■ Electronics
Berlin fair exhibitors rise
The worldwide boom in flat-screen televisions, DVD recorders and MP3 players has helped to boost the number of exhibitors at the world's biggest consumer electronics trade fair (IFA) to be held in Berlin next month. Organizers said yesterday they are expecting a 15 percent jump in exhibitors to 1,500 at the fair, which opens its doors on Sept. 2. About 37 countries are expected to be represented at the fair. In particular, this year's fair is to emphasize the convergence between different electronic media as the digital age takes hold.
■ Chemicals
Ex-Bayer staff charged
A US jury on Wednesday indicted two former executives of Bayer AG, the German chemicals producer, over an international conspiracy to fix the price of rubber chemicals, officials said. The US Justice Department said charges of conspiring with other firms and individuals "to suppress competition" and fix prices in the US and other countries were filed against Germans Jurgen Ick and Gunter Monn in the US District Court in San Francisco. Bayer and other companies have already paid US$200 million in fines for price fixing and some executives face jail terms. Ick was former head of Bayer's Rubber Business Group. Monn, who was head of marketing for the company, was said to have joined the plot from 1997.
■ Tourism
Macau woos thrill-seekers
Visitors are being offered the chance to jump 233m to the ground from the top of the Macau Tower, tourism officials in the southern Chinese enclave announced yesterday. The "Sky Jump," which opens on Wednesday, will give visitors the chance to fly through the air at 75km an hour for 20 seconds before decelerating to a safe landing speed. A spokesman for the Macau government's tourism department said yesterday that the attraction would be the highest adventure of its kind and would attract thrill-seekers from across the region. The jump will be 41m higher than the only other Sky Jump in the world, which is at the Sky Tower in Auckland, New Zealand, where the world's highest bungy jump record was created. Macau government officials are this week holding a week-long Macau Week in Las Vegas to try to attract more North American visitors to the territory.
■ Airlines
Thai suspends president
The president of Thai Airways International has been suspended for three months amid warnings that the national carrier was suffering the worst financial crisis in its history, officials said yesterday. The airline's board suspended Kanok Abhiradee late on Wednesday, and named former permanent secretary of the finance ministry Somchainuk Engtrakul as interim president to overhaul the company. Somchainuk told reporters that he would take full control of all important decision making, while Kanok would keep the title as president and focus on marketing for the three-month period. Somchainuk warned that the airline had registered huge losses in its third quarter, which ended June 30, due largely to steep world oil prices, after posting 10.4 billion baht (US$250.6 million) in profit in the two previous quarters. Kanok vowed not to quit, and said Somchainuk's leadership would help revive the airline's fortunes.
NO HUMAN ERROR: After the incident, the Coast Guard Administration said it would obtain uncrewed aerial vehicles and vessels to boost its detection capacity Authorities would improve border control to prevent unlawful entry into Taiwan’s waters and safeguard national security, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday after a Chinese man reached the nation’s coast on an inflatable boat, saying he “defected to freedom.” The man was found on a rubber boat when he was about to set foot on Taiwan at the estuary of Houkeng River (後坑溪) near Taiping Borough (太平) in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), authorities said. The Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) northern branch said it received a report at 6:30am yesterday morning from the New Taipei City Fire Department about a
IN BEIJING’S FAVOR: A China Coast Guard spokesperson said that the Chinese maritime police would continue to carry out law enforcement activities in waters it claims The Philippines withdrew its coast guard vessel from a South China Sea shoal that has recently been at the center of tensions with Beijing. BRP Teresa Magbanua “was compelled to return to port” from Sabina Shoal (Xianbin Shoal, 仙濱暗沙) due to bad weather, depleted supplies and the need to evacuate personnel requiring medical care, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) spokesman Jay Tarriela said yesterday in a post on X. The Philippine vessel “will be in tiptop shape to resume her mission” after it has been resupplied and repaired, Philippine Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, who heads the nation’s maritime council, said
CHINA POLICY: At the seventh US-EU Dialogue on China, the two sides issued strong support for Taiwan and condemned China’s actions in the South China Sea The US and EU issued a joint statement on Wednesday supporting Taiwan’s international participation, notably omitting the “one China” policy in a departure from previous similar statements, following high-level talks on China and the Indo-Pacific region. The statement also urged China to show restraint in the Taiwan Strait. US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and European External Action Service Secretary-General Stefano Sannino cochaired the seventh US-EU Dialogue on China and the sixth US-EU Indo-Pacific Consultations from Monday to Tuesday. Since the Indo-Pacific consultations were launched in 2021, references to the “one China” policy have appeared in every statement apart from the
More than 500 people on Saturday marched in New York in support of Taiwan’s entry to the UN, significantly more people than previous years. The march, coinciding with the ongoing 79th session of the UN General Assembly, comes close on the heels of growing international discourse regarding the meaning of UN Resolution 2758. Resolution 2758, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1971, recognizes the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the “only lawful representative of China.” It resulted in the Republic of China (ROC) losing its seat at the UN to the PRC. Taiwan has since been excluded from