■ENERGY
Suzlon sells stake in Hansen
Suzlon Energy, India’s biggest maker of wind turbine generators, has sold a 35 percent stake in Belgian wind gearbox maker Hansen, raising US$370 million as it moves to cut debt, a statement said. The sale, reducing troubled Suzlon’s holding in Hansen Transmissions International NV to 20 percent, was announced late on Thursday by the company. Suzlon, the world’s fifth-largest turbine maker which dominates the Indian wind-generation market, purchased Hansen in 2006 for US$565 million in a deal it said had big synergies with its own wind turbine operations.
■BANKING
US Treasury to sell warrants
The US Treasury said on Thursday it would sell warrants in JPMorgan Chase and two other commercial banks acquired under a program to pump capital into the financial system. Treasury officials said they would use a “modified Dutch auction” to sell the warrants in JPMorgan, Capital One Financial and TCF Financial Corporation, over the next month. The Dutch auction methodology establishes a market price by allowing investors to submit bids at specified increments above a minimum price specified for each auction.
■INTERNET
eBay completes Skype sale
Online auction giant eBay announced on Thursday it had completed its sale of Skype to an investment group that includes the two founders of the Web communications company. The previously announced sale of a 70 percent stake in Skype for some US$2 billion had been held up by lawsuits filed by Skype founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis. Zennstrom and Friis settled the suits this month and will hold a 14 percent stake in Skype through their new company, Joltid Ltd. Fifty-six percent will be held by the investor group led by private equity firm Silver Lake Partners, while eBay will retain a 30 percent equity investment in Skype. The deal values Skype at US$2.75 billion.
■CHINA
Electricity rates go up
China raised electricity rates for businesses and industries yesterday by 5.7 percent and says more hikes are planned, as the country adjusts prices to reflect costs and promote energy saving. It was the first rate-hike since July last year, when electricity tariffs for nonresidential use rose 5 percent. Residential electricity rates have remained stable since a 1 percent hike in July 2006, but a residential rate increase is planned for early next year, China’s main planning agency said in a notice late on Thursday. Businesses will pay 0.028 yuan per kilowatt hour more as of yesterday, the National Development and Reform Commission said.
■INTERNET
New captions for YouTube
Google Inc said on Thursday it was beginning to add automatic, machine-generated captions for videos on its YouTube site. The new service is intended to make online videos accessible to the deaf and hearing-impaired. Hundreds of thousands of videos on Google sites already contain caption tracks that users have created and added manually with Google’s existing captioning service. But with 20 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute, most videos on the site still lack captions. So Google is tapping into the speech-recognition technology that it uses for its Google Voice call management service to make captions an automatic feature on YouTube.
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
CHINA POLICY: At the seventh US-EU Dialogue on China, the two sides issued strong support for Taiwan and condemned China’s actions in the South China Sea The US and EU issued a joint statement on Wednesday supporting Taiwan’s international participation, notably omitting the “one China” policy in a departure from previous similar statements, following high-level talks on China and the Indo-Pacific region. The statement also urged China to show restraint in the Taiwan Strait. US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and European External Action Service Secretary-General Stefano Sannino cochaired the seventh US-EU Dialogue on China and the sixth US-EU Indo-Pacific Consultations from Monday to Tuesday. Since the Indo-Pacific consultations were launched in 2021, references to the “one China” policy have appeared in every statement apart from the
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