■ Automobiles
New car paint fixes itself
Nissan Motor Co's new car paint repairs its own scratches and scrapes. Minor scruffs disappear like magic in about a week if your car has Scratch Guard Coat, a clear paint that the automaker developed with Nippon Paint Co, Nissan spokesman Kiyoshi Ariga said yesterday. The coating, which Nissan says is the first of its kind in the world, contains elastic resin, similar to a rubbery surface, and can repair itself of slight scratches caused by car-washing, off-road driving and fingernails. The coat lasts about three years, Nissan said. The scratch-proof paint job will be offered only in some Japan models of the X-Trail sport-utility vehicle, planned for sale soon, and overseas plans are still undecided, Ariga said. No decision has been made about offering it in other models, he said.
■ Entertainment
Taiwan gets Xboxes in March
Microsoft Corp said it will begin selling its line of Xbox 360 machines in some Asian countries from February. The consoles, which go on sale in Japan later this month, will be available in South Korea from Feb. 24, Microsoft said yesterday in an e-mailed statement. The game machines will start selling in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore from March 2, according to the statement. Microsoft is betting it will win market share by starting to sell its latest lineup of game hardware before Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Co's successor to its GameCube are introduced. The Xbox 360 sold out within hours of its release in the US on Nov. 22.
■ Telecoms
Verizon mulls unit sale
Verizon Communications Inc, which is buying MCI Inc for US$8.44 billion, may sell the domestic operations of its directory publishing unit as it tries to exit that business to focus on selling telephone service and high-speed Internet connections. The sale of the US operations of Verizon Information Services, which has 7,300 employees, could be complete next year, New York-based Verizon, the No. 2 US telephone company, said in a statement sent by PR Newswire. Bear, Stearns & Co and JPMorgan Securities are advising Verizon. The Texas-based directory unit contributed 5 percent, or 3.6 billion, to last year's revenue. Verizon over the last two years sold its Canadian and European directory units. A sale could fetch US$17 billion, about 10 times the unit's profit last year before taxes and other charges of $1.7 billion, the New York Times reported. Spokesman Peter Thonis wouldn't comment on what price Verizon was seeking. A sale would "almost completely divest" Verizon from the directory segment because "a vast majority"of the unit's business is in the US.
■ Internet
Rhapsody goes online
RealNetworks Inc is launching a Web-based version of its Rhapsody subscription music service, becoming the latest firm hoping to capitalize on growing consumer interest in software and services that can be accessed anywhere via the Internet. The Web-based service will allow users to listen to Rhapsody's catalog of songs without downloading the desktop application that is currently required. That will open RealNetworks' service up to people using Apple Computer or Linux-based systems. The system, which was launched yesterday in test form, also makes it easier for people who already have the service to use it even when they aren't at their own computers.
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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