■ Software
EU to reprimand Microsoft
The European Commission will soon formally tell Microsoft that the US software giant is charging too much for some of its Windows software licenses, an EU source said on Thursday. The EU competition watchdog is growing increasingly frustrated with Microsoft's failure to apply a March 2004 ruling against the company in their seven-year anti-trust standoff. The EU's executive arm fined the software group in March 2004 a record 497 million euros (US$638 million) for abusing its dominant market power and demanded the company divulge information about its operating system needed by manufacturers of rival products. The commission considers that Microsoft has been overcharging for this information, the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "The commission will send a statement of objections at the end of July or in the autumn," the source said.
■ Commodities
Gold hits 26-year high in HK
Hong Kong gold prices closed at 26-year highs yesterday at US$722.10-US$722.60 an ounce, up from Thursday's close of US$708.20-US$708.70. The market opened at US$716.20-US$716.70. Overnight, gold hit a high of US$726.70, a level last reached in January 1980. The precious metal has rocketed by almost 40 percent since the start of this year along with others such as silver and platinum, which are supported by a weak US dollar, tensions over Iran and inflation fears prompted by high oil prices. A weak US currency makes commodities priced in the US unit on world markets more attractive to buyers using other currencies.
■ Hotels
Morgans enters Las Vegas
Morgans Hotel Group Co, the luxury hotel company founded by Studio 54's Ian Schrager, purchased the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino for US$770 million in cash as it enters Las Vegas. The 16.6 hectare Las Vegas complex includes a 647-room hotel as well as the 2,787m2 casino, five restaurants, a nightclub and 743m2 spa, said Peter Morton, chairman and founder of Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, said in a statement on Thursday. The Hard Rock will be the first of third planned hotels in Las Vegas for Morgans, which operates the Delano in Miami, the Royalton in New York and the Mondrian in Los Angeles. The New York-based company will have more than 2,200 hotel rooms in the city by 2010, when its Delano and Mondrian properties are scheduled to open. The Hard Rock resort, which was built in 1995 and doubled in size in 1999, stands on almost 7 hectares. Morgans said an adjacent 9 hectare piece of land, which includes an apartment complex, may be used to expand the Hard Rock, sold or developed through a joint venture.
■ Oil
Crude settles after big jump
Crude oil futures dropped yesterday in Asian trading after a big jump on the previous day that was caused by supply worries linked to violence in Nigeria, a major oil producer. Light, sweet crude for June delivery fell US$0.38 to US$72.94 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange by late morning in Singapore. The contract gained US$1.19 to settle at US$73.32 a barrel Thursday. On Thursday, police said gunmen in Nigeria kidnapped at least two foreign oil workers from a bus in a second day of attacks targeting such workers. Concerns about Iran also continued to support prices.
PEACE AT LAST? UN experts had warned of threats and attacks ahead of the voting, but after a turbulent period, Bangladesh has seemingly reacted to the result with calm The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) yesterday celebrated a landslide victory in the first elections held since a deadly 2024 uprising, with party leader Tarique Rahman to become prime minister. Bangladesh Election Commission figures showed that the BNP alliance had won 212 seats, compared with 77 for the Islamist-led Jamaat-e-Islami alliance. The US embassy congratulated Rahman and the BNP for a “historic victory,” while India praised Rahman’s “decisive win” in a significant step after recent rocky relations with Bangladesh. China and Pakistan, which grew closer to Bangladesh since the uprising and the souring of ties with India, where ousted Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina
FAST-TRACK: The deal is to be sent to the legislature, but time is of the essence, as Trump had raised tariffs on Seoul when it failed to quickly ratify a similar pact Taiwan and the US on Thursday signed a trade agreement that caps US tariffs on Taiwanese goods at 15 percent and provides preferential market access for US industrial and agricultural exports, including cars, and beef and pork products. The Taiwan-US Agreement on Reciprocal Trade confirms a 15 percent US tariff for Taiwanese goods, and grants Taiwanese semiconductors and related products the most-favorable-treatment under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act, the Executive Yuan said. In addition, 2,072 items — representing nearly 20 percent of Taiwan’s total exports to the US — would be exempt from additional tariffs and be subject only to
President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday approved a special pardon exempting a woman in her 80s convicted of killing her disabled son from imprisonment. After carefully reviewing the case, Lai pardoned Lin Liu Lung-tzu (林劉龍子) from the prison sentence while acknowledging her conviction, citing the extreme circumstances she faced, Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said in a statement. Under Article 3 of the Amnesty Act (赦免法), the two kinds of pardons are exempting an offender from the execution of a punishment or declaring the punishment to be invalid. Kuo said Lin Liu had spent more than 50 years caring for her son, before
HOLIDAY RUSH: Airport passenger volume is expected to reach a new high, while southbound road traffic would likely peak from Tuesday As Lunar New Year travelers flock overseas, passenger traffic at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport is expected to shatter records, as Taoyuan International Airport Corp (TIAC, 桃園國際機場), Taiwan’s largest aviation hub operator, projected yesterday’s passenger volume to climb to 167,000. The figure comes after a record single-day high of 161,000 passengers on Thursday, and would surpass the previous pre-COVID-19 pandemic Lunar New Year peak of 166,000 passengers in 2019, TIAC said. Long lines could be seen forming as early as 7am yesterday, filling Terminal 1 of the airport almost to capacity, yet security checks took only 10 to 15 minutes. TIAC urged
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