■INTERNET
Google awaits PRC decision
Google’s application for renewal of its license to operate in China is still under review, a company spokeswoman and a government official said yesterday. Google China spokeswoman Marsha Wang (王錦紅) said the company’s Internet content provider license remains valid as long as the government has not expressly rejected it. “The license runs till 2012. The license needs to be checked every year,” Wang said. An official with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said that Google’s application was still under consideration. “We need time to review because they submitted the documents quite late,” the official said.
■TECHNOLOGY
Apple boots developer
Apple Inc has booted a developer and his apps from its applications store after hundreds of hijacked user accounts were used to push his titles to best sellers over the weekend. Developer Thuat Nguyen has been banned for violating an Apple license agreement, “including fraudulent purchases,” Apple spokeswoman Trudy Muller said on Tuesday. About 400 iTunes users were affected, she said. Technology blogs said some iTunes users unwittingly had their accounts used to buy Nguyen’s book apps, which at one point occupied 42 of the top 50 book apps sold in the store.
■ELECTRONICS
Sony cuts e-reader prices
Sony Corp cut prices of its e-readers in the US for a second time since the introduction of Apple Inc’s iPad in April intensified competition in the market for devices that can display digital books. The Japanese consumer-electronics maker lowered its Reader Daily Edition e-reader to US$299 from US$349 earlier this month and made smaller reductions on two other models, after trimming prices in May, Sony spokesman Sean Yoneda said by phone yesterday from Tokyo.
■FRANCE
Trade deficit worsens
Weak exports by the aerospace and satellite industry hit the trade balance in May, worsening a deficit, official data showed yesterday. The balance showed a deficit in May of 5.5 billion euros (US$6.9 billion) from a deficit of 4.258 billion euros in April, the adjusted data from the finance ministry showed. In May, exports fell to 29.9 billion euros from 31.5 billion euros in April, while imports fell to 35.4 billion euros from 38.8 billion euros in April.
■FINANCE
HSBC accounts probed
The US Department of Justice has opened a criminal investigation into whether some HSBC Holdings PLC clients may have failed to disclose offshore accounts, lawyers familiar with the probe said on Tuesday. HSBC clients have received a June 21 letter from Kevin Downing, a senior litigator at the department who oversaw the UBS probe, that says they are subjects of a criminal investigation. A department representative did not immediately return an e-mail request for comment.
■AVIATION
Lufthansa deal close: union
The German services trade union Verdi said yesterday it has reached a framework agreement with the leading German airline Lufthansa that covers flight crews and ground personnel. Verdi sought profit-sharing measures and partial retirement for about 50,000 workers at Lufthansa and its subsidiaries, along with a limit to the use of contract workers, a statement said. A final deal is expected to be signed by July 28, it added.
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