■AUTOMAKERS
Strike hits Toyota plant
Japanese car giant Toyota said it had halted production at an assembly plant in southern China yesterday because of a strike affecting an affiliated auto parts manufacturer, Dow Jones Newswires reported. The walkout at Denso (Guangzhou Nansha), a unit of Toyota-affiliated parts maker Denso Corp, is the latest in a spate of labor disputes to hit foreign companies in China, highlighting discontent among millions of workers. It has forced Toyota to idle two assembly lines at its plant in the city of Guangzhou because of a shortage of fuel-injectors and other components, said the report, which cited Beijing-based Toyota spokesman Hitoshi Yokoyama.
■AIRLINES
BA steps closer to merger
British Airways (BA) PLC said it reached an agreement with trustees of two pension plans, bringing the carrier a step closer to completing a merger with Spain’s Iberia Lineas Aereas de Espana SA. British Airways will contribute £330 million (US$486 million) annually, plus inflation increases averaging 3 percent each year, the London-based carrier said in a Regulatory News Service statement yesterday. The recovery plan helps avoid the closing of New Airways Pension Scheme and Airways Pension Scheme. An agreement is critical to British Airways’s merger with Iberia because the Spanish carrier has the right to pull out of the combination should it find any deal unsatisfactory.
■ECONOMY
Canada growth quickens
Canada’s economy will grow faster this year than previously expected, the finance department announced on Monday, citing new private sector estimates. The near-term outlook has continued to improve since the beginning of March when the government released its last budget, the department said. As a result, the economy is expected to grow by 3.5 percent this year, instead of the 3.1 percent forecast in March, it said. Subsequently, higher growth this year will lead to a hike in Canada’s GDP by about C$24 billion (US$23.4 billion) in 2014. “This suggests that the medium-term fiscal forecast presented in Budget 2010 remains on track,” the department said in a statement.
■RESOURCES
Aussie mines see Asia boost
Powerful growth in Asia will drive Australian exports above A$200 billion (US$177 billion) from this year to next year, as new contracts bring in higher prices for coal and iron ore, officials said yesterday. The Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics said economic growth in Asia was assumed to be largely unaffected by the debt crisis in Europe. Growth in Asia, excluding Japan and South Korea, would average 8.4 percent this year and 8 percent next year, it said. Australian mine production would jump this year and next year, lifting energy and minerals export earnings to A$169.8 billion, an increase of 28.5 percent from last year to this year, the official forecaster said.
■INTERNET
Google under investigation
The attorney-general of Connecticut is looking into whether Google broke the law by capturing people’s personal data from wireless networks while Street View bicycles and cars mapped streets. Attorney-General Richard Blumenthal announced on Monday that his office would lead a multi-state probe of “Google’s deeply disturbing invasion of personal privacy,” which has drawn ire and scrutiny in an array of countries.
RESTRAINTS: Should China’s actions pose any threat to Taiwan’s security, economic or social systems, China would be excluded from major financial institutions, the bill says The US House of Representatives on Monday passed the PROTECT Taiwan Act, which states that Washington would exclude China from participating in major global financial organizations if its actions directly threaten Taiwan’s security. The bill, proposed by Republican Representative Frank Lucas, passed with 395 votes in favor and two against. It stipulates that if China’s actions pose any threat to Taiwan’s security, economic or social systems, the US would, “to the maximum extent practicable,” exclude Beijing from international financial institutions, including the G20, the Bank for International Settlements and the Financial Stability Board. The bill makes it clear that China must be prepared
PEACE AT LAST? UN experts had warned of threats and attacks ahead of the voting, but after a turbulent period, Bangladesh has seemingly reacted to the result with calm The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) yesterday celebrated a landslide victory in the first elections held since a deadly 2024 uprising, with party leader Tarique Rahman to become prime minister. Bangladesh Election Commission figures showed that the BNP alliance had won 212 seats, compared with 77 for the Islamist-led Jamaat-e-Islami alliance. The US embassy congratulated Rahman and the BNP for a “historic victory,” while India praised Rahman’s “decisive win” in a significant step after recent rocky relations with Bangladesh. China and Pakistan, which grew closer to Bangladesh since the uprising and the souring of ties with India, where ousted Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina
Taiwanese trade negotiators told Washington that Taipei would not relocate 40 percent of its semiconductor production to the US, and that its most advanced technologies would remain in the nation, Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君) said on Sunday. “I told the US side very clearly — that’s impossible,” Cheng, who led the negotiation team, said in an interview that aired on Sunday night on Chinese Television System. Cheng was referring to remarks last month by US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, in which he said his goal was to bring 40 percent of Taiwan’s chip supply chain to the US Taiwan’s almost
The Taiwan Space Agency (TASA) yesterday released the first images from its Formosat-8A satellite, featuring high-resolution views of Hsinchu Science Park (新竹科學園區), Tainan’s Anping District (安平), Kaohsiung’s Singda Harbor (興達港), Japan’s National Stadium in Tokyo and Barcelona airport. Formosat-8A, named the “Chi Po-lin Satellite” after the late Taiwanese documentary filmmaker Chi Po-lin (齊柏林), was launched on Nov. 29 last year. It is designed to capture images at a 1m resolution, which can be sharpened to 0.7m after processing, surpassing the capabilities of its predecessor, Formosat-5, the agency said. It is the first of TASA’s eight-satellite Formosat-8 constellation to be sent into orbit and
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