■ 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 —
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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