■ STEEL
Posco, Venezuela in talks
Posco, Asia’s third-largest steelmaker, met Venezuela’s deputy minister of basic industries to discuss the possible construction of a stainless-steel mill. The two sides will meet again next month to discuss the project, Venezuelan Deputy Minister Jesus Paredes said in a statement on Friday on the Ministry of Basic Industries and Mining Web site. Other companies may also present proposals for the factory, which would open in 2011, the ministry said. A Posco project would mark a return to the country for the Pohang, South Korea-based company, which closed a Venezuela iron-ore plant in 2002 and took a US$47 million loss because of cost overruns, a worsening business climate and declining steel prices.
■ COPPER
Chile’s annual output slips
Chile, the world’s biggest supplier of copper, produced 6.1 percent less of the metal in April than a year earlier, a government-owned researcher said. Output fell to 427,200 tonnes from 454,900 tonnes in April last year, a report published on Friday by the state-owned Chilean Copper Commission in Santiago showed. Chile’s National Statistics Institute, which is also run by the government, said last month that the country’s overall copper output fell 5.6 percent to 435,132 tonnes in April from 460,819 tonnes a year earlier, without breaking out production by company or by mine.
■AVIATION
Japan Airlines closes facility
After nearly 40 years, Japan Airlines says it will stop using the Grant County, Washington, International Airport for training early next year because of the high price of fuel. The airline intends to close the Moses Lake-based 747-400 training department facilities in March. Japan Airlines executive assistant for administration Brenda Martinez cites both the cost of fuel to train on a four-engine aircraft and the costs to bring trainees and flight instructors to Moses Lake.
■ LABOR
Reliance to open US plant
An India-based company plans to open its first North American plant in North Carolina and create more than 200 jobs in the area over the next five years. Reliance Industries USA Inc said on Friday it plans to invest US$215 million in a plant in Kinston, where 204 people will eventually be employed. The company makes resin used in the manufacture of plastic containers and specialty polyester yarns. US State Department of Commerce spokesman Charles Winkler said the company could get as much US$2.2 million in benefits if it meets all the requirements in its state contract.
■ PATENT RIGHTS
Court raises Microsoft fine
A US district court judge in San Diego ruled that Microsoft Corp must pay Alcatel-Lucent US$511.6 million for infringing on two patents in the latest move in a five-year-old patent scuffle between the two firms. In April, a jury ordered Microsoft to pay Paris-based Alcatel-Lucent US$357.7 million for infringing on a patent that covers how users select a calendar date from a menu in certain programs, including Microsoft Outlook and Windows Mobile. It also ordered Microsoft to pay US$10.4 million for infringing on an Alcatel-Lucent patent related to the use of a stylus on a tablet computer. Judge Marilyn Huff denied Microsoft’s request for reconsideration of that jury’s decisions on Thursday and raised the amount of damages the court awarded Alcatel-Lucent to include prejudgment interest meant to compensate for how long it took to resolve the matter.
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