ENERGY
Officials issue terror warning
US officials have warned energy companies to be on the alert for “potential terrorist activities” at fuel storage plants, but there were no immediate threats, an oil industry group told members on Friday. The Petroleum Marketers Association of America (PMAA) told members the FBI “is concerned about terrorists attempting to purchase or steal fuel from a bulk plant to use in a weapon of mass destruction.” The PMAA said it sent members a message on Friday after the FBI handed out the warning at an energy conference last week ahead of the anniversary of the Sep. 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington. The PMAA message to members said the FBI warned fuel marketers should be on alert for new customers who are not from the area, drivers who are not familiar with truck or vehicle operations, and people who store fuel in unusual locations or containers.
AVIATION
CSeries ready for takeoff
Bombardier Inc said its CSeries jetliner will fly for the first time tomorrow, ending more than eight months of delays for the US$3.4 billion program intended to challenge Boeing Co and Airbus SAS. Flight Test Vehicle 1 will take off from Mirabel airport north of Montreal, Bombardier said in a statement yesterday. The company has been conducting ground tests on the plane for several weeks. This week, the jet reached about 230kph as part of high-speed taxi testing, Bombardier said on Tuesday. Chief executive officer Pierre Beaudoin is relying on the aircraft, the company’s largest ever, as a catalyst for almost doubling annual revenue toward the end of the decade.
AVIATION
Customers get free flights
Some lucky customers who acquired United Airlines tickets at zero cost because of a computer programming error will be allowed to use them, an airline spokeswoman said on Friday. “United has reviewed the error that occurred yesterday and decided that, based on these specific circumstances, we will honor the tickets,” spokeswoman Mary Clark said in an e-mail. United did not say how many such tickets were issued on Thursday. The airline temporarily shut down its Web site to correct the error and also stopped booking flights through its phone center for about two hours. Miscellaneous airport fees, such as the Sept. 11 security fee, may have resulted in some passengers paying a nominal price for the tickets.
UNITED KINGDOM
Minimum wage hike mooted
British Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills Vince Cable said in an interview published on Friday that he will press a government commission to raise the minimum wage to ensure it is keeping up with the cost of living. Cable believes the minimum hourly rate, which will rise to ￡6.31 (US$10.01) for those aged 21 and over from Oct. 1, has fallen in real terms by up to 12 percent since the 2008 financial crisis. “We cannot go on forever in a low pay and low productivity world in which all we can say to workers is, ‘You have got to take a wage cut to keep your job,’” Cable told the Guardian in an interview published on its Web site on Friday. “For a very long time, five or six years, wages have been suppressed in low wage sectors. I am sending a signal that we are entering a very different environment.”
The Eurovision Song Contest has seen a surge in punter interest at the bookmakers, becoming a major betting event, experts said ahead of last night’s giant glamfest in Basel. “Eurovision has quietly become one of the biggest betting events of the year,” said Tomi Huttunen, senior manager of the Online Computer Finland (OCS) betting and casino platform. Betting sites have long been used to gauge which way voters might be leaning ahead of the world’s biggest televised live music event. However, bookmakers highlight a huge increase in engagement in recent years — and this year in particular. “We’ve already passed 2023’s total activity and
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) today announced that his company has selected "Beitou Shilin" in Taipei for its new Taiwan office, called Nvidia Constellation, putting an end to months of speculation. Industry sources have said that the tech giant has been eyeing the Beitou Shilin Science Park as the site of its new overseas headquarters, and speculated that the new headquarters would be built on two plots of land designated as "T17" and "T18," which span 3.89 hectares in the park. "I think it's time for us to reveal one of the largest products we've ever built," Huang said near the
China yesterday announced anti-dumping duties as high as 74.9 percent on imports of polyoxymethylene (POM) copolymers, a type of engineering plastic, from Taiwan, the US, the EU and Japan. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce’s findings conclude a probe launched in May last year, shortly after the US sharply increased tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, computer chips and other imports. POM copolymers can partially replace metals such as copper and zinc, and have various applications, including in auto parts, electronics and medical equipment, the Chinese ministry has said. In January, it said initial investigations had determined that dumping was taking place, and implemented preliminary
Intel Corp yesterday reinforced its determination to strengthen its partnerships with Taiwan’s ecosystem partners including original-electronic-manufacturing (OEM) companies such as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and chipmaker United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電). “Tonight marks a new beginning. We renew our new partnership with Taiwan ecosystem,” Intel new chief executive officer Tan Lip-bu (陳立武) said at a dinner with representatives from the company’s local partners, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the US chip giant’s presence in Taiwan. Tan took the reins at Intel six weeks ago aiming to reform the chipmaker and revive its past glory. This is the first time Tan
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