■ Management
Bank ordered to improve
Japan's financial regulator has ordered major lender UFJ Holdings Inc to improve its management after pointing out the bank made an inadequate assessment of the amount of its bad loans, reports said yesterday. Following the order, UFJ, Japan's fourth-ranked banking group, would have to submit a management improvement plan to the Financial Services Agency, which would then conduct inspections to check the bank's management, Jiji Press said. Both the FSA and UFJ declined to comment. "We do not comment on an individual case," said an FSA spokeswoman. According to Kyodo News, UFJ's assessment of bad loans at the end of March last year was about 40 percent lower than the amount estimated by the government.
■ Airlines
Qantas to fly to Shanghai
Australian flag carrier Qantas said yesterday it would relaunch direct flights to China's financial hub of Shanghai and India's largest city, Bombay, as it taps growth opportunities in the burgeoning markets. The airline said it also planned to increase flights or capacity to Hong Kong, Japan, the US and New Zealand in a three-year growth drive. "We believe it is the future for us -- India and China," Qantas Airways Ltd executive general manager John Borghetti told reporters. Two new Airbus A330-300 jets would fly between Sydney and Shanghai from Dec. 2 and Borghetti said Qantas expected to add even more services to China, which has one of the world's fastest growing economies. Qantas began flights to Shanghai and Bombay in 1996, but axed them as an economy measure in 2001 and 2002 respectively.
■ Region
Asia to grow briskly
Economic growth in the Asia-Pacific will continue to outpace the rest of the world in the next five years but a Chinese slowdown looms as a genuine threat to the region, the Economist Intelligence Unit said. In a report received yesterday, the London-based EIU said the Asia-Pacific's economies, outside Japan, would grow at an average annual rate of 5.8 percent between this year and 2008, faster than any other region in the world. The EIU said the region's growth this year was likely to be 6.5 percent, but the environment will be less friendly next year and beyond with Beijing's efforts to rein in its red-hot economy the main reason. The EIU said China's economy should slow to below 8 percent between this year and 2008, down from the more than 9 percent rates experienced recently, and a potential investment bubble is not expected to balloon out of control.
■ Biotechnology
Brewer produces cow
Kirin Brewery Co, Japan's No. 2 beer maker, said yesterday it had produced jointly with a US company a cow that is immune to mad cow disease. The animal, produced through genetic manipulation, carries none of the prion proteins that cause the brain-wasting disease, also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), a Kirin spokeswoman said. The cow, still in its mother's womb, is expected to be born early next year, she said. Kirin produced the cow after conducting joint research with US biotechnology firm Hemateck LLC in Connect-icut. The two firms plan to use the cow to develop medicines for diseases such as hepatitis C, pneumonia and rheumatism, she said.
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
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
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