■ Airlines
Union vetos deal
Flight attendants at Amer-ican Airlines on Tuesday voted against a concession agreement, paving the way for an imminent bankruptcy filing by the world's largest carrier, a Dallas news radio station reported. The airline has said that if its three major union groups do not ratify deals that will help save the carrier US$1.8 billion a year in labor costs, American would be forced to file for bankruptcy. The radio station reported that the union had narrowly rejected the deal and was in talks with the airline to see if they could quickly poll their members again. The two other major unions at American had approved concession deals earlier in the day. The Association of Professional Flight Atten-dants voted against a deal that would cut annual pay and benefits collectively by US$340 million.
■ Videogames
Sony drops `shock and awe'
Responding to criticism that it was trying to take advan-tage of the Iraq war for commercial gain, Sony Corp said yesterday it will not use the phrase "shock and awe" for PlayStation videogames made by a subsidiary. A US unit of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc has withdrawn an application with the US Patent and Trademark Office to register the phrase for commercial use, a Sony spokeswoman said. The application had been made last month shortly after US-led attack on Iraq began with a strategy of heavy aerial bombardment termed "shock and awe." The company now felt the application was inappro-priate, she said.
■ Digital cameras
Sony recalls cameras
Sony Corp is recalling its Cyber-shot DSC-P1 digital camera sold world wide. Company spokeswoman Mami Imada declined to provide an estimate of the cost of the recall. Sony will repair the defect free of charge. The problem affects the battery, charger and body of the camera, Sony said on its Web site. Industry analysts estimated the recall affects 500,000 units, Kyodo News reported. The recall applies to cameras sold since October 2000, the report said.
■ Labor
Indian workers save money
US companies saved as much as US$8 billion over the past four years by moving work to India, the Business Standard paper reported, citing a study by market research firm, Inductis. General Electric Co saves about US$350 million every year through its 18,000-man operation in the country, the paper said. Companies such as Cisco Systems Inc and Johnson Controls Inc work with Indian software developers such as Infosys Techno-logies Ltd and Wipro Ltd, which use the country's cheap, skilled workforce to deliver computer services. Companies such as Amer-ican Express Co use the country for back-office operations such as proces-sing transactions.
■ Enron
Art collection auction set
Claes Oldenburg's sculpture of a pair of giant electric outlets in bright orange vinyl that was to have adorned Enron's office tower in Houston is just one of 35 works of art heading for the auction block in the coming months. Phillips de Pury & Luxem-bourg said on Monday that it was planning to sell 10 pieces of art next month. In the fall, it plans to sell a group of 25 photographs. A bankruptcy court judge approved Enron's arrangement with Phillips on Tuesday.
Right-wing political scientist Laura Fernandez on Sunday won Costa Rica’s presidential election by a landslide, after promising to crack down on rising violence linked to the cocaine trade. Fernandez’s nearest rival, economist Alvaro Ramos, conceded defeat as results showed the ruling party far exceeding the threshold of 40 percent needed to avoid a runoff. With 94 percent of polling stations counted, the political heir of outgoing Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves had captured 48.3 percent of the vote compared with Ramos’ 33.4 percent, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal said. As soon as the first results were announced, members of Fernandez’s Sovereign People’s Party
EMERGING FIELDS: The Chinese president said that the two countries would explore cooperation in green technology, the digital economy and artificial intelligence Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday called for an “equal and orderly multipolar world” in the face of “unilateral bullying,” in an apparent jab at the US. Xi was speaking during talks in Beijing with Uruguayan President Yamandu Orsi, the first South American leader to visit China since US special forces captured then-Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro last month — an operation that Beijing condemned as a violation of sovereignty. Orsi follows a slew of leaders to have visited China seeking to boost ties with the world’s second-largest economy to hedge against US President Donald Trump’s increasingly unpredictable administration. “The international situation is fraught
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) plans to make advanced 3-nanometer chips in Japan, stepping up its semiconductor manufacturing roadmap in the country in a triumph for Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s technology ambitions. TSMC is to adopt cutting-edge technology for its second wafer fab in Kumamoto, company chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said yesterday. That is an upgrade from an original blueprint to produce 7-nanometer chips by late next year, people familiar with the matter said. TSMC began mass production at its first plant in Japan’s Kumamoto in late 2024. Its second fab, which is still under construction, was originally focused on
GROWING AMBITIONS: The scale and tempo of the operations show that the Strait has become the core theater for China to expand its security interests, the report said Chinese military aircraft incursions around Taiwan have surged nearly 15-fold over the past five years, according to a report released yesterday by the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Department of China Affairs. Sorties in the Taiwan Strait were previously irregular, totaling 380 in 2020, but have since evolved into routine operations, the report showed. “This demonstrates that the Taiwan Strait has become both the starting point and testing ground for Beijing’s expansionist ambitions,” it said. Driven by military expansionism, China is systematically pursuing actions aimed at altering the regional “status quo,” the department said, adding that Taiwan represents the most critical link in China’s
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