■ Airlines
Crew retired to cut costs
Cathay Pacific, Hong Kong's leading carrier, said yesterday it is offering early retirement to 1,600 cabin crew to offset surging fuel prices and operating costs which are chewing heavily into profits. Cabin crew with more than 15 years of experience -- about 1,600 people -- could opt to retire early and receive up to 17 months' salary on top of their standard retirement benefits, Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd spokeswoman Carolyn Leung said. Cathay Pacific reported earlier that its net profit fell 25 percent last year to HK$3.3 billion (US$426 million), down from HK$4.42 billion in 2004, as higher jet fuel prices offset strong growth in passenger demand. The carrier said during the year its fuel costs rose 67 percent to HK$15.59 billion, accounting for a third of its operating expenses.
■ Oil
Venezuela buys Chinese rigs
Venezuela's state oil company will form a joint venture with a Chinese company to assemble oil rigs, a company executive said. Petroleos de Venezuela SA, or PDVSA, has agreed to purchase 28 drilling rigs from China Petro Technology and Development Corp to assemble some of the rigs in Venezuela, Luis Vierma, vice president for exploration and production at PDVSA, said on Thursday at an industry conference in Houston, Texas. The company is a subsidiary of China National Petroleum Corp. "By the year 2008 we're going to be assembling rigs in Venezuela," Vierma said. "By 2010-11, we're going to be able to build our own rigs." Venezuela currently operates about 90 rigs but doesn't manufacture any. The purchase comes as Venezuela endeavors to ramp up its production to 5.8 million barrels a day from its official output of 3.3 million at present.
■ Computers
Dell confident about future
Dell Inc founder and chairman Michael Dell, responding to concerns about his company's recent stock declines, said on Thursday he remains confident in the direct-sales model that helped create the world's largest PC maker. "Let's kind of review the situation here," Dell said. "In the last 10 years our company has grown about 10 times and our stock is up a couple thousand percent." Shares of the company have sunk since a Citigroup analyst cut his rating on the stock to "Sell" last month amid concerns that Dell's gross margins could rapidly deteriorate if it slashes prices in order to gain market share.
■ Internet
Google sued over porn links
A US politician sued Google Inc, claiming the search engine leader is profiting from illegal child pornography. Jeffrey Toback, a member of the Nassau County Legislature, said on Thursday Google has paid links to Web sites containing pornography involving minors. "This case is about a multi-billion dollar company that promotes and profits from child pornography," said the complaint filed in state Supreme Court in Mineola, New York. A Google spokesman denied the allegations and said the Mountain View, California-based company takes numerous steps to prevent access to child pornography. "When we find or are made aware of any pornography, we remove it from our products, including our search engine," spokesman Steve Langdon said in a statement. "We also report it to the appropriate law enforcement officials and fully cooperate with the law enforcement community to combat child pornography."
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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