■ AUTOMOBILES
Nissan's profit plummets
Nissan Motor Co, Japan's third-largest automaker, said yesterday its first-half net profit slumped 22.5 percent from a year earlier owing to higher taxes and weak domestic sales. Nissan posted net earnings of ?212.4 billion (US$1.86 billion) for the first six months of the year, down from ?274.2 billion a year earlier. But operating profit rose 5.3 percent to ?367.1 billion as sales climbed 11.7 percent to ?5.06 trillion. Nissan kept its forecast for an annual net profit of ?480 billion, up 4.2 percent from the previous year, when the automaker reported the first drop in annual profits under chief executive Carlos Ghosn.
■ CURRENCIES
Dollar hits new low
The US dollar slumped to a record low against the euro yesterday after weak US economic data heightened expectations of a fresh cut to US interest rates next week, dealers said. Historically high oil prices, which could play a part in slowing the US economy, also kept the dollar under pressure, they added. In early European trade, the euro struck US$1.4374 -- the highest level since the single currency's creation in 1999. It later stood at US$1.437. US government data published on Thursday showed new home sales last month falling 23 percent from a year earlier. On Wednesday, separate data revealed a sharper-than-expected drop in sales of existing homes.
■ EDUCATION
Nova files for protection
The scandal-plagued operator of Japan's largest chain of private foreign language schools has filed for court protection from creditors, a court official said yesterday. Nova Corp filed the request with the Osaka District Court yesterday. Following the court filing, the JASDAQ Securities Exchange for start-ups and venture firms suspended trading in Nova shares for the day and said the firm would be delisted on Nov. 27. The Osaka-based language school chain has debts estimated at ?43.9 billion (US$385 million), Kyodo News agency reported.
■ INTERNET
Baidu's profit doubles in 3Q
Search engine Baidu.com Inc (百度) said yesterday its third-quarter profits more than doubled on strong traffic growth despite search giant Google Inc's efforts to expand in China. Its profits reached 181.7 million yuan (US$24.2 million), up from 85.3 million yuan in the same period a year ago. Earnings per share were 5.23 yuan, up from 2.46 yuan a year earlier. Revenue jumped to 496.5 million yuan from 237.6 million yuan. Baidu had 60.5 percent of China's search-engine market in the third quarter, Beijing-based research firm Analysys International said. Google was in second place with 23.7 percent, while Yahoo's China arm was in third place with 10.4 percent.
■ GAMING
No price cuts for Wii
Fresh off bumper earnings, Nintendo Co yesterday ruled out a price cut for its smash-hit Wii video game console and announced that the company will be selling the Wii in China next year. Profits at Nintendo have surged on the runaway success of the Wii and the portable Nintendo DS machine in North America, Europe and Japan, forcing rivals Sony Corp and Microsoft Corp to slash console prices in a desperate catch-up bid ahead of the holiday season. The Wii sells for US$249.99 in North America, 249 euros (US$355) in Europe and ?25,000 (US$219) in Japan -- all less than Sony's PlayStation 3 or Microsoft's Xbox 360.
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday inaugurated the Danjiang Bridge across the Tamsui River in New Taipei City, saying that the structure would be an architectural icon and traffic artery for Taiwan. Feted as a major engineering achievement, the Danjiang Bridge is 920m long, 211m tall at the top of its pylon, and is the longest single-pylon asymmetric cable-stayed bridge in the world, the government’s Web site for the structure said. It was designed by late Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid. The structure, with a maximum deck of 70m, accommodates road and light rail traffic, and affords a 200m navigation channel for boats,
PRECISION STRIKES: The most significant reason to deploy HIMARS to outlying islands is to establish a ‘dead zone’ that the PLA would not dare enter, a source said A High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) would be deployed to Penghu County and Dongyin Island (東引) in Lienchiang County (Matsu) to force the Chinese military to retreat at least 100km from the coastline, a military source said yesterday. Taiwan has been procuring HIMARS and Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) from the US in batches. Once all batches have been delivered, Taiwan would possess 111 HIMARS units and 504 ATACMS, which have a range of 300km. Considering that “offense is the best defense,” the military plans to forward-deploy the systems to outlying islands such as Penghu and Dongyin so that
WHAT WAS ALL THAT FOR? Jaw Shaw-kong said that Cheng Li-wen had pushed for more drastic cuts and attacked him, just for the outcome to be nearly identical to his bill The legislature yesterday passed a supplementary budget bill to fund the purchase of separate packages of US military equipment, with the combined amount of spending capped at NT$780 billion (US$24.8 billion). The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their legislative majority to pass the bill, which runs until 2033 and has two main funding provisions. One was for NT$300 billion of arms sales already approved by the US for Taiwan on Dec. 17 last year, the other was for NT$480 billion for another arms package expected to be announced by Washington. The bill, which fell short of the NT$1.25
‘CLEAR MESSAGE’: The bill would set up an interagency ‘tiger team’ to review sanctions tools and other economic options to help deter any Chinese aggression toward Taiwan US Representative Young Kim has introduced a bill to deter Chinese aggression against Taiwan, calling for an interagency “tiger team” to preplan coordinated sanctions and economic measures in response to possible Chinese military or political action against Taiwan. “[Chinese President] Xi Jinping [習近平] has directed the People’s Liberation Army to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. China has a plan. America should have one too,” Kim said in a news release on Thursday last week. She introduced the “Deter PRC [People’s Republic of China] aggression against Taiwan act” to “ensure the US has a coordinated sanctions strategy ready should
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