■ AVIATION
Airline boosts entertainment
American Airlines is offering free on-demand video and audio entertainment for first-and business-class passengers on transcontinental flights and will test a media player on some flights between Los Angeles and Chicago. The airline said premium customers will get free on-demand movies, music and television on handheld devices with 7-inch (17.7cm) touch-screen monitors. American said it began offering the devices on Tuesday on Boeing 767-200 and 767-300 aircraft flying New York-Los Angeles and New York-San Francisco routes, and it will add them to Miami-San Francisco flights next month.
■ AUTOMOBILES
US sales stall
US auto sales stalled last month as a weaker housing market and higher gas prices hurt consumers, raising further doubts about the industry's outlook for the remainder of the year. Sales at General Motors Corp fell 2 percent, while Ford Motor Co sales dropped 6 percent. Declines for the top two US automakers had been expected after executives at both companies warned about results for last month. Even Toyota Motor Co posted its lowest monthly sales growth since August 2004 at just under 4 percent. But sales at Chrysler Group bucked the downtrend with a 10 percent gain, boosted by aggressive discounts.
■ BANKING
Goldman Sachs audited
Tax authorities have conducted an audit of the South Korean operations of US investment bank Goldman Sachs, the company said yesterday. The firm said its business in South Korea faced a "routine" tax audit but refused to confirm media reports that the National Tax Service is looking in particular at its investment in Jinro, a major distiller. Goldman Sachs' Seoul branch sold Jinro in 2005 to Hite Brewery for 3.4 trillion won (US$3.7 billion), reaping more than one trillion won in investment profits but only paying taxes on part of the profits, Yonhap news agency reported.
■ BANKING
Larger banknotes imminent
South Korea's central bank said yesterday it plans to issue large-denomination banknotes from 2009, more than three decades after the 10,000 won note (now worth US$10.70) was introduced. Since 1973, commodity prices have risen twelve-fold and the gross national income has become 150 times larger. Koreans who do not wish to use credit cards carry thick wads of notes or bank cheques which are issued in fixed sums. Personal cheques are very rarely used. The Bank of Korea plans to issue 100,000 won and 50,000 won bills in the first half of 2009 if the government approves the move.
■ PET FOOD
Officials step up probe
US food and drug officials were in Beijing yesterday to step up a joint investigation with Chinese authorities into tainted pet food products that have killed numerous animals in the US. The tainted wheat gluten has been found in nearly 100 brands of US pet food. Chemical melamine, a substance used in fertilizers and plastics, is used to enhance nitrogen-levels in the food and is believed to have led to kidney failure in pets. Adding melamine to food products is illegal in the US, but appears to be widely used in China. It is not known to be toxic to humans.
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