■ COMPUTERS
Laptops handed out in Niue
The tiny South Pacific nation of Niue on Thursday became the first country in the world to issue laptop computers to all its children, officials said. Every primary and secondary school student was this week given a rugged “relatively waterproof and breakproof” little green laptop, which has wireless connection to the Internet as part of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) initiative. The computers have been specially designed by OLPC, a US-based charity, to help children’s learning and to be cheap, as well as difficult to break or damage. The donation of 500 computers to Niue — which has a total population of less than 1,500 — is part of an initiative to distribute 5,000 laptops in the Pacific region, OLPC said in a statement.
■ OIL
Prices continue to rally
Oil prices extended gains above US$121 yesterday, a day after their biggest jump in three months, as a renewed slump in the US dollar and mounting tension between the US and Russia rekindled investor appetite. US light crude for October delivery rose US$0.37 to US$121.55 a barrel, after surging nearly 5 percent on Thursday as part of a broader commodities rally. London Brent crude rose US$0.46 to US$120.62. Russia, the world’s second-largest oil exporter, said on Thursday it would respond with more than just a diplomatic protest to a US deal with Poland to station parts of a US missile defense shield on Polish soil.
■ MEXICO
Growth accelerates slightly
Mexico’s economy expanded 2.8 percent in the second quarter, up slightly on 2.6 percent growth in the first three months of the year. A statement on Thursday from the National Statistics Institute said that the farming sector led gains, posting 4.4 percent growth from a year earlier amid rising food prices. Mexico expects growth to slow as the US economy cools, prompting the Finance Ministry to cut its growth estimate to 2.8 percent from 3.7 percent this year. The US buys about 80 percent of Mexico’s exports. US woes also feed a dip in remittances, as Mexicans working abroad send less cash home.
■ AUTOMAKERS
Ford to axe 350 jobs
Ford Australia announced yesterday that it would cut up to 350 jobs, or 15 percent of its Australian manufacturing work force, because of a slump in sales of large cars. The cuts, expected in mid-November, follow an earlier announcement that 600 jobs would be lost when local six-cylinder engine production ends in 2010. Ford spokeswoman Sinead McAlary said that changing consumer preferences, rising fuel prices and economic factors had caused a decline in the large-car segment. She said the job losses would be evenly split between two plants in the state of Victoria.
■ ENERGY
Settle dispute, judge says
An Indian judge has told India’s billionaire Ambani brothers to get their mother to settle their latest fight over natural gas supplies, telling them it is in the “national interest,” a report said yesterday. The two brothers, listed by Forbes magazine as among the world’s six richest men, have been at odds since 2005 over a supply agreement from the Krishna Godavari basin off India’s east coast. “Why don’t you go back to your mother? Both parties should settle. It’s not a family dispute,” Justice J.N. Patel was quoted as saying. “It’s a matter of national importance and a resolution will be in the public interest since natural gas is a national asset,” he told the brothers’ lawyers.
FIVE-YEAR WINDOW? A defense institute CEO said a timeline for a potential Chinese invasion was based on expected ‘tough measures’ when Xi Jinping seeks a new term Most Taiwanese are willing to defend the nation against a Chinese attack, but the majority believe Beijing is unlikely to invade within the next five years, a poll showed yesterday. The poll carried out last month was commissioned by the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, a Taipei-based think tank, and released ahead of Double Ten National Day today, when President William Lai (賴清德) is to deliver a speech. China maintains a near-daily military presence around Taiwan and has held three rounds of war games in the past two years. CIA Director William Burns last year said that Chinese President Xi Jinping
President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday said that China has “no right to represent Taiwan,” but stressed that the nation was willing to work with Beijing on issues of mutual interest. “The Republic of China has already put down roots in Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu,” Lai said in his first Double Ten National Day address outside the Presidential Office Building in Taipei. “And the Republic of China and the People’s Republic of China [PRC] are not subordinate to each other.” “The People’s Republic of China has no right to represent Taiwan,” he said at the event marking the 113th National Day of
REACTION TO LAI: A former US official said William Lai took a step toward stability with his National Day speech and the question was how Beijing would respond US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday warned China against taking any “provocative” action on Taiwan after Beijing’s reaction to President William Lai’s (賴清德) speech on Double Ten National Day on Thursday. Blinken, speaking in Laos after an ASEAN East Asia Summit, called the speech by Lai, in which he vowed to “resist annexation,” a “regular exercise.” “China should not use it in any fashion as a pretext for provocative actions,” Blinken told reporters. “On the contrary, we want to reinforce — and many other countries want to reinforce — the imperative of preserving the status quo, and neither party taking any
SPEECH IMPEDIMENT? The state department said that using routine celebrations or public remarks as a pretext for provocation would undermine peace and stability Beijing’s expected use of President William Lai’s (賴清德) Double Ten National Day speech today as a pretext for provocative measures would undermine peace and stability, the US Department of State said on Tuesday. Taiwanese officials have said that China is likely to launch military drills near Taiwan in response to Lai’s speech as a pretext to pressure the nation to accept its sovereignty claims. A state department spokesperson said it could not speculate on what China would or would not do. “However, it is worth emphasizing that using routine annual celebrations or public remarks as a pretext or excuse for provocative or coercive
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