■ECONOMY
IMF head sees better 2010
The world will begin to emerge from the economic crisis in the first quarter of next year, and the recovery will start in the US housing market, the head of the IMF, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, was quoted yesterday as saying. “The crisis began in the US, in the housing sector. The recovery will announce itself first in the US. Therefore we must keep an eye on American real estate prices. The end of the fall in prices will be an important sign,” Strauss-Kahn told the daily Le Figaro. In an interview the IMF head also noted that US housing prices were very close to bottoming out. “That is why we foresee the recovery for the first quarter of 2010,” he said. Another important indicator would be the status of industrial inventories, Strauss-Kahn said. “When the destocking ends, production can resume,” he said.
■AUTOMOBILES
Royals may invest in Opel
Abu Dhabi’s royal family might be set to invest in automaker Opel, a press report said yesterday. The Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper quoted family member Sheikh Hamdan indirectly as saying however that “no decision has been taken yet.” Sheikh Hamdan said that a meeting he had had last week with German regional premier Juergen Ruettgers of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, home to an Opel plant, was nonetheless “very positive.” Abu Dhabi said late last month it would take a 9.1 percent stake in Daimler, the owner of Mercedes Benz autos for 1.95 billion euros (US$2.64 billion), becoming its biggest shareholder.
■OUTSOURCING
Xerox looks to India
Xerox Corp will pay US$100 million over six years to outsource data-center services to India’s HCL Technologies Ltd, a Xerox spokesman said on Sunday. HCL will manage disaster-recovery preparation and consolidate Xerox’s data centers in North America and Europe, said spokesman Bill McKee. The printer and copier maker has been cutting costs and announced last year it would slash 3,000 jobs from its worldwide payroll of 57,000. McKee said the deal with HCL is not related to the restructuring.
■TELECOMS
Privatization bid approved
A Hong Kong court yesterday approved telecom giant PCCW’s (電訊盈科) controversial privatization bid, despite allegations by the city’s financial watchdog of vote-rigging. Presiding judge Susan Kwan (關淑馨) gave the scheme the green light in Hong Kong’s High Court, in a case that has gripped the financial hub. The Securities and Futures Commission claimed that the shareholder vote approving the buyout by PCCW chairman Richard Li (李澤楷) and his partner China Netcom (中國網通) had been manipulated unfairly.
■OIL
Prices rise in Asian trade
Oil prices rose above US$53 in Asian trade yesterday on hopes a global effort to lift the world economy out of recession would yield results. New York’s main futures contract, light sweet crude for delivery next month, gained US$0.90 to US$53.41 a barrel in afternoon trade. Brent North Sea crude for delivery next month advanced US$0.68 to US$54.15. “Investors believe that there will be cooperation to lift the world economy out of the recession [after the G20 summit],” said Tony Nunan, a risk management executive at Mitsubishi Corp in Tokyo. “They are coming back into the market based on the belief that the economy is not as bad as it could have been.”
IDENTITY: Compared with other platforms, TikTok’s algorithm pushes a ‘disproportionately high ratio’ of pro-China content, a study has found Young Taiwanese are increasingly consuming Chinese content on TikTok, which is changing their views on identity and making them less resistant toward China, researchers and politicians were cited as saying by foreign media. Asked to suggest the best survival strategy for a small country facing a powerful neighbor, students at National Chia-Yi Girls’ Senior High School said “Taiwan must do everything to avoid provoking China into attacking it,” the Financial Times wrote on Friday. Young Taiwanese between the ages of 20 and 24 in the past were the group who most strongly espoused a Taiwanese identity, but that is no longer
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake and several aftershocks battered southern Taiwan early this morning, causing houses and roads to collapse and leaving dozens injured and 50 people isolated in their village. A total of 26 people were reported injured and sent to hospitals due to the earthquake as of late this morning, according to the latest Ministry of Health and Welfare figures. In Sising Village (西興) of Chiayi County's Dapu Township (大埔), the location of the quake's epicenter, severe damage was seen and roads entering the village were blocked, isolating about 50 villagers. Another eight people who were originally trapped inside buildings in Tainan
‘ARMED GROUP’: Two defendants used Chinese funds to form the ‘Republic of China Taiwan Military Government,’ posing a threat to national security, prosecutors said A retired lieutenant general has been charged after using funds from China to recruit military personnel for an “armed” group that would assist invading Chinese forces, prosecutors said yesterday. The retired officer, Kao An-kuo (高安國), was among six people indicted for contravening the National Security Act (國家安全法), the High Prosecutors’ Office said in a statement. The group visited China multiple times, separately and together, from 2018 to last year, where they met Chinese military intelligence personnel for instructions and funding “to initiate and develop organizations for China,” prosecutors said. Their actions posed a “serious threat” to “national security and social stability,” the statement
NATURAL INTERRUPTION: As cables deteriorate, core wires snap in progression along the cable, which does not happen if they are hit by an anchor, an official said Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) immediately switched to a microwave backup system to maintain communications between Taiwan proper and Lienchiang County (Matsu) after two undersea cables malfunctioned due to natural deterioration, the Ministry of Digital Affairs told an emergency news conference yesterday morning. Two submarine cables connecting Taiwan proper and the outlying county — the No. 2 and No. 3 Taiwan-Matsu cables — were disconnected early yesterday morning and on Wednesday last week respectively, the nation’s largest telecom said. “After receiving the report that the No. 2 cable had failed, the ministry asked Chunghwa Telecom to immediately activate a microwave backup system, with
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