■ TRANSPORTATION
CRCC wins Libya deal
China Railway Construction Corp (CRCC, 中國鐵道) has won a US$2.6 billion contract to construct two rail lines in Libya, Xinhua news agency reported yesterday. The orders call for a 352km railway along Libya's Mediterranean coast from Khums to Sirt, and an 800km line in the south from Sebha to Misurata, the agency said. The coastal railway is expected to take four years to complete and the line in the south three years, it said.
■ INVESTMENT
Merrill Lynch stake bought
South Korea's Hana Bank has agreed to buy 1 million shares of Merrill Lynch & Co from Temasek Holdings, Singapore's state-owned investment company, for US$50 million, Dow Jones Newswires reported yesterday, citing a person familiar with the matter. The source also said both parties were aiming to close the deal next month. Temasek is the largest shareholder of Hana Financial with a 9.62 percent stake as of last September. In December, Merrill Lynch said it would sell a stake of up to US$5 billion to Temasek, which would hold less than 10 percent of the US firm and have no voting control.
■ TRANSPORT
ADB funds Cambodian rail
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) yesterday launched a multimillion-dollar project to restore Cambodia's devastated railways in a key step toward the creation of a regional rail system. Approximately 600km of track will be rebuilt at a cost of US$42 million, the bank said. "This is one of the last steps in the creation of a regional railway that will stretch from Singapore to Beijing," ADB president Haruhiko Kuroda said in a statement.
■ TELECOM
More job go in Germany
Deutsche Telekom, which has already announced that it would eliminate 32,000 jobs, plans to cut even more, chief executive Rene Obermann said yesterday in an interview. "We have to be honest. Our staff costs are not yet at the level of our competition," Obermann told the Financial Times Deutschland. "We are not yet at the same level of efficiency." He refused to say how many more jobs might be cut. The firm was also ready for a price war, he said. "If our competitors believe they can get rid of us just by lowering prices, they are wrong," he said.
■ MEDIA
Disney seeks UTV stake
Walt Disney Co has offered to buy a controlling stake in India's UTV Software Communications Ltd by buying new stock and some shares from minority holders totaling US$371 million. Disney agreed to pay 8.05 billion rupees (US$203 million) for 9.35 million new shares of UTV Software, which makes and distributes films and produces TV programs, a regulatory ad in the Business Standard newspaper said. Disney's purchase of the new shares will increase its holding in UTV Software to 32.1 percent from 14.9 percent, triggering a mandatory offer to buy at least a 20 percent stake from minority shareholders.
■ AVIATION
Korean Air to buy A380s
Korean Air Lines Co said yesterday it will buy three more Airbus A380 passenger jets, which will be delivered between 2012 and 2013, bringing its total order of A380s to eight. The first five planes are due to be delivered between 2010 and 2013. Korean Air said in a statement. The carrier did not say how much it would pay for the three A380s.
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