■FINANCE
Two Canadians on UBS list
Canadian tax officials are pressing UBS for information on two Canadians thought to be on a list of 4,500 account holders probed by US authorities for alleged tax evasion, a top official said on Thursday. “We started discussions about two Canadians who are on the client lists UBS handed over to the US and we are continuing to seek more answers,” Canadian Revenue Minister Jean-Pierre Blackburn said. The talks were “productive and constructive,” he said after a first meeting on Wednesday between the Canada Revenue Agency lawyers and UBS. A second round of talks with UBS was scheduled for yesterday. Blackburn urged Canadians who have so far neglected to pay their taxes to come forward during a current amnesty for tax delinquents, in order to avoid prosecution.
■AUTOMOBILES
Magna favored for Opel
The head of General Motors (GM) in Europe said Canadian firm Magna was set to win the drawn-out battle to take over the US car maker’s Opel division, in comments due to be published yesterday. The German daily Die Welt quoted Carl-Peter Forster, head of GM’s Europe operations, as saying that Magna would “most likely” win the takeover bid since all the contracts and financing were in place for it to do so. However he did not rule out either that GM could keep control of Opel and GM’s British-based Vauxhall division instead, the newspaper said. Bidders have been circling months for Opel after its parent company was driven to bankruptcy by the world economic downturn. The other main contender, Brussels-based investment group RHJ International, has raised its bid for Opel, but the German government, which has a decisive say in the outcome, backs Magna, a Canadian car parts firm. Magna is leading a joint bid with state-owned Russian bank Sberbank and Russia’s second-largest auto maker, GAZ.
■FINANCE
Daiwa, SMFG end tie-up
Japan’s Daiwa Securities Group and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SMFG) plan to end a decade-long tie-up in wholesale brokerage services, a newspaper reported yesterday. Daiwa, Japan’s second-largest brokerage house, plans to buy SMFG’s 40 percent stake in Daiwa Securities SMBC for about ¥200 billion (US$2.2 billion) to take full ownership, the Nikkei Shimbun business daily said. The two firms, which teamed up in 1999, declined to confirm the unsourced report, which said an announcement could come next week. “Nothing has been decided yet,” an SMFG spokesman said. The reported move comes after SMFG — Japan’s No. 3 banking group — announced in May that it would buy Nikko Cordial Securities from troubled Wall Street giant Citigroup in a ¥545 billion deal.
■TECHNOLOGY
Microsoft can sell Word
The US Appeals Court for the Federal Circuit says Microsoft Corp can keep selling its Word desktop software as it appeals an unfavorable patent ruling. In May, a Texas district court said some versions of Microsoft’s word processing software infringe on a Canadian technology company’s patent. The dispute is over the way Word 2003 and Word 2007 let users customize document encoding. The Texas judge had ordered Microsoft to pay Toronto-based i4i LLP US$290 million and stop selling infringing versions of Word by the middle of next month. Redmond-based Microsoft has appealed the ruling and is set to present arguments on Sept. 23.
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
BULLY TACTICS: Beijing has continued its incursions into Taiwan’s airspace even as Xi Jinping talked about Taiwan being part of the Chinese family and nation China should stop its coercion of Taiwan and respect mainstream public opinion in Taiwan about sovereignty if its expression of goodwill is genuine, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday. Ministry spokesman Jeff Liu (劉永健) made the comment in response to media queries about a meeting between former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) the previous day. Ma voiced support for the so-called “1992 consensus,” while Xi said that although the two sides of the Taiwan Strait have “different systems,” this does not change the fact that they are “part of the same country,” and that “external
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