■CHINA
Rio Tinto trial to begin
Australian Rio Tinto executive Stern Hu (胡士泰) will face trial in China next week accused of industrial espionage and receiving bribes, the government in Canberra said yesterday. Australia said it was pleased that the case of Hu was moving to trial, eight months after he and three other employees of the Anglo-Australian miner were arrested in Shanghai during fraught iron ore contract negotiations. “Mr Hu and the other defendants will be tried by the Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court, commencing on Monday 22 March,” an Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokeswoman said.
■INTERNET
Facebook surpasses Google
Social-networking Web site Facebook surpassed Google to become the most visited Web site in the US for the first time last week, industry analysts showed. Facebook’s homepage finished the week ending last Saturday as the most visited site in the country, industry tracker Hitwise said. The “important milestone,” as described by Hitwise director of research Heather Dougherty, came as the Facebook home page enjoyed a massive 185 percent increase in visits in the same period, compared with the same week last year. By comparison, visits to search engine home Google.com increased only 9 percent over the same time period.
■AUTOMOBILES
BMW expects higher profits
The world’s leading luxury car maker, BMW, said yesterday it expected a “notable” increase in net profit this year after managing to end last year in the black despite a global sector crisis. BMW boss Norbert Reithofer told a press conference that BMW hoped to sell more than 1.3 million vehicles, up from 1.29 million last year, and thus remain ahead of German rivals Audi and Daimler, the maker of the Mercedes-Benz range of automobiles. The company stood by last year’s net profit of US$290 million, a drop of 36.4 percent from the previous year, on sales that slipped by 4.7 percent.
■ENERGY
Reliance eyes gasfield
Indian conglomerate Reliance is in late-stage talks to buy a big stake in a US natural gasfield, a report said yesterday, after suffering several recent setbacks in overseas investments. Reliance is nearing a deal to invest between US$1 billion and US$1.5 billion in a joint venture with Atlas Energy, which controls part of a huge gasfield in the northeast of the US, the Wall Street Journal said. While Reliance is “the prime player” in the discussions, the Journal said, citing unnamed sources, other parties such as San Diego-based Sempra Energy are also negotiating to be part of the deal.
■TRANSPORT
Siemens joins rail bid
The German industrial group Siemens has teamed up with a Chinese public consortium to bid for a big Saudi Arabian rail contract, the Financial Times said on Tuesday, citing sources close to the matter. Siemens decided to join forces with the state-owned China South Locomotive and Rolling Stock Corp (中國南車), which could win the US$7 billion tender, a sign of growing Chinese strength in the rail sector, the newspaper said. The Haramain rail project is designed to link the Saudi holy cities of Mecca and Medina with a high-speed train service, the report said.
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