■INTERNET
MySpace’s share slips
MySpace’s share of the US online social networking market slipped while rival Facebook’s piece grew in the year leading up to this month, industry tracker Hitwise reported on Thursday. On a month-on-month basis, MySpace got 67.5 percent of the visits to social networking Web sites last month, compared with 75 percent in the same month last year, Hitwise said. Meanwhile, Facebook got 20.5 percent of US social networking visits, a 50 percent increase from what it saw a year earlier.
■AUTOMOBILES
Hyundai, union make a deal
South Korea’s largest automaker, Hyundai Motor, reached a deal with its union to end a protracted dispute that has cost more than US$600 million in lost production, the company said yesterday. Some 95 percent of the 45,000 union members voted on the deal covering working conditions and wages and endorsed it by a 54-43 margin. Under the deal, the company will abolish its all-night shift system next September. It also agreed to raise the monthly base salary by 5.61 percent and pay a bonus equivalent to three months’ salary.
■IRELAND
Nation slips into recession
Ireland has become the first country in the eurozone to slip into recession, official figures showed on Thursday. The Central Statistics Office said the once-booming economy shrank 0.3 percent in the first quarter and by 0.5 percent in the second — a recession is two or more consecutive quarters of contraction. The European Commission said Germany and Spain might be next, and Britain might also be on the brink.
■TRADE
S Korea, India push FTA
South Korea and India have reached agreement on a free trade deal after talks lasting two-and-a-half years, the South Korean trade ministry said yesterday. The two countries resolved “all outstanding issues” in negotiations here on a comprehensive economic partnership agreement, the equivalent of a free trade agreement, the ministry said in a statement. “Both sides expect that after completion of all domestic formalities, the agreement will enter into force in the first half of next year on a mutually agreed date,” the statement said.
■AUTOMOBILES
Tata to sell six units
India’s top vehicle maker Tata Motors is in talks with private equity funds to sell stakes in six units, a report said yesterday, as the company seeks to finance its Jaguar-Land Rover purchase. The Indian firm, which bought the British luxury icons early this year for US$2.3 billion, decided to sell off assets last month after canceling a convertible preference share issue when its share price tumbled. Tata is in talks to sell stakes in Tata Daewoo Commercial Vehicle Co, HV Excels, HV Transmissions, Tata Motors Finance, Tata Technologies and Telco Construction Equipment, the Economic Times said, quoting unidentified bankers.
■INVESTMENT
Vietnam posts fourfold rise
Pledged foreign direct investment into Vietnam in the first nine months reached US$57.12 billion, jumping more than fourfold from the same period last year, government officials and state media said yesterday. Malaysia topped the list of investment by country origin, with US$14.8 billion being invested in Vietnam so far this year. Taiwan came in second with US$8.6 billion, followed by Japan with US$7.2 billion.
NATIONAL SECURITY: The Chinese influencer shared multiple videos on social media in which she claimed Taiwan is a part of China and supported its annexation Freedom of speech does not allow comments by Chinese residents in Taiwan that compromise national security or social stability, the nation’s top officials said yesterday, after the National Immigration Agency (NIA) revoked the residency permit of a Chinese influencer who published videos advocating China annexing Taiwan by force. Taiwan welcomes all foreigners to settle here and make families so long as they “love the land and people of Taiwan,” Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) told lawmakers during a plenary session at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei. The public power of the government must be asserted when necessary and the Ministry of
Proposed amendments would forbid the use of all personal electronic devices during school hours in high schools and below, starting from the next school year in August, the Ministry of Education said on Monday. The Regulations on the Use of Mobile Devices at Educational Facilities up to High Schools (高級中等以下學校校園行動載具使用原則) state that mobile devices — defined as mobile phones, laptops, tablets, smartwatches or other wearables — should be turned off at school. The changes would stipulate that use of such devices during class is forbidden, and the devices should be handed to a teacher or the school for safekeeping. The amendments also say
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
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