■ Economy
China's trade surplus soars
China's trade surplus soared more than 40 percent last month to hit another record, official figures showed yesterday, a day after the central bank called for a "basket of policies" to fix the problem. China's trade surplus last month stood at US$14.61 billion, the General Administration of Customs said in a statement on its Web site, up from US$14.5 billion in June and 40.3 percent higher than the same month last year. In the first seven months of the year, the trade surplus was US$75.95 billion, up nearly 52 percent from the same period last year, with the rise almost certain to restoke trade frictions with China's major trading partners.
■ Economy
Singapore's growth slows
The economy grew 8.1 percent in the second quarter, driven by manufacturing industries, according to government figures released yesterday. The figure is down from the previous quarter's 10.6 percent growth, but higher than the government's forecast of 7.5 percent. Seasonally adjusted and annualized, GDP rose 3.0 percent from the first quarter, the figures showed. The second-quarter release comes after Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said on Tuesday that the city-state had revised up its 2006 GDP forecast to 6.5 percent-7.5 percent from 5 percent-7 percent.
■ Economy
ASEAN ministers plan union
ASEAN economic ministers will focus on the implementation of initiatives that may help fuse the region's economies into a European-style grouping by 2015 when they meet later this month, Malaysian Trade Minister Rafidah Aziz said yesterday. Several ASEAN nations want to push forward by five years a plan to create an economic community by 2015, accelerating a plan that intends to stop the region being dwarfed economically by giants India and China. Singapore and Thailand are in favor of the creation of accelerated integration.
■ Banking
HSBC customers vulnerable
More than 3 million customers of global banking giant HSBC have been left vulnerable while banking over the Internet for more than two years because of a security flaw, the Guardian reported. Discovered by a group of researchers at Cardiff University, the security flaw is not detailed in the newspaper, but it says that online criminals using so-called "keyloggers" -- software that record every keystroke on a target computer -- can gather the required information to access an HSBC customer's bank account. Anyone who exploited the security flaw was most likely to break into any account in five attempts, and guaranteed to do so within nine attempts, the researchers said, leaving 3.1 million HSBC customers vulnerable.
■ Software
IBM to acquire FileNet
IBM Corp took another step to build out its software portfolio yesterday by announcing a US$1.6 billion acquisition of FileNet Corp, which helps companies route data through business applications. The all-cash deal values FileNet at US$35 a share. If shareholders approve the acquisition, the deal would close in the fourth quarter. This marks IBM's second sizable software acquisition in a week. On Aug. 3 IBM agreed to spend US$740 million in cash on MRO Software Inc, a niche provider of software that helps industrial firms track their physical assets.
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
Taiwan has experienced its most significant improvement in the QS World University Rankings by Subject, data provided on Sunday by international higher education analyst Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) showed. Compared with last year’s edition of the rankings, which measure academic excellence and influence, Taiwanese universities made great improvements in the H Index metric, which evaluates research productivity and its impact, with a notable 30 percent increase overall, QS said. Taiwanese universities also made notable progress in the Citations per Paper metric, which measures the impact of research, achieving a 13 percent increase. Taiwanese universities gained 10 percent in Academic Reputation, but declined 18 percent
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
UNDER DISCUSSION: The combatant command would integrate fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups to defend waters closest to the coastline, a source said The military could establish a new combatant command as early as 2026, which would be tasked with defending Taiwan’s territorial waters 24 nautical miles (44.4km) from the nation’s coastline, a source familiar with the matter said yesterday. The new command, which would fall under the Naval Command Headquarters, would be led by a vice admiral and integrate existing fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups, along with the Naval Maritime Surveillance and Reconnaissance Command, said the source, who asked to remain anonymous. It could be launched by 2026, but details are being discussed and no final timetable has been announced, the source