■ Airlines
Fuel costs get absorbed
Malaysia Airlines will absorb rising fuel costs caused by higher oil prices but the government is considering lowering airport parking fees and other measures to ease its burden, a report said yesterday. Transport Minister Chan Kong Choy was quoted by Bernama news agency as saying that the flag carrier would not raise a fuel surcharge imposed in June despite record oil prices of US$46.58 a barrel last week. "It will absorb the recent increase," Chan said. "We will look into ways to help the national carrier, like reducing the parking fees [for its aircraft]" at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport, he said. Malaysia Airlines in June imposed an extra 50 ringgit (US$13.20) fuel surcharge on fares for passengers travelling to Europe, Australia, New Zealand, North and South America, the Middle East and Africa, and 15 ringgit for regional flights.
■ Banking
NAB chaffs at rules
National Australia Bank Ltd, the country's biggest lender, said conditions placed on the company by regulators after the bank had losses from unauthorized currency trading is hurting some of its corporate customers. The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority forced the bank to tighten risk controls and increase its capital ratios after the Melbourne-based lender had losses of A$360 million (US$258 million) from unauthorized currency trading in January. "The APRA conditions have impacted us in our foreign exchange trading and therefore there is some impact on our corporate customers," Chairman Graham Kraehe told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. That said, it's "fairly short term.
■ Global Trade
Europeans slam G.W. Bush
The European Commission hit back on Saturday after US President George W. Bush threatened to take action at the WTO against European aircraft maker Airbus Industrie, who he alleged it was receiving "unfair" government subsidies. The commission, the executive arm of the 25-nation EU, pointed out there was a EU-US agreement setting out clear rules on state aid for aircraft manufacturers on both sides of the Atlantic. If Bush was unhappy with the rules, the appropriate channel for seeking changes was through negotiations with the EU, it said. "The EU would like to point out that there are specific and clear rules on government support to both (US aircraft manufacturer) Boeing and Airbus laid down in the EU-US 1992 aircraft agreement," commission spokeswoman Ewa Hedlund said.
■ Oil
OPEC toys with capacity
OPEC still has spare capacity of about 2 million barrels a day that it may use to help to ease world oil prices, its president Purnomo Yusgiantoro said in Jakarta, yesterday. Yusgiantoro said so far only Saudi Arabia had reported its spare capacity but an inventory of the other member countries would be held to see the total extra production the cartel could throw into the market. "Saudi Arabia has already given their report," Yusgiantoro told journalists at his office. "About the others, we still want to inventarize to see the spare capacity we have, but the feeling is that there are still about 2 million barrels per day." However, Yusgiantoro said a decision would only be taken at the OPEC meeting in Vienna on Sept. 14, at which major non-OPEC producers will also take part.
National Taiwan University (NTU) yesterday said it disqualified a person from an entrance examination for using AI smart glasses to cheat, along with two others for making untruthful statements in their curriculum vitae. The three applicants were given null scores, Taiwan’s highest-ranked university said, calling on prospective students to be honest in the admissions process. NTU registrar Lee Hung-sen (李宏森) said that the cheating applicant wore a hat and thick-rimmed glasses to the second written exam for medical school, claiming that they felt cold. Suspicions were aroused when the applicant stared oddly at the test for long stretches while steadily bringing the paper
A magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck off the southern coast of Mindanao in the Philippines at 7:38am today, prompting the US Tsunami Warning System to issue an alert for neighboring countries, including Taiwan. The system issued a purple alert indicating a "tsunami threat." The potential threat zone includes Taiwan, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Yap and Palau. Philippine authorities were assessing the damage from the quake, with the office of civil defense seeking to verifying initial reports that 15 people had been killed and 129 injured in the region, mostly from falling debris. Arlene Hollero, disaster chief of Maasim town in the Philippines' Sarangani Province,
‘GRAY ZONE’ PRESSURE: Beijing’s activities are intended to create the deceitful impression that China has jurisdiction over the area around Taiwan, the CGA said Taiwan’s rights over its territorial waters and exclusive economic zone must not be violated by any country, the Mainland Affairs Council said yesterday, adding that it will not accept any unprovoked actions. The council issued the remarks in response to the China Coast Guard conducting maritime enforcement drills near eastern Taiwan and claiming to fully exercise China’s maritime administrative law enforcement authority. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) has been closely monitoring the situation and is taking concrete steps to defend the nation’s sovereignty and secure its waters, the council said. China has no sovereign rights over the waters off eastern
Heavy rain is expected to affect parts of Taiwan this week, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday as a meteorologist said the active part of the annual plum rain season has started. A stationary plum rain front and southwesterly winds would bring unstable weather and abundant moisture to Taiwan from today for about a week, with the heaviest rainfall forecast for tomorrow and Wednesday, the CWA said. The agency said western and northeastern Taiwan, and mountainous areas in the east and southeast, could expect showers or thunderstorms on those two days, with localized heavy rain possible. Other parts of
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