■ Cars
BMW chief optimistic
German carmaker BMW said yesterday that after last year's slight earnings decline, the company is poised for strong profits growth this year, with aims to set a new record topping 3.3 billion euros (US$4 billion). Chairman Helmut Panke made the prediction in discussing BMW's 2003 figures, saying that his company was expecting to gather the fruits of its offensive of new models while defying the overall weakness in the car market. Last year, BMW's consolidated net profit fell by 3.6 percent to 1.9 billion euros, while sales slipped to 41.5 billion euros, from 42.4 billion euros the year before.
■ Retail
China to ease rules
China is easing restrictions on foreign investment in the country's booming retail sector, aiming for full compliance with market-opening commitments made to the WTO, state media reports said yesterday. Zhang Zhigang, a vice commerce minister, announced the plans at a national meeting Tuesday, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported. The China Securities Journal, a major state-owned financial daily, also reported Zhang's remarks yesterday. It said that, by the end of this year, China would fully open its retail sector.
■ Copyright
Man claims he wrote Kazaa
A native of Romania who claims to have written the source code to the popular file-sharing software Kazaa is suing the program's distributor over the rights to the software and seeking US$25 million in compensation. In the federal lawsuit, Fabian Toader, who now lives in Redmond, Washington, claims he wrote the computer code for the Kazaa program in 2000 while working in Romania on a freelance basis for Kazaa B.V., which sold the rights to the software in 2002 to Sharman Networks Ltd. Toader claims he never signed a contract with Kazaa B.V. and asserts that, under copyright laws in the US and Romania, he is the copyright owner of the program.
■ US economy
Fed leaves rates unchanged
The US Federal Reserve on Tuesday held interest rates at 1958 lows and signaled it was in no hurry to raise borrowing costs with job creation sluggish and inflation tame. The unanimous decision by the policy-making Federal Open Market Committee keeps the trendsetting federal funds rate for overnight loans between banks at 1 percent, a level hit after a cut last June. Policy-makers sounded more cautious about prospects for strong job growth, so far a missing ingredient in the recovery from the 2001 recession, and one that is taking on a growing profile ahead of November presidential elections.
■ Mobile services
NTT to offer flat rate
NTT DoCoMo Inc, Japan's largest mobile-phone company, may offer a flat-rate fee for e-mail and Internet services, after its closest rival, KDDI Corp, started winning more users with new features. "We've been considering various fee plans, including a flat rate," said Toru Hinata, a spokesman for Tokyo-based DoCoMo. He made the comment after the NHK reported the company would offer the service in June. The flat-rate service will let DoCoMo customers exchange e-mail and access the Internet by mobile phone for ?3,900 (US$36) a month, the lowest in Japan, NHK said, without saying where it obtained the information.
RETHINK? The defense ministry and Navy Command Headquarters could take over the indigenous submarine project and change its production timeline, a source said Admiral Huang Shu-kuang’s (黃曙光) resignation as head of the Indigenous Submarine Program and as a member of the National Security Council could affect the production of submarines, a source said yesterday. Huang in a statement last night said he had decided to resign due to national security concerns while expressing the hope that it would put a stop to political wrangling that only undermines the advancement of the nation’s defense capabilities. Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) yesterday said that the admiral, her older brother, felt it was time for him to step down and that he had completed what he
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft