■ NEW ZEALAND
Recession in third quarter
The country’s recession has extended into a third quarter, with data yesterday showing the economy contracted 0.4 percent in the three months to September. The contraction followed and was deeper than previous falls of 0.2 percent in the June quarter and 0.3 percent in the three months to March. The average annual rate of growth in the year to September was 1.7 percent, Statistics New Zealand said. The second consecutive quarter of contraction in the June quarter saw the country fall into its first recession for a decade. The the global financial crisis has since dashed previous projections that growth would resume late this year.
■TELECOMS
Telecom, Vodafone team up
German telecommunications group Deutsche Telekom is to join forces with British rival Vodafone to develop a fiber optic network for high-speed Internet access, a Deutsche Telekom official said. The two groups want to develop two projects in Germany to establish a high-speed Internet network that could serve 100,000 homes, said Timotheus Hottges, responsible for fixed telephone operations at Deutsche Telekom. We are going to see how this cooperation would work at the technical level,” he said. “We want to show that Deutsche Telekom does not want to monopolize the new networks.”
■GAMBLING
Casino sacks 500 staffers
Macau’s giant Venetian casino owned by troubled Las Vegas Sands has sacked 500 staffers, the company said in a statement, the latest sign of the firms’ struggles to deal with the global credit crunch. The Venetian, a massive hotel and casino complex billed as the cornerstone of a new Las Vegas-style strip, has cut the weekly working week for its casino workers and laid off 500 staff, the firm said in a statement released late on Monday. “The company has adopted a series of measures to control operating cost in all business areas, including letting go about 500 employees across all levels who are not Macau residents,” a spokesman said. “[These include] about 100 management-grade expatriate employees in gaming operations.”
■ENTERTAINMENT
Disneyland wants to expand
Hong Kong Disneyland’s much-awaited expansion would increase the size of the park by a third and cost around HK$3.5 billion (US$450 million), a report said yesterday. The park, desperate to expand its operation to boost disappointing visitor numbers, would aim to open three new themed “lands,” the South China Morning Post reported, citing park chief executive Andrew Lam. Lam said the expansion would amount to around half of the HK$7.2 billion cost of a planned cruise terminal. The park was in talks with the government, which owns a 57 percent stake, over financing for the expansion.
■BANKING
BOA dismisses reports
Bank of America (BOA), a major shareholder in China Construction Bank (中國建設銀行), has dismissed a report that it called off plans to sell a US$3 billion stake following objections from Beijing. “We suspended the sale of the shares for our own internal reasons,” BOA spokesman Robert Stickler said in a statement e-mailed to reporters late on Monday. The Financial Times last week cited people familiar with the situation as saying that BOA chief executive Ken Lewis scrapped the plans after a phone call with Guo Shuqing (郭樹清), his counterpart at China Construction Bank.
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
Taiwan has experienced its most significant improvement in the QS World University Rankings by Subject, data provided on Sunday by international higher education analyst Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) showed. Compared with last year’s edition of the rankings, which measure academic excellence and influence, Taiwanese universities made great improvements in the H Index metric, which evaluates research productivity and its impact, with a notable 30 percent increase overall, QS said. Taiwanese universities also made notable progress in the Citations per Paper metric, which measures the impact of research, achieving a 13 percent increase. Taiwanese universities gained 10 percent in Academic Reputation, but declined 18 percent
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
UNDER DISCUSSION: The combatant command would integrate fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups to defend waters closest to the coastline, a source said The military could establish a new combatant command as early as 2026, which would be tasked with defending Taiwan’s territorial waters 24 nautical miles (44.4km) from the nation’s coastline, a source familiar with the matter said yesterday. The new command, which would fall under the Naval Command Headquarters, would be led by a vice admiral and integrate existing fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups, along with the Naval Maritime Surveillance and Reconnaissance Command, said the source, who asked to remain anonymous. It could be launched by 2026, but details are being discussed and no final timetable has been announced, the source