■ELECTRONICS
World Cup boosts sales
South Korean firms are enjoying a boom in sales of 3D televisions thanks to rising demand stoked by the World Cup in South Africa, officials said yesterday. Samsung Electronics has sold more than 26,000 3D TVs in the domestic market so far this year, including 6,000 this month, thanks to the World Cup, a company spokesman said. Samsung’s domestic rival, LG Electronics, has also seen a jump in 3D TV sales this month, selling more than 3,000 units at home.
■BANKING
RBS cashes out of UAE
Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank says it has agreed to buy the Royal Bank of Scotland’s retail banking business in the United Arab Emirates. The Abu Dhabi bank said yesterday that the deal was valued at US$100 million. The announcement comes a day after RBS said it had agreed to sell its operation in Pakistan to Faysal Bank Ltd for about US$50 million.
■BANKING
Swiss tax treaty passed
Swiss lawmakers approved a UBS AG tax treaty, ending a two-year legal battle with the US authorities that threatened the bank’s US operations. The agreement, through votes in both chambers of parliament, came after eleventh-hour negotiations between the upper and lower house, in which deputies dropped a demand for the treaty to be subject to a nationwide referendum.
■TRADE
Singapore exports soar
Singapore’s exports, led by electronics, surged last month, laying the groundwork for the city-state to post a second consecutive quarter of double-digit economic growth. Exports excluding oil rose 24 percent last month from a year earlier to S$13.5 billion (US$9.7 billion), according to Trade and Industry Ministry figures released yesterday. Sales abroad fell a seasonally adjusted 0.1 percent from April, it said.
■STEEL
POSCO invests in Africa
South Korea’s POSCO, the world’s fourth-largest steelmaker, said yesterday it was planning joint ventures in Zimbabwe as part of an effort to secure stable supplies of essential raw materials. The firm has signed a memorandum of understanding with Zimbabwe-based Anchor Holdings to cooperate in exploiting silica and other minerals, a spokesman for the South Korean firm said. The steelmaker said it also agreed to buy a 7.8 percent stake in a coal mine in Mozambique but gave no value for the deal.
■INTERNET
AOL to sell Bebo
AOL, the once high-flying Web company, is close to selling the social networking site Bebo to a California-based private investment firm, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday. The newspaper, citing “people familiar with the matter,” said the exact terms of the deal were not available, but the selling price is a “small fraction” of the US$850 million AOL paid for Bebo two years ago. US technology blog TechCrunch reported AOL was selling Bebo for “US$10 million or less.”
■FINANCE
Mortgage buyers delist
Government-sponsored mortgage purchasers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac plan to delist their shares from the New York Stock Exchange after having trouble meeting stock listing requirements. The companies’ regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, expects their shares to trade on the Over-the-Counter Bulletin Board, an electronic quotation service, starting next month.
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