■ Airlines
Pilot contract talks fail
Two of the US' largest airlines, Delta and Northwest, failed to reach new contract terms with their pilots on Wednesday after marathon negotiations. Without a deal, Northwest's pilots waited for a judge to rule on whether that carrier could throw out their union contract and impose its own terms. In Delta's case, arbitrators will decide that issue after a hearing set to begin March 13. Northwest Airlines Corp did reach a tentative agreement with flight attendants on Wednesday, the day a New York bankruptcy court had set as a deadline.
■ Monetary policy
Japan mulls `reference rate'
The Bank of Japan is considering setting a "reference rate" on inflation to guide markets on its monetary policy intentions, reports said yesterday. The central bank has been wary of introducing a formal inflation target but is mulling a softer goal to improve transparency after it returns to a conventional interest rate policy, Jiji Press and other media reported. The reference rate would be the rate of consumer price inflation deemed desirable to help achieve sustainable economic growth, Jiji quoted anonymous sources as saying.
■ Electronics
Samsung bullish on LCD TVs
Samsung Electronics Co, the world's biggest maker of liquid-crystal displays (LCDs), said it expects to increase its share in Asia's LCD television market. "We have seen explosive growth in the demand for LCD TVs in the region," led by Singapore and Australia, Park Sang-jin, president of Samsung's Southeast Asian business, which includes Australia, said in a statement before a media lunch in Singapore. "I envision that every home in Asia will own a Samsung flat panel," Park said, without giving numbers or a timeframe. Samsung projects that Southeast Asia's LCD TV market sales will rise to US$2.4 billion by 2008, according to the statement.
■ Software
Oracle offers search product
Oracle Corp, the world's third-biggest software maker, began selling software that allows users to search only personal data on their work computers such as e-mail, word documents and calendar appointments. Chief executive Larry Ellison said the company's new search program "is one of the biggest products in years," and may help draw users away from Google Inc, which also offers software for searching content on computers and operates the world's most-used Internet search site. "Google's always had a good search, but it was the security side that they're not good at," Ellison told reporters after speaking at the annual Oracle OpenWorld Tokyo 2006 conference in Japan.
■ Technology
Hitachi develops elevator
Japan's Hitachi says it has developed a new elevator system in which six to eight cars can circulate on a single loop, sharing the space conventionally used by two. In the new system, each car moves sideways after reaching the top floor and then descends on the loop before shifting sideways again at the bottom to move up, Hitachi said in a statement. "The new system can save space and reduce passenger waiting time by transporting more than double the number of people compared to a conventional elevator system," it said on Wednesday.
EXPRESSING GRATITUDE: Without its Taiwanese partners which are ‘working around the clock,’ Nvidia could not meet AI demand, CEO Jensen Huang said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and US-based artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer Nvidia Corp have partnered with each other on silicon photonics development, Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said. Speaking with reporters after he met with TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) in Taipei on Friday, Huang said his company was working with the world’s largest contract chipmaker on silicon photonics, but admitted it was unlikely for the cooperation to yield results any time soon, and both sides would need several years to achieve concrete outcomes. To have a stake in the silicon photonics supply chain, TSMC and
IDENTITY: Compared with other platforms, TikTok’s algorithm pushes a ‘disproportionately high ratio’ of pro-China content, a study has found Young Taiwanese are increasingly consuming Chinese content on TikTok, which is changing their views on identity and making them less resistant toward China, researchers and politicians were cited as saying by foreign media. Asked to suggest the best survival strategy for a small country facing a powerful neighbor, students at National Chia-Yi Girls’ Senior High School said “Taiwan must do everything to avoid provoking China into attacking it,” the Financial Times wrote on Friday. Young Taiwanese between the ages of 20 and 24 in the past were the group who most strongly espoused a Taiwanese identity, but that is no longer
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake and several aftershocks battered southern Taiwan early this morning, causing houses and roads to collapse and leaving dozens injured and 50 people isolated in their village. A total of 26 people were reported injured and sent to hospitals due to the earthquake as of late this morning, according to the latest Ministry of Health and Welfare figures. In Sising Village (西興) of Chiayi County's Dapu Township (大埔), the location of the quake's epicenter, severe damage was seen and roads entering the village were blocked, isolating about 50 villagers. Another eight people who were originally trapped inside buildings in Tainan
SHARED VALUES: The US, Taiwan and other allies hope to maintain the cross-strait ‘status quo’ to foster regional prosperity and growth, the former US vice president said Former US vice president Mike Pence yesterday vowed to continue to support US-Taiwan relations, and to defend the security and interests of both countries and the free world. At a meeting with President William Lai (賴清德) at the Presidential Office in Taipei, Pence said that the US and Taiwan enjoy strong and continued friendship based on the shared values of freedom, the rule of law and respect for human rights. Such foundations exceed limitations imposed by geography and culture, said Pence, who is visiting Taiwan for the first time. The US and Taiwan have shared interests, and Americans are increasingly concerned about China’s
RSS