■ Oil
OPEC calls for supply boost
OPEC president Purnomo Yusgiantoro yesterday urged oil producers who are not members of the cartel to increase production to help push world prices down. "We are asking non-OPEC countries to increase their supply," said Yusgiantoro, who is also Indonesia's energy minister. He told reporters OPEC would keep its promise to increase output by 2.5 million more barrels a day by Aug. 1. Non-OPEC oil producers account for about 60 percent of global production.
■ Japan
Business bankruptcies fall
The number of new corporate bankruptcies in Japan fell in May compared to the same month last year. This marks a 17th straight month of declines as companies cut back borrowing to avoid risk, a private research agency said on Monday. New bankruptcy cases decreased 20.2 percent last month from the previous year to 1,182, Teikoku Databank said. Debt left behind by collapsing companies dropped 32.9 percent year on year to ?537 billion (US$4.8 billion), falling below the ?1-trillion (US$9 billion) mark for a second straight month, it said.
■ Automakers
Former executive probed
Police yesterday raided the home of the former president of Japanese automaker Mitsubishi Motors Corp, who was arrested last week on suspicion of hiding auto defects even after promising to come clean in an earlier cover-up scandal. Katsuhiko Kawasoe, who resigned in disgrace four years ago when the Tokyo-based automaker acknowledged having hidden auto defects for decades, was arrested with five other former Mitsubishi Motors officials Thursday on charges related to a cover-up of defects suspected in a fatal accident.
■ Electronics
Samsung raises forecast
Samsung Electronics Co of South Korea expects revenue this year will exceed its earlier forecast by almost 8 percent, fueled by demand for mobile phones, Dow Jones Newswires reported, citing a Samsung executive. Samsung Electronics, the world's third-largest mobile-phone maker, expects sales of 50 trillion won (US$43 billion) this year, compared with an earlier forecast of 46.34 trillion won, the report said, citing Park Sang-jin, head of the company's southeast Asia and Pacific business, in an interview. The new forecast is "conservative," Dow Jones quoted Park as saying. Park reiterated that the company's second-half results would beat the first half, according to the report, which didn't specify a figure.
■ Operating Systems
IBM challenges Microsoft
IBM Corp will begin pushing Linux-based systems in Brazil as an alternative to Microsoft Corp's Windows software because many customers there still use paper-based processes and have yet to commit to any computer system, the Wall Street Journal reported. IBM will target banks and government organizations that could use open-source software to automate employee tasks, and the company has already signed an agreement with retail chain Casas Bahia SA, which will install Linux in some stores, the paper said. IBM will not focus on "desktop-productivity programs" like Open Office, which competes with Microsoft's office, but will instead design limited-purpose systems for bank tellers and retail clerks, the Journal reported.
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