■ Aviation
Australia bars route access
The Australian government yesterday denied Singapore Airlines access to the lucrative route between Sydney and Los Angeles. Federal Transport Minister Warren Truss said the benefits of Singapore Airlines flying the trans-Pacific route would only bring minor benefits to the Australian tourism industry and could have a negative impact on the economy. Currently, the route is flown only by Qantas and United Airlines.
■ Telecoms
AT&T adds photo service
AT&T Inc will let wireless phone users get e-mailed photos over their handsets as the largest US telephone company adds services to retain customers. Yahoo Inc created the Yahoo Go Mobile software that comes on one Nokia Oyj phone being sold by San Antonio-based AT&T's mobile-phone joint venture, Cingular Wireless LLC. The phone costs US$250 before a US$50 rebate from Cingular for a two-year service agreement. The new service expands AT&T's Internet access offerings with Yahoo and helps keep customers from switching carriers.
■ Energy
Ex-CAO official sentenced
Peter Lim (林中山), the former finance chief at China Aviation Oil (CAO, 中國航油), was sentenced yesterday to two years in jail for his part in a trading scandal that led to the near collapse of the jet fuel trader. He pleaded guilty last week to cheating and making false declarations to conceal losses of nearly half a billion US dollars. Judge Liew Thiam Leng fined Lim, a Singaporean, S$150,000 (US$92,999) at the Subordinate Court. The three other executives facing charges are Jia Changbin (莢長斌), Gu Yanfei (顧炎飛) and Li Yongji (李永吉).
■ Energy
Hitachi unit wins order
A consortium led by Hitachi's European engineering unit, Babcock-Hitachi Europa (BHE), has won an order to supply a key part of what will be the world's biggest lignite-burning power plant. The order, for the steam-generating section of the plant, is worth 660 million euros (US$786 million), with about half to be fulfilled by BHE and associated companies. BHE has been a 100 percent subsidiary of Hitachi since 2003. The customer, RWE Power, says it aims to complete the 2.2 billion euro plant within four years. Other major contractors include Alstom, supplying turbines, and Strabag of Germany for the building work.
■ Electronics
Toshiba to ax CRT TVs
Toshiba Corp is ending production of cathode-ray tube televisions in April to focus on making flat-screen sets using liquid-crystal displays (LCDs) and a new technology being developed with Canon Inc. The Tokyo-based company is targeting more than 15 percent share of Japan's LCD TV market next fiscal year, according to a release yesterday. Toshiba is developing the surface-conduction electron-emitter display, or SED, technology with Canon Inc that offers clearer pictures and lower energy consumption than LCD and plasma display TVs. The company has said that flat-panel sets would help triple sales of DVD recorders, music players and other audio-visual products to ¥1.5 trillion (US$13 billion) in five years.
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