■ COMPUTERS
Makers issue battery recall
Computer makers are recalling 100,000 laptop battery packs made by Sony Corp after 40 reports of overheating, a US Consumer Product Safety Commission notice said on Thursday. The recall applies to certain Sony 2.15Ah lithium-ion cell batteries made in Japan and sold around the world in laptops made by Hewlett-Packard Co, Dell Inc and Toshiba Corp. Twenty-one of the reports claimed minor property damage, and small burns were reported in four cases. Sony blamed two factors for the defects: adjustments on its manufacturing line from October 2004 to June 2005, which may have affected the quality of cells in certain production lots, and a possible flaw in the metal foil for electrodes.
■ BANKING
Barclays seeking capital
Barclays PLC said yesterday it was seeking up to £7.3 billion (US$11.8 billion) from Middle Eastern investors to avoid resorting to a British government bailout. The money would come from investment funds and royal families in Qatar and Abu Dhabi. Yesterday’s announcement follows an earlier £4.5 billion cash call by the bank in June. Barclays said the investment would enable it to meet new rules on banks’ capitalization ordered by Britain’s financial regulators. “The board believes that this maintains Barclays as a strong, independent and well capitalized bank,” chairman Marcus Agius said.
■ BANKING
Mizuho halves profit target
Japan’s second-largest bank, Mizuho Financial Group, said yesterday it had slashed its net profit target for this year by more than half in the face of global financial turmoil. Mizuho forecast a 19.7 percent drop in net profit to ¥250 billion (US$2.5 billion) in the fiscal year to March, well short of a previous forecast of ¥560 billion. It blamed the falling stock market, rising corporate bankruptcies and the collapse of Wall Street bank Lehman Brothers. The bank said it made a net profit of about ¥94 billion in the six months to September, down sharply from ¥327.06 billion a year earlier, missing its target of ¥250 billion. Mizuho, one of Japan’s three megabanks, saw its profits roughly halved last year amid heavy losses from the subprime loan crisis in the US.
■ ICELAND
PM warns of huge deficit
Prime Minister Geir Haarde said on Thursday the total cost of the nation’s banking crisis could amount to 1.1 trillion Icelandic crowns (US$9.4 billion), or 85 percent of last year’s GDP. According to a statement released by the prime minister’s office, Haarde told parliament the budget deficit next year could be as high as 10 percent of economic output, pushing gross debt — which stood at 29 percent of GDP at the end of last year — above 100 percent by the end of next year. Its GDP last year was around US$11 billion.
■ AUTOMOBILES
Toyota to reopen US plants
Toyota Motor Corp said yesterday it would reopen three US factories after a three-month suspension in the face of falling US demand, using them to produce exports for the Middle East and Latin America. The factories in Texas, Indiana and Alabama will resume producing Sequoia sports utility vehicles and Tundra pick-up trucks by the middle of this month, Japan’s largest automaker said. Toyota’s sales are expected to fall this year for the first time in a decade amid the global slowdown. Toyota’s sales in the US plunged 29.5 percent in September.
BACK IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD: The planned transit by the ‘Baden-Wuerttemberg’ and the ‘Frankfurt am Main’ would be the German Navy’s first passage since 2002 Two German warships are set to pass through the Taiwan Strait in the middle of this month, becoming the first German naval vessels to do so in 22 years, Der Spiegel reported on Saturday. Reuters last month reported that the warships, the frigate Baden-Wuerttemberg and the replenishment ship Frankfurt am Main, were awaiting orders from Berlin to sail the Strait, prompting a rebuke to Germany from Beijing. Der Spiegel cited unspecified sources as saying Beijing would not be formally notified of the German ships’ passage to emphasize that Berlin views the trip as normal. The German Federal Ministry of Defense declined to comment. While
‘UPHOLDING PEACE’: Taiwan’s foreign minister thanked the US Congress for using a ‘creative and effective way’ to deter Chinese military aggression toward the nation The US House of Representatives on Monday passed the Taiwan Conflict Deterrence Act, aimed at deterring Chinese aggression toward Taiwan by threatening to publish information about Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials’ “illicit” financial assets if Beijing were to attack. The act would also “restrict financial services for certain immediate family of such officials,” the text of the legislation says. The bill was introduced in January last year by US representatives French Hill and Brad Sherman. After remarks from several members, it passed unanimously. “If China chooses to attack the free people of Taiwan, [the bill] requires the Treasury secretary to publish the illicit
A senior US military official yesterday warned his Chinese counterpart against Beijing’s “dangerous” moves in the South China Sea during the first talks of their kind between the commanders. Washington and Beijing remain at odds on issues from trade to the status of Taiwan and China’s increasingly assertive approach in disputed maritime regions, but they have sought to re-establish regular military-to-military talks in a bid to prevent flashpoint disputes from spinning out of control. Samuel Paparo, commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, and Wu Yanan (吳亞男), head of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Southern Theater Command, talked via videoconference. Paparo “underscored the importance
The US House of Representatives yesterday unanimously passed the Taiwan Conflict Deterrence Act, which aims to disincentivize Chinese aggression toward Taiwan by cutting Chinese leaders and their family members off from the US financial system if Beijing acts against Taiwan. The bipartisan bill, which would also publish the assets of top Chinese leaders, was cosponsored by Republican US Representative French Hill, Democratic US Representative Brad Sherman and seven others. If the US president determines that a threat against Taiwan exists, the bill would require the US Department of the Treasury to report to Congress on funds held by certain members of the
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