■ Thai airport ceremony put off
Thailand would delay an opening ceremony at Bangkok's new international airport due to problems including cracked taxiways, inadequate toilets and complaints of sexual harassment, reports said yesterday. The government was to hold a formal inauguration ceremony this month of Suvarnabhumi International Airport, which opened in late September, with an annual passenger capacity of 45 million. But the ceremony, to be attended by King Bhumibol Adulyadej, would be delayed at least six months due to multiple problems, English-language newspapers the Nation and Bangkok Post said. The problems include long waits for luggage, hold-ups at check-in counters, roof leaks and inadequate toilets, the Nation said, adding "uneven and cracked taxiways" were also discovered at the new airport.
■ Trade
NZ backs free trade plan
New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clarke yesterday threw her support behind a US-backed proposal for a massive free trade zone stretching across the Pacific Ocean, saying it was an attractive alternative if global free trade talks fail. Clarke, speaking to reporters at the end of a two-day summit of leaders from the 21-member APEC forum, said the idea was not in conflict with the Doha round of WTO talks, which collapsed in July amid bickering between the US and Europe over farm tariffs. "The key game has to be WTO," she said. "But if Doha stumbles so badly that it went into suspension for years, then of course an agreement which covers countries around about 60 percent of the world economy is very attractive for us," she said.
■ IP protection
China court backs local firm
A Beijing court has ruled China's leading Internet search engine was not guilty of property rights infringement when posting links to Web sites offering illegal music downloads, state press said yesterday. A Beijing intermediate court ruled in favor of Baidu.com (百度) in the lawsuit brought against it by major international music companies, including EMI, Sony BMG, Warner Music and Universal Music, the Xinhua news agency reported. No date for the ruling was given. The music companies accused Baidu of engaging in illegal downloading and the playing of music owned by the plaintiffs without their permission, the report said. They had demanded a public apology from Baidu, the suspension of its download service and 1.73 million yuan (US$216,250) in compensation, it said.
■ Property
Major US deal closed
A New York development company closed its US$5.4 billion purchase of one of the US' largest apartment complexes, despite some tenants' claims that the sale isn't allowed under state housing laws. MetLife Inc said on Friday it had finalized the sale of the Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village complex to Tishman Speyer Properties and BlackRock Realty, the real estate arm of BlackRock Inc, a provider of global investment management and advisory services. Tenants of the 110-building complex had launched their own bid to take over its 11,000 units, most of which are rent-stabilized and priced far below the market rate. This week, the tenants asked the city comptroller to investigate the sale, saying MetLife had not terminated the redevelopment company that managed the complex.
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday inaugurated the Danjiang Bridge across the Tamsui River in New Taipei City, saying that the structure would be an architectural icon and traffic artery for Taiwan. Feted as a major engineering achievement, the Danjiang Bridge is 920m long, 211m tall at the top of its pylon, and is the longest single-pylon asymmetric cable-stayed bridge in the world, the government’s Web site for the structure said. It was designed by late Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid. The structure, with a maximum deck of 70m, accommodates road and light rail traffic, and affords a 200m navigation channel for boats,
PRECISION STRIKES: The most significant reason to deploy HIMARS to outlying islands is to establish a ‘dead zone’ that the PLA would not dare enter, a source said A High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) would be deployed to Penghu County and Dongyin Island (東引) in Lienchiang County (Matsu) to force the Chinese military to retreat at least 100km from the coastline, a military source said yesterday. Taiwan has been procuring HIMARS and Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) from the US in batches. Once all batches have been delivered, Taiwan would possess 111 HIMARS units and 504 ATACMS, which have a range of 300km. Considering that “offense is the best defense,” the military plans to forward-deploy the systems to outlying islands such as Penghu and Dongyin so that
‘CLEAR MESSAGE’: The bill would set up an interagency ‘tiger team’ to review sanctions tools and other economic options to help deter any Chinese aggression toward Taiwan US Representative Young Kim has introduced a bill to deter Chinese aggression against Taiwan, calling for an interagency “tiger team” to preplan coordinated sanctions and economic measures in response to possible Chinese military or political action against Taiwan. “[Chinese President] Xi Jinping [習近平] has directed the People’s Liberation Army to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. China has a plan. America should have one too,” Kim said in a news release on Thursday last week. She introduced the “Deter PRC [People’s Republic of China] aggression against Taiwan act” to “ensure the US has a coordinated sanctions strategy ready should
TAIWAN ISSUE: US treasury secretary Scott Bessent said on the first day of meetings that ‘it wouldn’t be a US-China summit without the Taiwan issue coming up’ There were no surprises on the first day of the summit between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday, as the government reiterated that cross-strait stability is crucial to the Asia-Pacific region, as well as the world. As the two presidents met for a highly anticipated summit yesterday, Chinese state media reported that Xi warned Trump that missteps regarding Taiwan could push their two countries into “conflict.” Trump arrived in China with accolades for his host, calling Xi a “great leader” and “friend,” and extending an invitation to visit the White House
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