■ AUTOMOBILES
SUV factory to be closed
Sagging demand for large sport utility vehicles has forced Ford Motor Co to close a Michigan factory for nine weeks starting on Monday. The Michigan Truck Plant in Wayne, west of Detroit, makes the Lincoln Navigator and Ford Expedition. It will be idled until Aug. 25, Ford spokeswoman Angie Kozleski said on Monday. The factory employs about 1,400 hourly workers. They will be laid off but get roughly 95 percent of their pay under their contract with the United Auto Workers. Responding to the same market conditions, General Motors Corp said on Monday that it is moving up the start of a third shift at its small-car plant in Lordstown, Ohio, that makes the Chevy Cobalt and Pontiac G5.
■ PHARMACEUTICALS
Roche to invest in research
Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche announced yesterday an investment of 1.3 billion Swiss francs (US$1.25 billion) in its production and research units in Switzerland. Of the total, SF800 million has been earmarked for the company’s main factory in Basel, northern Switzerland. Roche reported a net profit of SF11.4 billion last year, a 25 percent increase on the previous year that was largely attributed to sales of the company’s cancer medication.
■ BANKING
Bank sues over investments
A US bank part-owned by billionaire Warren Buffett is suing Deutsche Bank over risky financial investments of the kind that caused the subprime crisis, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday. A Deutsche Bank spokesman contacted by the newspaper declined to comment. M&T Bank is suing Deutsche over a US$82 million investment in mortgage securities known as collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) that went sour, the paper said. M&T, in which Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway company owns 6 percent, accuses Germany’s biggest bank of fraud, it said. Money manager HBK Investments is also named in the suit. It alleges that Deutsche Bank “withheld from the ratings agencies material information about the quality and default problems” that Deutsche was experiencing with CDOs that the bank had manufactured from risky consumer loans.
■ SHIPPING
Protests interrupt exports
Export-dependent South Korea said yesterday that a strike by container truck drivers in protest at soaring fuel prices has disrupted international trade worth almost US$5 billion. The stoppage by more than 13,000 drivers, in its fifth day yesterday, has crippled major ports and inland cargo terminals where containers are stacking up. The Ministry of Knowledge Economy said the strike had affected exports worth US$2.31 billion and imports worth US$2.43 billion as of late on Monday.
■ COMMUNICATIONS
Watchdog warns of charges
Mobile phone users in Hong Kong who go online are being hit with hidden charges of up to US$1,800 a month, a consumer watchdog warned yesterday. High-tech phones that can receive e-mails and data-switch between networks sometimes lock onto paid-for wireless services without the phone owner’s knowledge, the Hong Kong Consumer Council warned. The watchdog said it had received 143 complaints about unexpected charges for Internet services between January and May and 270 last year. Bills can be particularly high in cases in which people use their mobile phones to download large data files, which phone companies charge for in terms of volume, the Consumer Council said.
The paramount chief of a volcanic island in Vanuatu yesterday said that he was “very impressed” by a UN court’s declaration that countries must tackle climate change. Vanuatu spearheaded the legal case at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, which on Wednesday ruled that countries have a duty to protect against the threat of a warming planet. “I’m very impressed,” George Bumseng, the top chief of the Pacific archipelago’s island of Ambrym, told reporters in the capital, Port Vila. “We have been waiting for this decision for a long time because we have been victims of this climate change for
Rainfall is expected to become more widespread and persistent across central and southern Taiwan over the next few days, with the effects of the weather patterns becoming most prominent between last night and tomorrow, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Independent meteorologist Daniel Wu (吳德榮) said that based on the latest forecast models of the combination of a low-pressure system and southwesterly winds, rainfall and flooding are expected to continue in central and southern Taiwan from today to Sunday. The CWA also warned of flash floods, thunder and lightning, and strong gusts in these areas, as well as landslides and fallen
MASSIVE LOSS: If the next recall votes also fail, it would signal that the administration of President William Lai would continue to face strong resistance within the legislature The results of recall votes yesterday dealt a blow to the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) efforts to overturn the opposition-controlled legislature, as all 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers survived the recall bids. Backed by President William Lai’s (賴清德) DPP, civic groups led the recall drive, seeking to remove 31 out of 39 KMT lawmakers from the 113-seat legislature, in which the KMT and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) together hold a majority with 62 seats, while the DPP holds 51 seats. The scale of the recall elections was unprecedented, with another seven KMT lawmakers facing similar votes on Aug. 23. For a
All 24 lawmakers of the main opposition Chinese Nationalists Party (KMT) on Saturday survived historical nationwide recall elections, ensuring that the KMT along with Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) lawmakers will maintain opposition control of the legislature. Recall votes against all 24 KMT lawmakers as well as Hsinchu Mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) and KMT legislative caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅崐萁) failed to pass, according to Central Election Commission (CEC) figures. In only six of the 24 recall votes did the ballots cast in favor of the recall even meet the threshold of 25 percent of eligible voters needed for the recall to pass,
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