■ Technology
Alstom, Infosys team up
French engineering firm Alstom said yesterday it has joined hands with Infosys Technologies for a US$39 million research facility that will employ 300 engineers in India's high-tech capital, Bangalore. Phillippe Joubert, executive vice-president, Alstom, said the investment and the recruitment will be spread over the next three years. Infosys, India's second largest software exporter, will undertake high-end engineering and software solutions for power plants being built by Alstom at the Alstom-Infosys research and development center, Joubert said.
■ Cellphones
Samsung lifts sales forecast
Samsung Electronics Co, the world's third-largest mobile phone maker, raised its forecast for worldwide handset sales for this year because of better-than-expected shipments by its competitors during the first quarter. Industry shipments will rise to between 700 million units and 720 million units this year, said Samsung spokeswoman Cho Sung-in, confirming a Dow Jones Newswires report that cited telecommunications vice president Daniel Chung.
■ Economy
Japan's jobless rate falls
Japan's jobless rate fell in April to 4.4 percent, the lowest mark in more than six years, according to data yesterday that suggested the country's labor market is rebounding along with its economy. The April rate was down slightly from 4.5 percent in March, defying forecasts by economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires saying that the rate would stay the same. Instead, it fell to a rate not seen in the world's second-largest economy since December 1998. The total number of unemployed fell for the 23rd straight month to 3.1 million, down 250,000 from the same month a year earlier, the Ministry of Public Management said.
■ Markets
`No' vote depresses euro
Fallout from France's "no" to the EU constitution swept across financial markets for a second day yesterday, dragging the euro to seven-month lows against the dollar and helping to depress stocks. The euro's initially muted reaction to the French vote on a holiday-thinned Monday turned into a sharp fall. The single currency was down more than two thirds of a percent at US$1.2385. France voted 55-45 percent to reject the constitution on Sunday. The Netherlands is expected to follow suit today. The tone on stock markets was downbeat, despite pleasing results from Irish no-frills airline Ryanair and French engineer Alstom. The FTSEurofirst 300 index was 0.02 percent higher but the DJ Eurostoxx 50 was down a third of a percent.
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
GEOPOLITICAL CONCERNS: Foreign companies such as Nissan, Volkswagen and Konica Minolta have pulled back their operations in China this year Foreign companies pulled more money from China last quarter, a sign that some investors are still pessimistic even as Beijing rolls out stimulus measures aimed at stabilizing growth. China’s direct investment liabilities in its balance of payments dropped US$8.1 billion in the third quarter, data released by the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange showed on Friday. The gauge, which measures foreign direct investment (FDI) in China, was down almost US$13 billion for the first nine months of the year. Foreign investment into China has slumped in the past three years after hitting a record in 2021, a casualty of geopolitical tensions,
‘SOMETHING SPECIAL’: Donald Trump vowed to reward his supporters, while President William Lai said he was confident the Taiwan-US partnership would continue Donald Trump was elected the 47th president of the US early yesterday morning, an extraordinary comeback for a former president who was convicted of felony charges and survived two assassination attempts. With a win in Wisconsin, Trump cleared the 270 electoral votes needed to clinch the presidency. As of press time last night, The Associated Press had Trump on 277 electoral college votes to 224 for US Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party’s nominee, with Alaska, Arizona, Maine, Michigan and Nevada yet to finalize results. He had 71,289,216 votes nationwide, or 51 percent, while Harris had 66,360,324 (47.5 percent). “We’ve been through so