■ Banking
SMBC `unfair': watchdog
The Japanese anti-monopoly watchdog may order Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp (SMBC) to stop its "unfair" business practice of allegedly forcing borrowers to buy financial products, reports said yesterday. SMBC, one of Japan's three major banks, made the purchase of high-risk financial products, such as yen interest-rate swaps, a condition for extending loans to small and mid-size companies, the reports said, without naming sources. Abusing the position of a lender against loan borrowers is illegal under the Japanese anti-monopoly law. The Fair Trade Commission ordered the bank to submit a report on the issue in July, and will soon meet to decide whether to issue a "recommendation to stop unfair operations," the Nihon Keizai Shimbun said.
■ Automobiles
BMW scandal deepens
The bribery scandal surrounding former executives of the luxury German carmaker BMW AG has continued to deepen, according to the German weekly news magazines Focus and Spiegel. During the last week, the Munich public prosecutor's office searched the offices of at least three BMW suppliers, the magazines reported in articles released on Saturday. This followed concerns that the companies paid bribes totalling at least US$500,000 to former BMW executives. Payments of the bribes could date back to 2001, a speaker of the public prosecutor's office told Focus. Spiegel reported that two employees working for the suppliers had been arrested. This brought the number being held in custody in connection with the bribery scandal to six.
■ Mining
Newmont mulls takeover
Newmont Mining Corp president Pierre Lassonde confirmed yesterday that the world's largest gold producer is considering making a rival bid for Canadian takeover target Placer Dome Inc. Vancouver-based Placer last week said its board recommended to shareholders that they reject a US$9.2 billion takeover bid by Barrick Gold Corp, calling the offer "inadequate" and "opportunistic." While Lassonde said Denver-based Newmont is thinking about making a bid for Placer, he added there was "good reason" to steer clear of the deal. "It would be fair to say that we have to at least think about it," he told Nine Network television. One reason for caution he said was that Placer's suite of assets was not totally complementary to those of Newmont.
■ Automobiles
Mitsubishi to restructure
Troubled Japanese truckmaker Mitsubishi Fuso Truck & Bus Corp, 85 percent owned by DaimlerChrysler AG, will restructure its domestic operations and strengthen cooperation with the German-American automaker to raise efficiency and reduce costs, a report said yesterday. Fuso -- still reeling from the effects of a massive cover-up scandal -- will bring the majority of its 36 sales subsidiaries and an engineering company under its direct control next year, according to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun. The truckmaker will also transfer its sales-financing functions to DaimlerChrysler's financing unit, DaimlerChrysler Financial Services, from automaker Mitsubishi Motors Co subsidiary Auto Credit-Lease Corp, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun 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