■ 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
US President Donald Trump yesterday announced sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on US trading partners, including a 32 percent tax on goods from Taiwan that is set to take effect on Wednesday. At a Rose Garden event, Trump declared a 10 percent baseline tax on imports from all countries, with the White House saying it would take effect on Saturday. Countries with larger trade surpluses with the US would face higher duties beginning on Wednesday, including Taiwan (32 percent), China (34 percent), Japan (24 percent), South Korea (25 percent), Vietnam (46 percent) and Thailand (36 percent). Canada and Mexico, the two largest US trading
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 —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
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