to 44 percent to the price of cheap advertised fares, a news-paper reported yesterday. It said burying extra charges such as levies, taxes and insurance in the small print of advertise-ments misrepresented the price of fares, The New Zealand Herald said. Director of fair trading Deborah Battell said the commission was concerned about inadequate disclosure in advertisements. "When businesses are advertising, they should be advertising the price people have to pay," she said.
Agencies
FALSE DOCUMENTS? Actor William Liao said he was ‘voluntarily cooperating’ with police after a suspect was accused of helping to produce false medical certificates Police yesterday questioned at least six entertainers amid allegations of evasion of compulsory military service, with Lee Chuan (李銓), a member of boy band Choc7 (超克7), and actor Daniel Chen (陳大天) among those summoned. The New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office in January launched an investigation into a group that was allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified medical documents. Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) has been accused of being one of the group’s clients. As the investigation expanded, investigators at New Taipei City’s Yonghe Precinct said that other entertainers commissioned the group to obtain false documents. The main suspect, a man surnamed
DEMOGRAPHICS: Robotics is the most promising answer to looming labor woes, the long-term care system and national contingency response, an official said Taiwan is to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to address labor shortages stemming from a declining and aging population, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The government approved the initiative, dubbed the Smart Robotics Industry Promotion Plan, via executive order, senior officials told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s population decline would strain the economy and the nation’s ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, said Peter Hong (洪樂文), who heads the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies. Projections show that the proportion of Taiwanese 65 or older would
The government is considering polices to increase rental subsidies for people living in social housing who get married and have children, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. During an interview with the Plain Law Movement (法律白話文) podcast, Cho said that housing prices cannot be brought down overnight without affecting banks and mortgages. Therefore, the government is focusing on providing more aid for young people by taking 3 to 5 percent of urban renewal projects and zone expropriations and using that land for social housing, he said. Single people living in social housing who get married and become parents could obtain 50 percent more
Democracies must remain united in the face of a shifting geopolitical landscape, former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) told the Copenhagen Democracy Summit on Tuesday, while emphasizing the importance of Taiwan’s security to the world. “Taiwan’s security is essential to regional stability and to defending democratic values amid mounting authoritarianism,” Tsai said at the annual forum in the Danish capital. Noting a “new geopolitical landscape” in which global trade and security face “uncertainty and unpredictability,” Tsai said that democracies must remain united and be more committed to building up resilience together in the face of challenges. Resilience “allows us to absorb shocks, adapt under
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