■AUTOMOBLIES
Porsche triples profits
Luxury sports car maker Porsche AG said on Monday its net profit this fiscal year more than tripled with help from a revaluation of its 22 percent stake in Volkswagen AG and strong results from its core business. Porsche said it earned 4.24 billion euros (US$6.18 billion) for the full year, up from 1.39 billion euros a year earlier. The revaluation resulted in a one-time addition of 520.80 million euros. Pretax profit for the year ended July 31 more than doubled to 5.86 billion euros from 2.11 billion euros in the previous fiscal year.
■ INVESTMENT
Gore joins capital firm
Former US vice president Al Gore is becoming a partner at Silicon Valley's most storied venture capital firm. Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers said on Monday that Gore, who campaigns to slow global climate change, will join the Menlo Park, California-based venture capital firm as a partner focused on alternative energy investments. The venture firm, which since 1972 has backed seminal computer start-ups ranging from Sun Microsystems to Compaq Computer to Amazon.com and Google Inc, has emerged in recent years as a leading funder of alternative energy companies.
■ AID
IMF to help Liberia
The IMF struck a "milestone" deal with member countries allowing it to provide debt relief to Liberia, the fund said on Monday. Member states have made pledges totaling more than US$842 million, the IMF said in a statement. "Today's milestone is a critical step in moving Liberia onto a path toward comprehensive debt relief," IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn said in the statement. It was the first concrete achievement for the new IMF director, who took over his post on Nov. 1. Ravaged by a decade of civil war, Liberia has a multilateral debt of US1.5 billion for a total debt of US$3.7 billion.
■ AVIATION
Saudi buys jumbo jet
The world's 13th-richest man has taken executive jetsetting to a new level with the first VIP order for the A380 superjumbo. Saudi prince Alwaleed bin Talal, who topped the Forbes Arabia rich list last year, has invested a small piece of his estimated US$20 billion fortune in an Airbus "Flying Palace." The plane is out of most tycoons' range with a retail price of US$310 million. Airline customers for the mega-jet, which can seat up to 850 people, have won sizeable discounts by placing bulk orders, but the Riyadh billionaire is expected to have paid the full price.
AIR DEFENSE: The Norwegian missile system has proved highly effective in Ukraine in its war against Russia, and the US has recommended it for Taiwan, an expert said The Norwegian Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS) Taiwan ordered from the US would be installed in strategically important positions in Taipei and New Taipei City to guard the region, the Ministry of National Defense said in statement yesterday. The air defense system would be deployed in Taipei’s Songshan District (松山) and New Taipei City’s Tamsui District (淡水), the ministry said, adding that the systems could be delivered as soon as the end of this year. The US Defense Security Cooperation Agency has previously said that three NASAMS would be sold to Taiwan. The weapons are part of the 17th US arms sale to
SERIOUS ALLEGATIONS: The suspects formed spy networks and paramilitary groups to kill government officials during a possible Chinese invasion, prosecutors said Prosecutors have indicted seven retired military officers, members of the Rehabilitation Alliance Party, for allegedly obtaining funds from China, and forming paramilitary groups and assassination squads in Taiwan to collaborate with Chinese troops in a possible war. The suspects contravened the National Security Act (國家安全法) by taking photos and drawing maps of key radar stations, missile installations and the American Institute in Taiwan’s headquarters in Taipei, prosecutors said. They allegedly prepared to collaborate with China during a possible invasion of Taiwan, prosecutors said. Retired military officer Chu Hung-i (屈宏義), 62, a Republic of China Army Academy graduate, went to China
INSURRECTION: The NSB said it found evidence the CCP was seeking snipers in Taiwan to target members of the military and foreign organizations in the event of an invasion The number of Chinese spies prosecuted in Taiwan has grown threefold over a four-year period, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said in a report released yesterday. In 2021 and 2022, 16 and 10 spies were prosecuted respectively, but that number grew to 64 last year, it said, adding that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was working with gangs in Taiwan to develop a network of armed spies. Spies in Taiwan have on behalf of the CCP used a variety of channels and methods to infiltrate all sectors of the country, and recruited Taiwanese to cooperate in developing organizations and obtaining sensitive information
BREAKTHROUGH: The US is making chips on par in yield and quality with Taiwan, despite people saying that it could not happen, the official said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has begun producing advanced 4-nanometer (nm) chips for US customers in Arizona, US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said, a milestone in the semiconductor efforts of the administration of US President Joe Biden. In November last year, the commerce department finalized a US$6.6 billion grant to TSMC’s US unit for semiconductor production in Phoenix, Arizona. “For the first time ever in our country’s history, we are making leading edge 4-nanometer chips on American soil, American workers — on par in yield and quality with Taiwan,” Raimondo said, adding that production had begun in recent
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