■ FINANCE
China issues warning
China's stock regulator has warned companies against "malicious money grabbing," urging them to take investor demand into account when drawing up plans for raising funds through share offerings. The China Securities Regulatory Commission's statement, carried on the front pages of many newspapers yesterday, came after share prices dropped to a seven-month low on Monday amid mounting apprehension over a slew of new share offerings. "Listed companies should consider market conditions, investor sentiment and their own funding needs before deciding the timing and size of refinancing," the commission said.
■ INTERNET
Cable under construction
A group of six international companies, including Google, is building a US$300 million underwater fiber optic cable linking the US and Japan. The trans-Pacific 10,000km broadband cable system called Unity will respond to the expected growth in data and Internet traffic between Asia and the US, the companies said in a statement on Monday. The project is set to be up and running in the first quarter of 2010. Construction begins immediately, according to Unity. The cable will connect Chikura, near Tokyo, with Los Angeles and other US West Coast points, and the system connects to other Asian cable systems via Chikura, the companies said.
■ COMPUTERS
IBM rolls out mainframe
IBM Corp rolled out a new mainframe computer yesterday boasting a 50 percent performance boost and dramatically lower energy costs than its predecessor. The new System z10, with a starting price at about US$1 million, comes as IBM focuses on lowering the price tag for running its storied line of data-crunching workhorses. The Armonk, New York-based company said it designed the new machine to help companies and government agencies that rely on mainframes -- usually for critical data processing such as bank transactions or census statistics crunching -- save money on energy bills and better handle a flood of Internet information.
■ MANUFACTURING
Carlyle eyes glass venture
Carlyle Group, the US private equity company with US$75.6 billion under management, may buy a majority stake in a joint venture between Nippon Sheet Glass Co and Hoya Corp, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said. Carlyle is seeking a controlling interest in NH Techno Glass Corp, a venture that makes glass compounds used in liquid-crystal display television panels, the person said, declining to be identified as the parties haven't reached an agreement.
■ FINANCE
Islamic banking growing
Islamic banking and finance, which respects Shariah laws banning usury, is growing fast and will continue to do so, the Moody's Investors Service said yesterday. It said the Islamic finance market had grown 15 percent in each of the past three years, with global volumes at US$97.3 billion by the end of last year. The market has shown no sign of slowing down, reflecting in part the huge revenues the Middle East states are generating from their oil and gas exports, it said. Islamic banking fuses principles of Shariah or Islamic law and modern banking.
Taiwan’s Lee Chia-hao (李佳豪) on Sunday won a silver medal at the All England Open Badminton Championships in Birmingham, England, a career best. Lee, 25, took silver in the final of the men’s singles against world No. 1 Shi Yuqi (石宇奇) of China, who won 21-17, 21-19 in a tough match that lasted 51 minutes. After the match, the Taiwanese player, who ranks No. 22 in the world, said it felt unreal to be challenging an opponent of Shi’s caliber. “I had to be in peak form, and constantly switch my rhythm and tactics in order to score points effectively,” he said. Lee got
EMBRACING TAIWAN: US lawmakers have introduced an act aiming to replace the use of ‘Chinese Taipei’ with ‘Taiwan’ across all Washington’s federal agencies A group of US House of Representatives lawmakers has introduced legislation to replace the term “Chinese Taipei” with “Taiwan” across all federal agencies. US Representative Byron Donalds announced the introduction of the “America supports Taiwan act,” which would mandate federal agencies adopt “Taiwan” in place of “Chinese Taipei,” a news release on his page on the US House of Representatives’ Web site said. US representatives Mike Collins, Barry Moore and Tom Tiffany are cosponsors of the legislation, US political newspaper The Hill reported yesterday. “The legislation is a push to normalize the position of Taiwan as an autonomous country, although the official US
CHANGE OF TONE: G7 foreign ministers dropped past reassurances that there is no change in the position of the G7 members on Taiwan, including ‘one China’ policies G7 foreign ministers on Friday took a tough stance on China, stepping up their language on Taiwan and omitting some conciliatory references from past statements, including to “one China” policies. A statement by ministers meeting in Canada mirrored last month’s Japan-US statement in condemning “coercion” toward Taiwan. Compared with a G7 foreign ministers’ statement in November last year, the statement added members’ concerns over China’s nuclear buildup, although it omitted references to their concerns about Beijing’s human rights abuses in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong. Also missing were references stressing the desire for “constructive and stable relations with China” and
Foreign ministers of leading Western democracies sought to show a united front in Canada yesterday after seven weeks of rising tensions between US allies and US President Donald Trump over his upending of foreign policy on Ukraine and imposing of tariffs. The G7 ministers from the UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the US, along with the EU, convened in the remote tourist town of La Malbaie, nestled in the Quebec hills, for two days of meetings that in the past have broadly been consensual on the issues they face. Top of the agenda for Washington’s partners would be getting a
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