■ Banking
Counter-bid for Abbey
British bank HBOS is considering a surprise counter-bid for Abbey National, which last week accepted a takeover from Spain's Santander Central Hispano, a report said yesterday. HBOS is pondering an offer slightly over the ?8.9 billion (13.5 billion euros, US$16.4 billion) that Abbey agreed with the Spanish group, the Sunday Telegraph reported. An unnamed banker told the paper that HBOS had a dedicated team looking into whether or not to bid for Abbey, like HBOS a home loan specialist. "There's a good chance it will happen, but it's not definite," the banker told the paper. Another source, identified as an executive "with a close knowledge of HBOS," said Abbey National shareholders had sent a clear message that they wanted to see the counter-bid happen.
■ Trade
S. Korea's surplus hits high
South Korea's trade surplus hit an all-time monthly high of US$2.98 billion last month on the back of robust exports of autos and other key items, official data showed yesterday. It was the 16th straight month of surpluses, and the accu-mulated seven-month surplus soared to US$18.25 billion, the commerce, industry and energy ministry said in a preliminary report based on customs-cleared trade. Exports jumped 38.4 percent year-on-year to US$21.35 billion last month, while imports rose 23.3 percent to US$18.37 billion, it said. During the first half of the year, exports rose 38.4 percent from a year ago to US$144.65 billion and imports were up 25.4 percent at US$126.39 billion. "We expect slower growth of exports in the third quarter," trade ministry official Lee Key-hyung told reporters.
■ Telecom
NTT DoCoMo's profit sags
NTT DoCoMo Inc, the world's second-largest mobile-phone operator, said first-quarter profit fell 13 percent as it spent more to lure high-speed phone users. Net income fell to ?170.4 billion (US$1.52 billion), or ?3,507.28 a share, in the three months ended June 30, from ?196.8 billion, or 3,922.97 yen, a year earlier, the Tokyo-based company said. Sales fell 2.5 percent to ?22 trillion yen. Company president Masao Nakamura is subsidizing handsets, offering flat-rate fees and increasing discounts to win back market share from KDDI Corp. The company spends ?10,000 more in commissions to retailers to attract users to its high-speed FOMA service than it does to win subscribers for older services.
■ Censorship
China fights Internet porn
China plans a multi-faceted approach to its fight against Internet porn, employing both high technology and sex education to stop young people from visiting lewd Web sites, state media said yesterday. The government has kicked off a massive campaign to weed out pornography from the country's rapidly growing Internet, but experts warn technology must be used to ensure a lasting effect, the Xinhua news agency reported. "Existing and developing technology should be sufficient to ensure the Chinese government's triumph in its campaign," an unnamed researcher with the state lab on national information security told Xinhua. Officials and experts, however, are also aware that half the country's Internet population of 87 million are people under the age of 24, and that many simply visit porn sites to learn about sex.
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 —
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
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats
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