■ Japan
Bank in cellphone venture
Goldman Sachs, the US investment bank, will invest ¥25 billion (US$225 million) in a mobile-phone venture planned by Japanese broadband services firm eAccess, a report said yesterday. The US financial group will invest the funds in eAccess mobile-phone subsidiary eMobile, Japanese business daily Nihon Keizai Shimbun said. It will also provide business support in such areas as obtaining property for base stations and supplying content offerings. Following the report, eAccess issued a statement saying: "Although it is true that eMobile is talking with Goldman Sachs on the topic, the two have yet to reach a final agreement."
■ China
GE eyes stake in bank
General Electric Co (GE) plans to buy a 7 percent stake in China's Shenzhen Development Bank in the latest foreign strategic investment in China's increasingly competitive banking market, reports said yesterday. Through the purchase, valued at about US$100 million, GE Consumer Finance hopes to gain entry into China's developing personal-loan market, while the Chinese bank would gain much-needed capital and expertise, the reports said. The two sides held a signing ceremony for the deal at Beijing's International Club on Wednesday, the state-run China Securities Journal and other newspapers reported. On Tuesday, Swiss bank UBS AG announced a 645 million Swiss francs (US$500 million) investment in state-owned Bank of China to create a partnership in investment banking and securities services.
■ United States
Did FedEx discriminate?
A federal judge certified a class-action discrimination lawsuit targeting FedEx Corp amid allegations that the delivery service paid thousands of current and former minority employees less than their white counterparts, skipped them for promotions and gave minorities poor work evaluations. The case includes an estimated 10,000 current and former hourly workers and about 1,000 low-level management employees in Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming and parts of Texas. James Finberg, an attorney representing the class, said FedEx normally promotes from within, yet three times the number of package handlers and loaders are minorities compared to drivers, who earn more. Twice the number of minorities fail promotional tests than do whites, Finberg said.
■ Internet
Google heads for space
Internet search firm Google on Wednesday announced plans to construct a huge new corporate campus at a NASA base in the center of Silicon Valley. The campus will cement the seven-year-old company's future at the heart of the high-tech region, and allow it to continue adding to its payroll at its current rate of almost 100 employees per week without running out of space. The move was hailed by local experts as a huge boon to the region which has yet to post a solid recovery from the dotcom crash of 2000. They estimated that the 100,000m2 square complex would take about two years to build and cost some US$300 million. The agreement called for NASA and Google to cooperate on a variety of areas.
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