■ Automobiles
Isuzu returning to US
Japanese truck maker Isuzu is readying a full-fledged return to production in the US, having recently purchased land in Alabama for US$7.8 million, a company spokesman said yesterday. Isuzu Motors Ltd bought land in Birmingham for future business activities in North America, including setting up a vehicle assembly plant there, although details cannot be disclosed, Isuzu spokesman Tadashi Ioka said. Isuzu had a joint venture in Indiana with Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd, the maker of Subaru cars, but withdrew in 2003, when Fuji bought out Isuzu's share in the venture and became sole operator of the plant.
■ Electronics
Toshiba sues 17 firms
Toshiba Corp on Friday filed a complaint with the US International Trade Commission and sued 17 companies, mostly Hong Kong and Chinese makers and importers, alleging infringement of its DVD patents, the Japanese electronics maker said yesterday. It also filed a lawsuit demanding monetary damages from the same companies in a district court in California. Toshiba licenses DVD patents, but the companies, including Daewoo Electronics America Inc of the US, Dongguan GVG Digital Technology of China and Star Light Electronics Co of Hong Kong, don't have such licensing agreements, Toshiba said.
■ Pharmaceuticals
`Corrupt' official faces court
China is preparing to put a former drug regulator on trial on charges he took up to 6 million yuan (US$780,000) in bribes in a case that triggered a shakeup of the Chinese drug industry, a news report said yesterday. Investigators have handed over Zheng Xiaoyu's (鄭筱萸) case to prosecutors, the newspaper 21st Century Business Herald said. Zheng was dismissed in 2005 on charges he took bribes to approve untested medicines, including an antibiotic that killed at least 10 patients last year. He was expelled last month from the Chinese Communist Party in a step that clears the way for a court case.
■ Entertainment
Disney still keen on China
US entertainment giant Walt Disney still hopes to open a theme park in China, but it will not necessarily be in Shanghai, Xinhua news agency said yesterday. "We are sure to build a second park in China in the long run, but we are now reviewing the market," Xinhua quoted Wing T. Chao (趙永濤), Disney's vice head of development in the Asian and Pacific region, as saying. Chao said the firm had yet to decide on a location for its second theme park in China after Hong Kong Disneyland opened in September 2005, nor had any construction plans been formulated.
■ Telecoms
KDDI expands to US
Japan's KDDI Corp plans to offer a mobile telephone service in the US targeting Japanese subscribers through the network of a US operator, a company spokesman said yesterday. The company aims to offer the service, with the brand name "KDDI Mobile," by using a network operated by Sprint Nextel Corp, the spokesman said. The move would make KDDI the first Japanese cellphone carrier to launch its own brand overseas. Japan's largest mobile phone service provider NTT DoCoMo Inc has also been expanding overseas, mostly by licensing agreements for its popular "i-mode" Internet-capable mobile service.
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
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
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