■ Deutsche bank
CEO Ackermann charged
Deutsche Bank AG Chief Executive Officer Josef Ackermann has been charged with embezzlement tied to payouts for Mannesmann AG executives when the German wireless company was bought by Vodafone Group Plc, the prosecutors office in Dusseldorf, Germany said. Four other managers including former Mannesmann CEO Klaus Esser and IG Metall union head Klaus Zwickel have also been charged with embezzlement, Hans-Reinhard Henke, the head prosecutor in Dusseldorf, told reporters at a briefing. The regional court will now give the accused time to respond to the charges and will then decide whether to open criminal proceedings. The charges could lead to a maximum sentence of 10 years imprisonment for the managers, including Ackermann, who was on Mannesmann's supervisory board at the time.
■ Mobile Phones
New models released
NTT DoCoMo Inc, KDDI Corp, and J. Phone Co have cut prices for their mobile phones fitted with cameras by as much as 80 percent after a surge in inventories following the release of new models, Nikkei English News reported. Some cellphone models released last year are on sale for 1 yen, Nikkei said, without citing anyone. Some large retailers are selling KDDI's au-brand video-camera model at 70 percent below the brand's introductory price last year, the report said. KDDI is Japan's second-largest mobile phone operator. NTT DoCoMo's D251i handsets are selling below ¥5,000 (US$42), down 80 percent since they were introduced last July, the newswire said. Models introduced last July by Vodafone Group Plc's J-Phone Co are selling between ¥1 and ¥100, it said.
■ US accord
Singapore firms benefit
Singapore's recent agreement with the US to eliminate tariffs on most of their two-way commerce will save companies up to S$300 million (US$178 million) a year, a Singaporean trade official said. Chemicals companies will be the biggest beneficiaries, saving S$178 million in tariffs, followed by an estimated S$54 million gain for minerals suppliers and a S$48 million advantage to electrical and electronics companies, Tommy Koh, Singapore's chief negotiator for the US free-trade agreement, said in a speech. "Those who'll benefit the most will be US multinationals based in Singapore," said Koh. US companies, such as Agilent Technologies Inc and Hewlett Packard Co, account for 60 percent of Singapore's shipments to the US, the city-state's biggest export market.
■ Cordless Phones
China may release service
China may allow Little Smart, a pilot cordless phone service operated by the country's two biggest fixed-line carriers, to go nationwide in May, Beijing's Morning Post reported, without citing sources. That would allow China Telecommunications Corp and China Netcom Communication Group Corp to set up networks in Beijing, Shanghai and other cities, the newspaper said on its Web site. China so far has limited Little Smart, which is cheaper than regular cellular service, to smaller centers. Licensing it in wealthy cities such as Guangzhou will increase competition for the country's mobile duopoly, China Mobile Communi-cations Corp. and China United Telecommunications Corp.
POSSIBILITIES EMERGE: With Taiwan’s victory and Japan’s narrow win over Australia, Taiwan now have a chance to advance if South Korea also beat the Aussies Taiwan has high hopes that the national baseball team would advance to the World Baseball Classic (WBC) quarter-finals after clinching a crucial 5-4 victory over South Korea in a nail-biting extra-inning game at the Tokyo Dome yesterday. Boosted by three home runs — two solo shots by Yu Chang (張育成) and Cheng Tsung-che (鄭宗哲) and a two-run homer by Stuart Fairchild — the triumph gave Taiwan a much-needed second victory in the five-team Pool C, where only the top two finishers would advance to the knockout stage in Miami, Florida. Entering extra innings with the game tied at four apiece, Taiwan scored
DETERRENCE: With 1,000 indigenous Hsiung Feng II and III missiles and 400 Harpoon missiles, the nation would boast the highest anti-ship missile density in the world With Taiwan wrapping up mass production of Hsiung Feng II and III missiles by December and an influx of Harpoon missiles from the US, Taiwan would have the highest density of anti-ship missiles in the world, a source said yesterday. Taiwan is to wrap up mass production of the indigenous anti-ship missiles by the end of year, as the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology has been meeting production targets ahead of schedule, a defense official with knowledge of the matter said. Combined with the 400 Harpoon anti-ship missiles Taiwan expects to receive from the US by 2028, the nation would have
MISSION OF PEACE: The foreign minister urged Beijing to respect Taiwan’s existence as an independent nation, and work together to ensure peace and stability in the region Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) yesterday rejected Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi’s (王毅) comments about Taiwan, criticizing China as a “troublemaker” in the international community and a disruptor of cross-strait peace. Speaking at a news conference on the sidelines of the Chinese National People’s Congress, Wang said that Taiwan has always been a territory of China and that it would be impossible for it to become its own country. The “return” of Taiwan to China was the natural outcome of the Chinese people’s resistance against Japan in World War II, and that any pursuit of independence was “doomed
One person was killed and another seven injured today when a tourist shuttle bus plunged 30m to 40m down a ravine in Nantou County, the Tourism Administration said. The bus is suspected to have suddenly accelerated out of control near the flower center of the Sun-Link-Sea Forest Recreation Area, a popular attraction during cherry blossom season. Of the eight onboard, a 66-year-old man was killed, four were seriously injured and three sustained minor injuries, including the driver. The Nantou County Police Department said it received a report of the incident at 12:15pm and dispatched seven teams to assist. All surviving passengers have been transferred
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