■ Technology
Alstom, Infosys team up
French engineering firm Alstom said yesterday it has joined hands with Infosys Technologies for a US$39 million research facility that will employ 300 engineers in India's high-tech capital, Bangalore. Phillippe Joubert, executive vice-president, Alstom, said the investment and the recruitment will be spread over the next three years. Infosys, India's second largest software exporter, will undertake high-end engineering and software solutions for power plants being built by Alstom at the Alstom-Infosys research and development center, Joubert said.
■ Cellphones
Samsung lifts sales forecast
Samsung Electronics Co, the world's third-largest mobile phone maker, raised its forecast for worldwide handset sales for this year because of better-than-expected shipments by its competitors during the first quarter. Industry shipments will rise to between 700 million units and 720 million units this year, said Samsung spokeswoman Cho Sung-in, confirming a Dow Jones Newswires report that cited telecommunications vice president Daniel Chung.
■ Economy
Japan's jobless rate falls
Japan's jobless rate fell in April to 4.4 percent, the lowest mark in more than six years, according to data yesterday that suggested the country's labor market is rebounding along with its economy. The April rate was down slightly from 4.5 percent in March, defying forecasts by economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires saying that the rate would stay the same. Instead, it fell to a rate not seen in the world's second-largest economy since December 1998. The total number of unemployed fell for the 23rd straight month to 3.1 million, down 250,000 from the same month a year earlier, the Ministry of Public Management said.
■ Markets
`No' vote depresses euro
Fallout from France's "no" to the EU constitution swept across financial markets for a second day yesterday, dragging the euro to seven-month lows against the dollar and helping to depress stocks. The euro's initially muted reaction to the French vote on a holiday-thinned Monday turned into a sharp fall. The single currency was down more than two thirds of a percent at US$1.2385. France voted 55-45 percent to reject the constitution on Sunday. The Netherlands is expected to follow suit today. The tone on stock markets was downbeat, despite pleasing results from Irish no-frills airline Ryanair and French engineer Alstom. The FTSEurofirst 300 index was 0.02 percent higher but the DJ Eurostoxx 50 was down a third of a percent.
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
STUMPED: KMT and TPP lawmakers approved a resolution to suspend the rate hike, which the government said was unavoidable in view of rising global energy costs The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday said it has a mandate to raise electricity prices as planned after the legislature passed a non-binding resolution along partisan lines to freeze rates. Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers proposed the resolution to suspend the price hike, which passed by a 59-50 vote. The Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) voted with the KMT. Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) of the KMT said the resolution is a mandate for the “immediate suspension of electricity price hikes” and for the Executive Yuan to review its energy policy and propose supplementary measures. A government-organized electricity price evaluation board in March
NOVEL METHODS: The PLA has adopted new approaches and recently conducted three combat readiness drills at night which included aircraft and ships, an official said Taiwan is monitoring China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) exercises for changes in their size or pattern as the nation prepares for president-elect William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday. Tsai made the comment at a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, in response to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ting-yu’s (王定宇) questions. China continues to employ a carrot-and-stick approach, in which it applies pressure with “gray zone” tactics, while attempting to entice Taiwanese with perks, Tsai said. These actions aim to help Beijing look like it has
China is mischaracterizing UN Resolution 2758 for its own interests by conflating it with its “one China” principle, US Deputy Assistant Secretary for China and Taiwan Mark Lambert said on Monday. Speaking at a seminar held by the German Marshall Fund, Lambert called for support for Taiwan’s meaningful participation in the international community at a time when China is increasingly misusing Resolution 2758. The resolution had a clear impact when it changed who occupied the China seat at the UN, Lambert said. “Today, however, the PRC [People’s Republic of China] increasingly mischaracterizes and misuses Resolution 2758 to serve its own interests,” Lambert said. “Beijing