■ Automakers
VW to step up job cuts
Volkswagen (VW), Europe's biggest car maker, said yesterday that it planned to step up job-cutting measures, particularly at its main plant in Wolfsburg, north Germany. "Despite rising sales, the Volkswagen group still has considerable overcapacity and will therefore be intensifying its efforts to cut back manpower," the car maker said in a statement. "We have surplus manpower of the order of several thousand employees at our German sites, in particular Wolfsburg," VW said. The auto giant did not say exactly how many jobs were on the line, but a report in the latest edition of the weekly newsmagazine Der Spiegel quoted sources close to the company as saying that more than 10,000 jobs faced the chop. The cutbacks would be achieved via measures such as as early retirement.
■ Hong Kong
Record haul of fakes seized
Customs officers in Hong Kong have seized a record haul of 150,000 fake Burberry clothes and products in the city's biggest seizure of its kind. The high-quality items bearing the famous Burberry check design had a retail value of around US$16.7 million, according to the South China Morning Post yesterday. Eleven Hong Kong people including two alleged masterminds of a Hong Kong and Japan counterfeit clothing syndicate have been arrested in connection with the seizure, the newspaper said. The clothes are understood to have been made to order in factories in China and were seized in a Hong Kong warehouse where they were stored before being shipped to China. The items will be shredded and dumped in landfills after a court case involving the suspects ends in around a year's time, the newspaper said.
■ Japan
Business' investments rise
Investment levels of Japanese businesses rose 7.3 percent in the April to June period, according to the Japanese Finance Ministry's quarterly report released yesterday. Compared to the previous year, manufacturers spent 19.8 percent more on plant and equipment, which marked the highest rate of increase since the July to September period in 2001, when the ministry adopted its current calculation method. Meanwhile, expenditure by non-manufacturers rose 1.8 percent, the ministry's quarterly survey showed. As manufacturers' pretax profits increased 14.2 percent, those of non-manufacturers grew 11.9 percent. The combined pretax profits in both sectors gained 12.9 percent for the three-month period, compared to a year earlier. The survey results supported the government's announcement last month that Japan was making an economic recovery.
■ South Korea
Strikes hamper carmakers
Hyundai Motor Co and Kia Motors Corp, South Korea's two largest carmakers, have had total production losses of about 608 billion won (US$594 million) since workers went on strike last month. Hyundai Motor has suffered losses of 396.2 billion won as of last Friday from the 54-hour partial strikes that started on Aug. 25, the Korea Auto Industries Cooperation Association said in a statement yesterday. Kia incurred losses of 211.3 billion won from a total of 48-hour strike that began on Aug. 29. Losses of their parts suppliers reached about 518 billion won. Union workers at Hyundai Motor and Kia are on partial strikes as they demand higher wages and better working conditions.
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
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
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
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