■ Aviation
US$10 billion loss forecast
American Airlines, All Nippon Airways Co and other members of the International Air Transport Association may have a combined loss of as much as US$10 billion in 2003, an aviation consultancy said. The airlines' total loss this year will probably be between US$5 billion and US$10 billion, provided there is no war with Iraq and no further terrorist attacks, said a report by the Sydney-based Center for Asia-Pacific Aviation. A war between Iraq and the US would increase those losses by raising oil prices and cutting demand for inter-national air travel, said Peter Harbison, managing director of the aviation consultancy. The forecast compares with losses of US$13 billion in 2002 and US$18 billion in 2001, Harbison said in a report entitled Asia Pacific Aviation Outlook 2003.
■ France
Job cuts to rise in 1Q
French manufacturers expect to step up the pace of job cuts in the first quarter as selling prices are likely to keep falling, a government report showed. An index of hiring inten-tions from January through March dropped to almost a six-year low of minus 17 last month from minus 16 in October, national statistics office Insee said. The report also showed that produc-tion bottlenecks remained at a six-year low in January and that companies idled more plants than in Octo-ber. Unemployment is rising in France as businesses such as Alcatel SA, Europe's biggest maker of telecom-munications equipment, and aluminum producer Pechiney SA slash costs to restore margins.
■ Technology
FTC to look at e-mail issue
The Federal Trade Commis-sion said Tuesday that it would hold a forum to address the proliferation of unsolicited commercial e-mail and to explore the technical, legal and financial issues related to so-called spam. The forum, which will be held at the commission's headquarters in Washington from April 30 to May 2, will bring together law-enforcement officials, Internet service providers and other technology professionals. The commis-sion said it was "seeking to explore the impact that spam has on consumers' use of e-mail, e-mail marketing and the Internet industry." Officials said the commis-sion intended to focus on many issues related to spam, including security problems and viruses, possible structural changes to e-mail systems, e-mail address harvesting techno-logy, deceptive routing and subject information, the cost of technology to eliminate or negate spam and effects on wireless devices, text messaging and wireless e-mail.
■ Utilities
Enron trader pleads guilty
A former Enron Corp trader confessed to helping mani-pulate California's electri-city market in 2000, contri-buting to higher power prices that still haunt consumers and the state's government. Jeffrey Richter, 33, pleaded guilty on Tues-day to two felony crimes -- conspiracy to commit wire fraud and lying to the FBI last September when agents asked him if he had defrauded California. Richter is the second Enron trader to plead guilty to helping inflate the state's electricity prices -- his former boss Timothy Belden pleaded guilty last October. Assistant US Attorney Matthew Jacobs said Richter "was in charge of trading schemes that defrauded California consumers."Agencies
‘SECRETS’: While saying China would not attack during his presidency, Donald Trump declined to say how Washington would respond if Beijing were to take military action US President Donald Trump said that China would not take military action against Taiwan while he is president, as the Chinese leaders “know the consequences.” Trump made the statement during an interview on CBS’ 60 Minutes program that aired on Sunday, a few days after his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in South Korea. “He [Xi] has openly said, and his people have openly said at meetings, ‘we would never do anything while President Trump is president,’ because they know the consequences,” Trump said in the interview. However, he repeatedly declined to say exactly how Washington would respond in
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said yesterday that China using armed force against Taiwan could constitute a "survival-threatening situation" for Japan, allowing the country to mobilize the Japanese armed forces under its security laws. Takaichi made the remarks during a parliamentary session yesterday while responding to a question about whether a "Taiwan contingency" involving a Chinese naval blockade would qualify as a "survival-threatening situation" for Japan, according to a report by Japan’s Asahi Shimbun. "If warships are used and other armed actions are involved, I believe this could constitute a survival- threatening
WARFARE: All sectors of society should recognize, unite, and collectively resist and condemn Beijing’s cross-border suppression, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng said The number of Taiwanese detained because of legal affairs by Chinese authorities has tripled this year, as Beijing intensified its intimidation and division of Taiwanese by combining lawfare and cognitive warfare, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) made the statement in response to questions by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Puma Shen (沈柏洋) about the government’s response to counter Chinese public opinion warfare, lawfare and psychological warfare. Shen said he is also being investigated by China for promoting “Taiwanese independence.” He was referring to a report published on Tuesday last week by China’s state-run Xinhua news agency,
‘ADDITIONAL CONDITION’: Taiwan will work with like-minded countries to protect its right to participate in next year’s meeting, the foreign ministry said The US will “continue to press China for security arrangements and protocols that safeguard all participants when attending APEC meetings in China,” a US Department of State spokesperson said yesterday, after Beijing suggested that members must adhere to its “one China principle” to participate. “The United States insists on the full and equal participation of all APEC member economies — including Taiwan — consistent with APEC’s guidelines, rules and established practice, as affirmed by China in its offer to host in 2026,” the unnamed spokesperson said in response to media queries about China putting a “one China” principle condition on Taiwan’s
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