■ENERGY
CNOOC plans Bridas deal
CNOOC Ltd (中國海洋石油), China’s biggest offshore oil explorer announced it will buy Argentina’s Bridas Group from Carlos Bulgheroni for US$3.1 billion, a stock exchange filing in Hong Kong said. The transaction gives Beijing-based CNOOC a 40 percent stake in Pan American Energy, a joint venture between Bridas and BP Plc. CNOOC chairman Fu Chengyu (傅成玉) said the company has made “good progress” in collaborating with foreign companies since December 2008.
■INTERNET
Google ‘99.9%’ on China
A newspaper Web site is reporting Google Inc is “99.9 percent” sure to close its search engine in China after negotiations over censorship stalled. The Financial Times cited an unnamed source familiar with the company’s thinking when it reported on Saturday that Google has drawn up plans to shutter Google.cn. The newspaper did not say when the company would shut the site. It comes a day after China’s top Internet regulator reiterated that Google must obey its laws or “pay the consequences.”
■FINANCE
UBS mulls commodities
UBS is considering possibly returning to its commodities business this year, some of which it sold during the financial crisis, a Swiss newspaper said on Saturday, citing the co-head of UBS’s investment bank. The Neue Zuercher Zeitung, which gave no direct quotes, reported co-chief executive Carsten Kengeter as saying that UBS was about two thirds of the way to reconstituting its fixed income, currencies and commodities business. A spokesman for UBS confirmed the article was accurate.
■INVESTMENT
Kuwaiti firm posts loss
Global Investment House, a leading Kuwaiti investment firm, which is implementing a debt restructuring plan, said yesterday it posted a loss last year for the second straight year. Global said in a statement on the Kuwait Stock Exchange that it posted a loss of 148.8 million dinars (US$516 million) last year compared with a shortfall of 257.6 million dinars in the previous year. Meanwhile, Investment Dar, a leading Islamic investment firm, on Saturday filed for legal protection under Kuwait’s financial stability law to shield itself against court cases by creditors while it plans a debt restructuring.
■ENERGY
Inter RAO opens in Havana
Russian energy giant Inter RAO has opened an office in Havana as a first step toward forming a joint venture to operate a thermoelectric plant west of the Cuban capital, the Opciones newspaper reported on Saturday. The joint company Generacion Mariel, operated by Inter RAO and the Cuban energy firm Union Electrica will begin “the modernization of the thermoelectric plant ... that will renew four generators, at a power of 100 MW, and the construction of two more of the same strength,” Opciones reported.
■COMPUTERS
Dell sues over pricey LCDs
Dell Inc, the third-biggest personal-computer maker, sued Sharp Corp, Hitachi Ltd and three other LCD panel makers over allegations they conspired to fix prices and overcharged for their products. Dell alleged the practice has continued since 1996 in its complaint filed on Friday in US federal court in San Francisco.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
STATE OF THE NATION: The legislature should invite the president to deliver an address every year, the TPP said, adding that Lai should also have to answer legislators’ questions The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday proposed inviting president-elect William Lai (賴清德) to make a historic first state of the nation address at the legislature following his inauguration on May 20. Lai is expected to face many domestic and international challenges, and should clarify his intended policies with the public’s representatives, KMT caucus secretary-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said when making the proposal at a meeting of the legislature’s Procedure Committee. The committee voted to add the item to the agenda for Friday, along with another similar proposal put forward by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The invitation is in line with Article 15-2