■Automakers
Small Cadi sold in Japan
General Motors Corp will start selling its new baby-size Cadillac in Japan next month in an effort to challenge domestic makers in the highly competitive entry-level luxury segment, company officials said yesterday. The Cadillac CTS will roll into Japanese showrooms March 8 and start at Japanese Yen 4.95 million (US$42,000) for a model that includes a navigation system, CD player and side air bags as standard features. The CTS starts at US$35,000 in the US but does not include all the features of the Japanese version, which will come in both right-hand and left-hand drive models. Japanese people have generally favored Mercedes and BMW models over the Cadillac because of a severe image problem American cars have suffered here as poor quality gas-guzzlers. Only some 600 Cadillacs were sold in Japan last year.
■ Asian economy
Vietnam to be highlighted
Government and business leaders from the Asia-Pacific, Europe and the US will gather in Hanoi next week at a conference examining Vietnam's role in the Asian economy, organizers said yesterday. Former top US diplomat Richard Holbrooke, Australian Trade Minister Mark Vaile and Robert Madelin, director of the European Commission's trade department, are due to speak at the March 5 through March 7 meeting. Organized by the Asia Society, the conference will study the implications of the US-Vietnam bilateral trade agreement which came into force in December 2001 and the Mekong region's emergence as a key player in the Asian economy. The New York-headquartered organisation said other topics would include the communist nation's continuing transition to a market economy, the development of its private sector and its efforts to attract foreign investment.
■ Car systems
Toyota to supply Fuji
Toyota Motor Corp, the world's third-largest automaker, will supply Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd with its G-Book in-car navigation and Internet access system, the companies said in a release. The agreement will help Toyota and Fuji, maker of Subaru cars, cut development costs. Toyota will start supplying the systems for Fuji Heavy's domestic models nest year, the companies said. The release didn't provide financial details. Automakers are starting to fit their vehicles with electronic information terminals to generate monthly subscription fees. Toyota plans to use its system to increase sales in Japan and win more customers from its biggest domestic rivals, Honda Motor Co and Nissan Motor Co. Toyota's G-Book system offers drivers access to digital maps, roadside help services and e-mail.
■ Record labels
EMI in talks with Warner
EMI Group Plc, the world's third-largest music company, is in talks to acquire a majority stake in AOL Time Warner Inc's Warner Music, which would create a company with 22 percent of new releases in the US, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the talks. An agreement could be worth as much as US$4 billion, but the talks are preliminary and may break down, the newspaper said. EMI's stable of artists includes Norah Jones, a winner of eight Grammy awards, and Robbie Williams, the former boy-band singer who signed a new contract last October worth US$125 million.
Agencies
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
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