■ TELCOS
Cellphone use growing
China added 6.5 million cellphone subscribers in February, increasing the number of subscribers in the world's biggest wireless market to 473.9 million, government data showed. The country added 1 million fixed-line telephone subscribers in February for a total of 370 million users, Wang Lijan, a Beijing-based spokesman for the Ministry of Information Industry, said by telephone on Friday. China, the world's second-biggest Internet market by users, added 3 million broadband subscribers during the month for a total of 55.3 million users, he said.
■ FOOD
W Virginia poultry banned
Cuba, Japan, Russia and Taiwan have declared poultry from the southern state of West Virginia temporarily ineligible for importation following the discovery of avian flu at a turkey farm. The countries will not accept any poultry or poultry products from the state. Also, Hong Kong will not accept such imports from Pendleton County, where the avian flu was found, said Matt Herrick, a spokesman for the US Department of Agriculture's Foreign Agricultural Service. "They are temporary measures based on international guidelines," Herrick said on Thursday. Timeframes for resuming poultry imports will depend on each country's standards.
■ TRADE
Nick Leeson jacket sold
A trading jacket worn by Nick Leeson as he caused the collapse of Britain's Barings Bank by hiding losses sold for ?21,000 (US$41,000) on Thursday, with proceeds going to bank creditors, the Guardian reported. The striped jacket, with "Nick" embroidered on an inside pocket, was bought by Paul Taylor, who runs an investment fund backed by the Gulf state of Qatar, the British paper said on its Web site. Barings collapsed in 1995 after Leeson ran up losses of US$1.4 billion through derivatives trading in Singapore. Leeson spent three-and-a-half years in a Singaporean prison later and is now the general manager of an Irish football club, Galway United.
■ FINANCE
Yen not focus of G7 meeting
G7 finance chiefs are likely to discuss currencies at their meeting in Washington next week but will not focus on the weakness of the yen, Japanese Finance Minister Koji Omi said yesterday. "Discussion on exchange rates is likely to include the yen, the dollar, the euro and the yuan," he said. But finance ministers and central bank heads from the G7 industrialized states "will not particularly focus on the yen" at their meeting next Friday, Omi told reporters. The G7 ministers opted for a relatively soft line on the sliding Japanese yen at their February meeting in Germany, despite European concerns about the currency's weakness which hurts eurozone exporters.
■ INVESTMENT
Daiwa to spread investment
Daiwa Securities Group Inc, Japan's second-biggest securities firm, said it will invest ?100 billion (US$842 million) in private equity transactions outside Japan within two years. Daiwa plans to invest the money mainly in Asia, including China and India, as part of the firm's plan to broaden global operations, said Yoshihisa Kaneko, the company's spokesman in Tokyo. Daiwa, which is in the second year of its three-year business plan, wants to offer more overseas investment products to wealthy Japanese individuals and other clients to boost fees.
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
REGIONAL STABILITY: Taipei thanked the Biden administration for authorizing its 16th sale of military goods and services to uphold Taiwan’s defense and safety The US Department of State has approved the sale of US$228 million of military goods and services to Taiwan, the US Department of Defense said on Monday. The state department “made a determination approving a possible Foreign Military Sale” to the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the US for “return, repair and reshipment of spare parts and related equipment,” the defense department’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency said in a news release. Taiwan had requested the purchase of items and services which include the “return, repair and reshipment of classified and unclassified spare parts for aircraft and related equipment; US Government
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