■ Car industry
Ford rates low in safety
The US government on Tuesday released the first batch of crash test results for 2005 model cars and trucks and it was not good news for the Ford Motor Co. The four-wheel drive versions of the Ford Ranger and Mazda B-Series pickup trucks earned only two out of five stars in rollover ratings by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The agency said the two vehicles, which share similar designs because Mazda is a Ford affiliate, have a 30 percent likelihood of rolling over in a single-vehicle crash, an unusually high risk profile. Rollover accidents claim more than 10,000 American lives a year. In new results from side-impact tests, the traffic agency said that passengers in the back seat of the Ford Focus hatchback had a high risk of head injury.
■ Television
BBC Prime comes to Asia
British broadcasting giant the BBC is to begin beaming its renowned dramas, comedies and soap operas into Asia with the launch of its BBC Prime cable service, the corporation said in a statement yesterday. BBC Worldwide, the commercial consumer arm of the BBC, said the new service will screen recent shows like award-winning comedy The Office and Britain's long-running music show Top of the Pops. It will also dig into the BBC's vault to show such classics as the Blackadder comedy series and the period drama Pride and Prejudice. Shows will be subtitled for different countries throughout the region. "The multi-channel household is a powerful growth market in Asia and with BBC Prime we can provide platforms with a high-quality addition to their current line-ups," Wayne Dunsford, BBC Worldwide channel director, said in a statement. The Asian channel will be based in Hong Kong, following the same coverage area as the BBC's 24-hour rolling news program BBC World, and will be up and running on Dec. 1.
■ Oil supply
US asked for more reserves
OPEC wants the US to dip further into its strategic petroleum reserve to help reduce world oil prices, the cartel's president said yesterday. "We have asked them [the US] to use their oil reserves to help cool down the prices," OPEC president Purnomo Yusgiantoro, who is also Indonesia's mines and energy minister, told reporters. The US has just under 300 million barrels of crude in its emergency stockpile, and Washington's move early this month to loan out 4.2 million barrels of it had no noticeable impact on prices. Purnomo also has asked OPEC members to increase production "to give a signal to the market that we aren't short of supply."
■ Video-games
Handheld PS to be launched
Sony Corp said yesterday that the PlayStation Portable, which will mark the Japanese electronics and entertainment giant's entry into handheld video-game machines, will sell for ?19,800 (US$186) in Japan from Dec. 12. The PlayStation Portable, which uses a new kind of disc format, will have 12 games at its launch, Sony Computer Entertainment, the Tokyo-based company's video-game unit said in a statement. The device is also being billed as a mobile gadget for watching movies. The PlayStation Portable, also known as PSP, will face off against offerings from Japanese rival Nintendo Co and other companies.
RISK REMAINS: An official said that with the US presidential elections so close, it is unclear if China would hold war games or keep its reaction to angry words The Ministry of National Defense said it was “on alert” as it detected a Chinese aircraft carrier group to Taiwan’s south yesterday amid concerns in Taiwan about the possibility of a new round of Chinese war games. The ministry said in a statement that a Chinese navy group led by the carrier Liaoning had entered waters near the Bashi Channel, which connects the South China Sea and the Pacific Ocean and separates Taiwan from the Philippines. It said the carrier group was expected to enter the Western Pacific. The military is keeping a close watch on developments and “exercising an
FIVE-YEAR WINDOW? A defense institute CEO said a timeline for a potential Chinese invasion was based on expected ‘tough measures’ when Xi Jinping seeks a new term Most Taiwanese are willing to defend the nation against a Chinese attack, but the majority believe Beijing is unlikely to invade within the next five years, a poll showed yesterday. The poll carried out last month was commissioned by the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, a Taipei-based think tank, and released ahead of Double Ten National Day today, when President William Lai (賴清德) is to deliver a speech. China maintains a near-daily military presence around Taiwan and has held three rounds of war games in the past two years. CIA Director William Burns last year said that Chinese President Xi Jinping
RESILIENCE: Once the system is operational, there would be no need to worry about the risks posed by disasters or other emergencies on communication systems, an official said Taiwan would have 24-hour access to low Earth orbit satellites by the end of this month through service provided by Eutelsat OneWeb as part of the nation’s effort to enhance signal resilience, a Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) official said yesterday. Earlier this year the Ministry of Digital Affairs, which partnered with Chunghwa Telecom on a two-year project to boost signal resilience throughout the nation, said it reached a milestone when it made contact with OneWeb’s satellites half of the time. It expects to have the capability to maintain constant contact with the satellites and have nationwide coverage by the end
REACTION TO LAI: A former US official said William Lai took a step toward stability with his National Day speech and the question was how Beijing would respond US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday warned China against taking any “provocative” action on Taiwan after Beijing’s reaction to President William Lai’s (賴清德) speech on Double Ten National Day on Thursday. Blinken, speaking in Laos after an ASEAN East Asia Summit, called the speech by Lai, in which he vowed to “resist annexation,” a “regular exercise.” “China should not use it in any fashion as a pretext for provocative actions,” Blinken told reporters. “On the contrary, we want to reinforce — and many other countries want to reinforce — the imperative of preserving the status quo, and neither party taking any
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