■ Auto industry
Kia workers halt stoppage
Workers at South Korea's Kia Motors Corp yesterday ended an 11-day work stoppage after the union and management reached an agreement on higher pay and improved conditions, the company said. Overnight marathon talks ended in an accord early yesterday that included an average 6.9 percent rise in basic monthly salary and a bonus of three months' salary. The two sides also agreed to abolish overnight shiftwork from 2009. Union members they would return to work yesterday, ending the partial strike that has cost Kia Motors some US$400 million in lost production, according to management. The agreement came after workers at Kia's sister company, Hyundai Motor, the nation's largest carmaker, approved a deal last week to end their two-week strike action.
■ Game consoles
Sony recalls PS2 adaptors
Sony Corp recalled about 3.6 million adaptors used in its best-selling PlayStation 2 game console because the component may overheat and could cause a fire. The adaptors, which are used to power the game console, were manufactured in the four months ending December last year and were sold with the game consoles worldwide starting in November, the Tokyo-based company said yesterday in a statement. Sony will replace the adaptors free of charge. As many as 2.3 million units are affected in Europe, 960,000 units in North America, 210,000 units in Asia, and 60,000 units in Japan, Tokyo-based spokesman Daisuke Nakata said. The cost of the recall is not known, he said. Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc said it received 38 reports of the adaptors overheating, including 19 reports of melting, according to the statement.
■ Chemicals
DuPont to increase prices
DuPont Co said on Monday that it plans to raise prices for all of its products in response to rapidly increasing costs for energy and feedstocks. The Wilmington-based chemical giant cited a report by DuPont corporate economist Robert Shrouds indicating that record-high energy prices, further exacerbated by Hurricane Katrina, will be a factor for the foreseeable future. Diane Gulyas, DuPont's chief marketing officer, said the company expects all of its 80 business units to be affected by higher energy costs, especially its performance materials and coatings and color technologies divisions, but that it's too soon to tell how high product prices will go.
■ Energy
Pig manure a power source
They cannot escape the stench, but residents of tiny Reynolds, Indiana, hope the oceans of hog manure produced nearby will power their homes and businesses some day soon. "We're very excited," town president Charlie Van Voorst. "They're advertising us as a showcase for the world." Indiana's energy conservation-minded Governor Mitch Daniels was to take his ethanol-powered recreational vehicle to Reynolds yesterday to designate the single stoplight town the world's first "Biotown." Initially, the 500 townspeople will lease or buy vehicles that run on high concentrations of corn-based ethanol or soy diesel from soybeans. The second phase will install power-generating equipment that burns gas made from manure, according to Deborah Abbott of the state agriculture department. The electricity generated will be used to power homes and businesses.
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
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
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