■ Aviation
FBI raids ANA office
The FBI raided the North American headquarters of All Nippon Airways (ANA), halting the Japanese carrier's ticket reservations for the region for several hours, a company spokeswoman said yesterday. Law enforcement agents searched the office in Los Angeles on Thursday but ANA "doesn't know the reason as the FBI's warrant for the raid did not state what kind of suspicions they have," she said. The US government said in February of last year that it was investigating possible price fixing by the air cargo industry in a joint probe with EU authorities. But ANA said it was unclear whether the search of its Los Angeles office was connected with the air cargo probe.
■ Currencies
Thai baht keeps rising
The Thai baht continued to hit new nine-year highs against the US dollar yesterday on sustained speculation that the government would soon end controversial currency rules, dealers said. The baht was quoted at 34.92-94 to the US dollar in late morning trading after breaking the 35 barrier on Thursday when the unit closed at 34.98-35.01. Last December the central bank introduced stringent currency rules aimed at halting gains in the baht, which has soared nearly 12 percent over the past year. The central bank and finance ministry have repeatedly said the government would keep the currency measures to rein in the rising baht, but dealers said market players believed the opposite.
■ Economy
No spillover: Greenspan
The troubles plaguing lenders of risky mortgages are not likely to spill over into the broader economy unless housing prices see another substantial dip, former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan said on Thursday. "I think it's important to recognize that what we're dealing with ... is more an issue of house prices than it is mortgage credit," Greenspan said at a Futures Industry Association conference in Boca Raton, Florida. Greenspan said that as home prices dipped, "sub-prime borrowers have not been able to build up enough equity." If home prices drop in a year, he said that could cause the problems to "spill over into other areas," At the moment, "we're not seeing this," he said.
■ Automobiles
Hyundai, Infineon team up
Hyundai Motor Co has formed a partnership with German chipmaker Infineon Technologies AG to jointly develop automotive electronics, South Korea's largest automaker said yesterday. Under the agreement, the two sides opened a joint research center at Hyundai's headquarters in Seoul to develop electronics parts for cars that Hyundai and its affiliate Kia Motors produce, the company said in a statement. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed. The two firms expect their first jointly developed products to be used in Hyundai and Kia cars starting 2010, it said.
■ Steel
Krakow center planned
Steel giant Arcelor Mittal said yesterday it planned to build a new service center in the Polish city of Krakow as part of an expansion in central and eastern Europe. In a statement the company said the new center would have a processing capacity of 450,000 tonnes a year and would start operating late this year. Separately, the firm said it had signed a US$300 million deal with the US' Noble International Ltd to combine their laser-welded tailored blanks business.
DEFENDING DEMOCRACY: Taiwan shares the same values as those that fought in WWII, and nations must unite to halt the expansion of a new authoritarian bloc, Lai said The government yesterday held a commemoration ceremony for Victory in Europe (V-E) Day, joining the rest of the world for the first time to mark the anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe. Taiwan honoring V-E Day signifies “our growing connections with the international community,” President William Lai (賴清德) said at a reception in Taipei on the 80th anniversary of V-E Day. One of the major lessons of World War II is that “authoritarianism and aggression lead only to slaughter, tragedy and greater inequality,” Lai said. Even more importantly, the war also taught people that “those who cherish peace cannot
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
Taiwanese Olympic badminton men’s doubles gold medalist Wang Chi-lin (王齊麟) and his new partner, Chiu Hsiang-chieh (邱相榤), clinched the men’s doubles title at the Yonex Taipei Open yesterday, becoming the second Taiwanese team to win a title in the tournament. Ranked 19th in the world, the Taiwanese duo defeated Kang Min-hyuk and Ki Dong-ju of South Korea 21-18, 21-15 in a pulsating 43-minute final to clinch their first doubles title after teaming up last year. Wang, the men’s doubles gold medalist at the 2020 and 2024 Olympics, partnered with Chiu in August last year after the retirement of his teammate Lee Yang
The Philippines yesterday criticized a “high-risk” maneuver by a Chinese vessel near the disputed Scarborough Shoal (Huangyan Island, 黃岩島) in a rare incident involving warships from the two navies. The Scarborough Shoal — a triangular chain of reefs and rocks in the contested South China Sea — has been a flash point between the countries since China seized it from the Philippines in 2012. Taiwan also claims the shoal. Monday’s encounter took place approximately 11.8 nautical miles (22km) southeast” of the Scarborough Shoal, the Philippine military said, during ongoing US-Philippine military exercises that Beijing has criticized as destabilizing. “The Chinese frigate BN 554 was
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