■ Shipping
Goldman Sachs raises offer
Associated British Ports Holdings PLC (ABP.LN) said yesterday it was backing a ?2.8 billion (US$5.1 billion) takeover bid led by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. The board of AB Ports said the latest offer of 910 pence from Goldman Sachs' consortium, Admiral Acquisitions UK Ltd, was "fair and reasonable." Goldman Sachs' previous bid was 840 pence per share, an offer which was matched by a rival group led by Australia's Macquarie Bank Ltd.
■ Telecoms
Court rejects O2 appeal
Mobile phone companies are not allowed to confiscate prepay funds belonging to their inactive customers, a German court ruled on Thursday. Phone companies in Europe's biggest market reacted with alarm to the ruling, saying it was common practice in other nations to expire credits if they had not been used up within 365 days of purchase. The state superior court in Munich was rejecting an appeal by O2, the mobile arm of Spain's Telefonica, against a lower-court judgement. Consumer groups brought the case, demanding that phone companies refund credits to customers. O2 said this was too costly.
■ Pharmaceuticals
Merck halts work on drug
German drug maker Merck KGaA said yesterday it is dropping development of a new Parkinson's disease treatment after Phase III clinical trials failed to confirm the results of previous studies. Merck said it decided "not to file for approval and not to pursue further development of the compound," known as Sarizotan, which was intended to treat advanced Parkinson's disease patients suffering from dyskinesia -- or involuntary, jerky movements. The setback comes after Merck lost out to Bayer AG in a race to acquire a drug maker Schering AG.
■ Banking
Banks warned about lending
China's banking czar has warned banks to heed calls to restrain surging lending. The comments, published yesterday in the state media, reflect China's growing nervousness over runaway investment and soaring bank lending that regulators say could lead to a financial crisis. In the first quarter of this year, new local currency loans exceeded half of the central bank's annual target of 2.5 trillion yuan (US$312 billion), despite continued efforts by regulators to curb lending. "Banks must strictly control the growth of total loans to keep the national economy's fast growth at a stable rate," the central bank-backed Financial News quoted Liu Mingkang (劉明康), chairman of the China Banking Regulatory Commission, as saying.
■ Telecoms
Ex-Nokia manager fined
A former Nokia executive was fined S$20,000 (US12,658) and ordered to pay an additional penalty after pleading guilty to accepting a free Thai holiday from a mobile phone service provider, news reports said yesterday. The case is the latest in a series involving the provider, Accord Customer Care Solutions (ACCS). Simo Tapani Railovaara, 47, previously senior manager of Nokia Asia-Pacific's repair services and customer care division, admitted accepting the trip to Phuket from former ACCS chief Victor Tan, recently convicted of fraud. With five other charges relating to bribes in the form of a refrigerator and wine cellar, the district court slapped Railovaara with a penalty amounting to S$11,486 (US7,362), the Business Times 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
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft
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