■ LABOR
Shoemakers strike
Nearly 14,000 workers at a South Korean footwear company in Vietnam have gone on strike to demand higher salaries, blaming the action on rising consumer prices, state media said yesterday. The workers of Hwa Seung Vina in southern Dong Nai Province stopped work on Saturday, asking company leaders to raise their incomes by at least 300,000 dong (US$18), said Tuoi Tre daily newspaper. The management of the company, which produces shoes for export, offered to raise workers’ salary by 200,000 dong but the compromise did not work, the paper said.
■ CHINA
Farmers’ income rises
Chinese farmers’ income in the first half of this year rose 10.3 percent in real terms from a year ago, state media said yesterday, signaling some success for policies to improve life in the countryside. By contrast, people in the cities saw a more modest 6.3 percent rise in incomes after deducting inflation, the Xinhua news agency reported, citing the National Bureau of Statistics. However, despite the faster income growth in the countryside the disparity between rural and urban areas remains huge. The average farmer made 2,528 yuan (US$370) in the first six months of the year, compared with 8,065 yuan for the average urban dweller, Xinhua reported.
■ EXPORTS
Palm oil exports to increase
Malaysia will put in place a series of measures to stabilize plummeting global palm oil prices including selling off crude stocks, a report said yesterday. Peter Chin, minister of plantation industries and commodities, told the Sunday Star newspaper that the government wanted to make sure that the almost 25 percent drop in prices in recent months did not become a long-term trend. Chin said the country would export crude — not refined — palm oil to China, India, Pakistan and the Middle East. It will also increase exports to Western countries where palm oil can be used as bio-fuel during the upcoming northern hemisphere winter, he said.
■ MANAGEMENT
Jobs not at death’s door
Apple Inc CEO Steve Jobs, who has been dogged by investor concerns about his health, does not have recurrent cancer or a life-threatening health issue, the New York Times reported on Saturday. “While his health problems amounted to a good deal more than ‘a common bug,’ they weren’t life-threatening and he doesn’t have a recurrence of cancer,” journalist Joe Nocera wrote in a column. Nocera said he spoke to the Apple CEO about his health. In 2004, Jobs, 53, announced he had undergone successful surgery to remove a rare type of pancreatic cancer. Concerns about his health roared back last month, when a thinner-than-usual Jobs introduced the latest iteration of the iPhone in San Francisco.
■ COMPUTERS
Warning of ‘UPS’ virus
Internet users are being warned too look out for e-mail messages claiming to be from package courier UPS. The messages, delivered in English and in German, actually originate from hackers, the German Federal Agency for Security in Information Technology reported recently. The messages tell the recipient that a package could not be delivered because of a non-existent address. The message then encourages the user to click on an e-mail attachment to check the delivery slip data; anyone who does so allows a Trojan virus to sneak onto their computer.
NO HUMAN ERROR: After the incident, the Coast Guard Administration said it would obtain uncrewed aerial vehicles and vessels to boost its detection capacity Authorities would improve border control to prevent unlawful entry into Taiwan’s waters and safeguard national security, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday after a Chinese man reached the nation’s coast on an inflatable boat, saying he “defected to freedom.” The man was found on a rubber boat when he was about to set foot on Taiwan at the estuary of Houkeng River (後坑溪) near Taiping Borough (太平) in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), authorities said. The Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) northern branch said it received a report at 6:30am yesterday morning from the New Taipei City Fire Department about a
IN BEIJING’S FAVOR: A China Coast Guard spokesperson said that the Chinese maritime police would continue to carry out law enforcement activities in waters it claims The Philippines withdrew its coast guard vessel from a South China Sea shoal that has recently been at the center of tensions with Beijing. BRP Teresa Magbanua “was compelled to return to port” from Sabina Shoal (Xianbin Shoal, 仙濱暗沙) due to bad weather, depleted supplies and the need to evacuate personnel requiring medical care, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) spokesman Jay Tarriela said yesterday in a post on X. The Philippine vessel “will be in tiptop shape to resume her mission” after it has been resupplied and repaired, Philippine Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, who heads the nation’s maritime council, said
REGIONAL STABILITY: Taipei thanked the Biden administration for authorizing its 16th sale of military goods and services to uphold Taiwan’s defense and safety The US Department of State has approved the sale of US$228 million of military goods and services to Taiwan, the US Department of Defense said on Monday. The state department “made a determination approving a possible Foreign Military Sale” to the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the US for “return, repair and reshipment of spare parts and related equipment,” the defense department’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency said in a news release. Taiwan had requested the purchase of items and services which include the “return, repair and reshipment of classified and unclassified spare parts for aircraft and related equipment; US Government
More than 500 people on Saturday marched in New York in support of Taiwan’s entry to the UN, significantly more people than previous years. The march, coinciding with the ongoing 79th session of the UN General Assembly, comes close on the heels of growing international discourse regarding the meaning of UN Resolution 2758. Resolution 2758, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1971, recognizes the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the “only lawful representative of China.” It resulted in the Republic of China (ROC) losing its seat at the UN to the PRC. Taiwan has since been excluded from