■FRANCE
Angry workers hold 3M boss
Angry workers were yesterday holding the boss of their factory hostage to try to make their US employers improve their redundancy package, police and union officials said. The detention came less than two weeks after workers held the boss of Sony France hostage overnight before freeing him after he agreed to reopen talks on their pay-off when the factory closed. The latest case was in the central town of Pithiviers, where employees of the US industrial conglomerate 3M detained their boss late on Tuesday to force him to renegotiate pay-offs and compensations for workers moved to other plants. “This action [hostage-taking] is our only currency. But there is no aggression,” union representative Jean-Francois Caparros said. “Talks were held overnight but they led nowhere.”
■FOOTWEAR
Nike stops orders
Sportswear producer Nike said yesterday it would stop orders with three footwear factories in China and one in Vietnam as the global downturn forces the company to trim output. It will also terminate shipments from a number of apparel contract plants, Nike said in an e-mailed statement. The locations of the apparel factories were not revealed. “This is part of a long-term consolidation of our supply chain that we began in mid-2007,” said Erin Dobson, the company’s spokeswoman in Beaverton, Oregon. “We are not immune to the current global economic situation and because of this we have accelerated our process.”
■FAST FOOD
Yum buys Chinese hot pot
US fast food giant Yum Brands Inc will pay more than US$60 million for a stake of up to 20 percent in Chinese hot pot chain Little Sheep, the Chinese company said yesterday. Yum Brands Inc, the parent of fast food chain KFC, will buy 143 million shares, or 13.9 percent, of Little Sheep at HK$2.4 (US$0.31) per share via a subsidiary, the Chinese firm said in a statement filed with the Hong Kong bourse. It has also agreed to acquire another 62 million shares of the Chinese restaurant at the same price after the first transaction is completed, bringing the total investment to US$63.7 million, the statement said.
■ENTERTAINMENT
Blockbuster downloads
Blockbuster Inc plans to let TiVo Inc subscribers download movies to their home TVs from its online movie library, in the latest deal aimed at broadening the brand to computers and other gadgets. Under the deal announced yesterday, most TiVo users with high-speed Internet service will be able to view movies offered by Blockbuster’s On Demand system. Blockbuster joins rival Netflix and Amazon.com, which also provide online video straight to TiVo users’ TVs. The agreement also calls for Blockbuster’s brick-and-mortar stores and online shop to sell TiVo’s digital video recorders, potentially exposing both companies’ customers to the other’s services.
■FINANCE
Mitsubishi creates brokerage
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc plans to take a 60 percent stake in a new brokerage that it will create with US investment bank Morgan Stanley, local media reported yesterday. The two firms have already agreed to merge their brokerage units next spring, with Mitsubishi UFJ taking control of the joint entity, the Nikkei financial daily said. Mitsubishi UFJ, Japan’s biggest banking group, said in a statement that no decisions had been made regarding potential business ventures with Morgan Stanley.
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
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
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