■ Manufacturing
Processing zone sealed off
Security was tightened at an industrial park near Bangladesh's capital yesterday after violence forced investors to indefinitely close down all the factories, an official and witnesses said. On Saturday, all 84 factories -- many foreign-owned -- at the industrial park in Savar were closed indefinitely as a precaution, after police used batons to disperse thousands of protesting workers. The area is 30km northwest of the capital, Dhaka. Most of the factories produce garments. Saturday's protests were the latest in a series of often-violent clashes between security forces and textile factory workers demanding better pay, one day off a week and the right to form a trade union.
■ Environment
China to increase efficiency
China is seeking overseas funds and technology to boost efficient use of existing natural resources and halt degradation of the environment as the economy grows, a government report said. China wants to strengthen its environmental protection laws, adopt economic measures to curb wastage and accelerate the development of new technology to increase the efficient use of existing resources, the State Environmental Protection Administration said on its Web site yesterday. "The country needs to actively seek foreign funding, advanced technology to raise environmental management standards," the statement said. "China needs to adopt mechanisms that will tie economic development to environmental protection." China aims to cut the amount of energy used to produce each unit of GDP by 20 percent in five years.
■ Transport
S Korea protests rail decision
The government protested against the North's recent decision to cancel a railway trial on lines joining the divided peninsula as the two sides opened economic cooperation talks, officials said. The talks, on the southern island of Jeju, were supposed to focus on an aid package designed to help North Korea's light industries, according to the unification ministry. But instead negotiations began with the South's "strong" complaint about the scrapping of a cross-border railway test run last month, the South's spokesman Kim Chun-Sik said. "We strongly expressed regret that the North had unilaterally put off the railway test run on May 25," Kim said. The South urged the North to allow the test run as early as possible, he added.
■ Mergers
Value of mergers jumps
The value of mergers and acquisitions in South Korea jumped last year as Standard Chartered Bank took control of Korea First Bank and other companies combined, the nation's trade regulatory body said yesterday. The value of corporate combinations in last year rose 19 percent to 19.2 trillion won (US$20.3 billion) from a year earlier, the Fair Trade Commission said in a statement. The average size of each deal was 42.9 billion won, up 36 percent from 2004. The antitrust watchdog said 55 percent of deals were made in the services sector, especially in the financial business, distribution, information technology and broadcasting. Among the biggest deals, Standard Chartered Bank bought Korea First Bank for 3.4 trillion won while Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction Co acquired Daewoo Heavy Industries & Machinery Ltd for 1.89 trillion won, the statement 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
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