■ Aviation
Chinese airline to buy A380s
Airbus SAS, the world's largest airplane maker, is scheduled to seal a contract on Jan. 28 with China Southern Airlines Co (南方航空) for five A380s, according to the agenda of France's transport minister. The order is worth about US$1.4 billion, based on list prices. French Transport Minister Gilles de Robien will attend a signing ceremony in Paris for the planes, according to an agenda published by his office yesterday. Gwenaelle Verpeaux, a spokeswoman for the ministry, declined to comment. About a third of the 149 orders and commitments that Airbus has won so far for the 555-seat A380, which will displace Boeing Co's 747 as the world's largest passenger aircraft, have come from Asia. None have come yet from China, the world's fastest-growing aviation market. Air travel there will expand about 8.1 percent in each of the next 20 years, Airbus predicts.
■ Retail
Wal-Mart food sales take off
Wal-Mart Stores Inc, the world's largest retailer, said January sales are rising within its forecast for a gain of as much as 4 percent as shoppers purchased food more than general merchandise. Sales this month at US stores open at least a year will increase 2 percent to 4 percent, the Bentonville, Arkansas-based discounter predicted. Customers purchased more food than general merchandise, the company said. Shoppers also continued to redeem gift cards received during the holidays, said Don Gher at Coldstream Capital Management in Bellevue, Washington. "Industry surveys have suggested that about one-third of gift cards recipients plan to redeem those cards during January," said Gher, who helps manage about US$600 million, including Wal-Mart shares.
■ Banking
Korean bank to cut staff
Kookmin Bank, South Korea's biggest lender, may cut its workforce by as much as 17 percent, or 4,800 workers, in the next three years as part of a restructuring plan. "That number is the highest out of the many plans we are considering," Lee Ok Won, a company spokesman, said in response to a Yonhap News report. Kookmin hasn't pared its employee numbers since it merged with mortgage loan leader H&CB in 2001 and then combined with Kookmin Credit Card Co, the nation's third-largest credit card issuer, in 2003. Yonhap reported earlier today that Kookmin will cut 3,800 workers this year and 4,800 by 2007, citing unidentified officials in the finance industry. Kookmin's management submitted a plan to labor unions on Jan. 21, the report said.
■ Telecoms
China Mobile may buy CSL
China Mobile (Hong Kong) Ltd (中國移動) is talks with Telstra Corp to buy the Australian company's Hong Kong mobile phone unit CSL Ltd, the 21st Century Business Herald in China reported, citing people it didn't identify. The acquisition talks are at a very preliminary stage, the report said. Telstra of Australia bought CSL for about US$2.1 billion in two transactions in 2001, the Guangzhou-based newspaper reported. CSL is currently the second-largest mobile phone operator in Hong Kong, the newspaper said. China Mobile may be keen to take over CSL because of the potential revenue generated by calls between Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland, the newspaper said.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique