■ EDUCATION
Stanford helps undergrads
Attending Stanford University next year will be a lot more affordable for some undergraduate students. The university said on Wednesday it would eliminate tuition for students with annual family incomes totaling less than US$100,000. It will also pay most room and board for students with families making less than US$60,000. Financial aid director Karen Cooper says the move came as middle-income parents expressed concern about paying for a Stanford education. Stanford tuition is expected to rise to US$36,000 in the fall. Room and board will cost about US$11,000. About a third of the university's 6,700 undergraduates are expected to qualify for the tuition break.
■ ECONOMY
Real earnings drop
Inflation-adjusted earnings for average workers have fallen 1.2 percent over the last year, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics said on Wednesday, as higher food and fuel costs have eroded purchasing power. Earnings adjusted for inflation -- also known as real earnings -- have fallen for eight of the last 13 months and were down 0.5 percent last month compared with December, the agency said. "A lot of people have lost a huge amount in their homes, jobs aren't being created at a rapid rate and wages are falling behind inflation," said Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a Washington-based research group.
■ OIL
Europe turns to diesel
More than half of all new cars sold in Europe last year had a fuel-saving diesel engine, the European car manufacturers group ACEA said on Wednesday. Higher gas pump prices and diesel engine improvements helped boost sales of diesel-equipped cars to 53 percent of the nearly 15 million cars sold in the EU, Iceland, Norway and Switzerland last year, it said, pointing to greater consumer demand for fuel efficiency. Diesel engines are about 30 percent more efficient than their gasoline counterparts, but emit more small particles responsible for smog.
■ FINANCING
GMAC to cut jobs
GMAC LLC will combine 20 US and Canadian offices into five regional centers and cut about 930 jobs in its auto finance business to cut expenses in the wake of tightening credit markets and heavy losses last year. The job cuts will occur by the end of this year and represent about 15 percent of the workforce in the auto loan business unit. The company, which was once the finance arm of General Motors Corp, said the five regional business centers will be in the Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Pittsburgh and Toronto areas.
■ BANKING
No help for Whistlejacket
Standard Chartered PLC, a UK-based bank that does most of its business in Asia, said on Wednesday it had ditched plans to bail out Whistlejacket, a structured investment vehicle (SIV) it manages but does not actually own. "Standard Chartered is disappointed that it has been unable to find a viable solution to ensure flexibility for Whistlejacket," the company said in a statement. SIVs, which are funded by debt, are struggling because fewer investors want to buy debt securities after the US subprime credit crunch. Standard Chartered shares dipped 2.1 percent to ?15.55 (US$30.33) in London.
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