■ Fraud
Fugitive bexecutive indicted
The former chairman of collapsed South Korean conglomerate Daewoo Group was indicted yesterday on fraud charges amounting to US$71 billion after living nearly six years abroad on the run. Kim Woo-choong, who returned to South Korea last month after fleeing the country in 1999, is accused of having falsified Daewoo's accounts to draw billions of dollars in illegal bank loans before diverting them overseas. Kim was indicted on charges of 40 trillion won (US$39 billion) in accounting fraud, obtaining 9.8 trillion won in illegal financing and diverting 23 trillion won out of the country, the Supreme Public Prosecutors's Office said in a statement.
■ Internet
Buffett lunch sold on EBay
A lunch for eight with billionaire investor Warren Buffett sold for US$351,100 in bidding on EBay Inc's Web site that benefited a San Francisco charity serving the homeless. A bidder going by the EBay screen name hanka3153 won the week-long auction that attracted 105 bids. Buffett, who is chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc and ranks as the world's second-richest person, has hosted the lunch for as many as eight people since 2000. The auction concluded at 10pm New York time and set a record price, topping the US$250,100 paid by Greenlight Capital LLC founder David Einhorn in 2003. The proceeds benefit San Francisco-based Glide Memorial Church's work to help the homeless. The winner will share a meal with Buffett in New York or Omaha, Nebraska, where Berkshire Hathaway is based.
■ Mobile Phones
Samsung, Motorola ink pact
Samsung Electronics Co and Motorola Inc, two of the world's top three makers of mobile phones, signed a preliminary agreement to share each other's technology for wireless communication. Suwon, South Korea-based Samsung and US-based Motorola signed the agreement yesterday, Samsung said in a regulatory filing after the market's 3pm close in Seoul. Samsung spokeswoman Cho Sung In declined to comment further on the statement, which didn't provide financial or technical details because of a confidentiality pact. Motorola, the second-largest handset maker, and No. 3 Samsung may be partnering in handsets based on more advanced technologies than those on sale now to help them gain ground on industry leader Nokia Oyj, said Michael Min, a Seoul-based analyst at Korea Investment & Securities Co.
■ Manufacturing
Japan's outlook improves
Japanese manufacturers' economic sentiment about the world's second-largest economy has improved, the Japanese central bank said yesterday in its April-June Tankan survey, which strongly influences the bank's monetary policy. The latest quarterly survey by the Bank of Japan showed the diffusion index of business sentiment among big manufacturers stood at positive 18 in the June survey. The figure was 14 in the March survey. A positive number means optimists outnumber pessimists. It hit a 13-year-high of 26 in September last year. The index of major non-manufacturers was also up to positive 15 from the March survey at positive 11. The central bank's index gauges the percentage of companies reporting a pickup in business conditions, minus the percentage of companies reporting otherwise.
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