■ Mobile Phones
More Razrs on their way
Motorola Inc will introduce more versions of its Razr-brand mobile phone handsets, including a candy-bar shaped model later this year, Business Week reported. The company, the world's second-biggest mobile-phone maker, has shipped about 750,000 Razr phones, three times more than Motorola Chief Executive Edward Zander forecast, the magazine said. The phones sell for US$500 each, Business Week said. Motorola's fourth-quarter revenue was US$8.8 billion, up 27 percent from a year earlier, the magazine said.
■ Casinos
Developer hedges its bets
Property developer CapitaLand is hedging its bets for Singapore's proposed casino resort by striking partnerships with two rival overseas operators, it said yesterday. With the government suggesting two possible locations, Capita-Land has joined Bahamas-based Kerzner International for the site on the resort island of Sentosa and teamed up with Las Vegas-based MGM-Mirage in a separate proposal for Marina Bayfront, according to its statement. A casino has not yet been approved and faces mounting opposition from Singaporeans on moral grounds. The city-state already has gambling in the form of lotteries and horse racing. If the casino plans get the green light, the govern-ment has announced a number of safeguards, including an entry ban on people under 21 and a S$100 (US$60) levy on locals for entry every day.
■ Plasma Displays
Fujitsu not scaling back
Fujitsu Ltd, Japan's biggest maker of computer servers, said it has made no decision to scale back its plasma display panel business after a report said the company would cut its stake in a display venture with Hitachi Ltd. "We and our partner, Hitachi Ltd, are always talking about the future of our plasma display venture, but nothing has been decided," Tokyo-based Fujitsu said in a statement distributed at the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Fujitsu may sell shares in the venture to Hitachi, "significantly" scaling back its plasma display business, the Asahi newspaper reported, without saying where it obtained the information. The paper said Fujitsu has entered into talks with Hitachi to sell it a major portion or all of its stake in their 50-50 joint venture, Fujitsu Hitachi Plasma Display. Fujitsu started developing the panels in 1968 and succeeded in making a large color panel in 1995 for the first time in the world.
■ Automakers
Compensation discussed
Mitsubishi Motors is in talks with DaimlerChrysler AG to compensate the German automaker for damages related to recall scandals at the Japanese automaker's truck unit, the company said yesterday. The talks on possible compensation are continuing, although Mitsubishi Motors has not received an official demand for restitution from Daimler-Chrysler, the Japanese automaker said in a statement. DaimlerChrysler was a key partner for the Tokyo-based automaker before deciding last year to end cash infusions to bail out the troubled company. DaimlerChrysler is miffed that scandals about a systematic cover-up of auto defects emerged after it took a stake in both Mitsubishi Motors and its truck unit. Mitsubishi Motors said the compensation was still undecided. It denied a report yesterday in the Nihon Keizai Shimbun that the settlement may be between ?50 billion (US$484 million) and ?80 billion.
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