■ SOUTH KOREA
Economic growth at 5%
The economy expanded a revised 5 percent last year from a year earlier, the central bank said yesterday, increasing its earlier 4.9 percent estimate. GDP grew 1.6 percent in the fourth quarter from three months earlier, more than an initial estimate of 1.5 percent, a preliminary report by the Bank of Korea said. South Korean President Lee Myung-bak is targeting 6 percent growth this year. Moody's Economy.com forecasts a growth rate of around 4 percent this year and the central bank's forecast for this year was 4.7 percent.
■ INTERNET
EBay cuts 125 jobs
Internet auctioneer eBay Inc said on Thursday it was cutting 125 jobs in Europe and North America, including 70 positions at the online auctioneer's headquarters in San Jose, California. Company spokesman Jose Mallabo said the work force reduction was part of a reorganization to streamline operations -- not cut costs. The cuts amount to less than 1 percent of the company's global head count of 15,500 people. Mallabo says the cuts in Belgium, Spain and Austria are the result of a centralization of corporate functions. He wouldn't talk about what jobs were affected at headquarters.
■ AVIATION
Aloha files for bankruptcy
Aloha Airlines filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Thursday, a little more than two years after emerging from bankruptcy. Aloha said it would continue to fly as long as a bankruptcy court accepts the airline's financial plan to keep operating. The airline said in its filing that it was unable to generate sufficient revenue because of "predatory pricing" by Mesa Air Group Inc's go! airline. In January, go! reported a US$20 million operating loss in its first 16 months of operations. Aloha and Hawaiian Airlines reported combined losses of nearly US$65 million since go! began operating.
■ INSURANCE
Allianz expects write-downs
Insurer Allianz SE said it expected to make further write-downs in the first quarter of this year amid ongoing turbulence on international financial markets. Allianz head Michael Diekmann said in the company's annual report, released on Thursday, that because he could not rule out further write-downs, it had become "clearly more difficult" to reach the company's goal of 10 percent growth by next year. Last month, the company said that Dresdner's write-downs in its asset-backed securities trading book amounted to US$2 billion last year, of which US$1.4 billion was in the fourth quarter.
■ INVESTMENT
Fed offer attracts firms
Big Wall Street investment companies are taking advantage of the US Federal Reserve's unprecedented offer to secure emergency loans, the central bank reported on Thursday. Those large firms averaged US$13.4 billion in daily borrowing over the past week from the new lending facility. The report does not identify the borrowers. The Fed, in a bold move last Sunday, agreed for the first time to let big investment houses get emergency loans directly from the central bank. This mechanism, similar to one available for commercial banks for years, got under way on Monday and will continue for at least six months. It was the broadest use of the Fed's lending authority since the 1930s.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
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