■ Telecoms
Essar hopes to buy stake
India's Essar Group has offered US$11 billion to joint venture partner Hutchison Telecommunications International Ltd for its 67 percent stake in Indian mobile telephone operator Hutchison Essar Ltd, a news report said yesterday. The Business Standard said Essar Group had valued Hutchison Essar at US$16.5 billion. Essar and Hong Kong-based Hutchison Telecom officials were not available for comment. On Thursday, the London-based Financial Times reported that Britain-based Vodafone Group PLC had approached Hutchison about buying the stake in Hutchison Essar with an offer that values the Indian mobile telephone operator at between US$17 billion and US$18 billion.
■ Stock Market
NASDAQ mourns Ford
The NASDAQ Stock Market said on Thursday it would close on Tuesday as part of a national day of mourning to mark the funeral of US President Gerald Ford. An announcement was expected shortly from the New York Stock Exchange. It was expected that the stock exchanges would close out of respect for the 38th president. Financial markets have traditionally closed for presidential funerals.
■ Banking
ABN AMRO to cut jobs
Dutch banking group ABN AMRO announced on Thursday that it planned to cut about 900 jobs in North America next year. The cuts will affect the LaSalle Bank Corporation and its subsidiaries and ABN AMRO's global businesses operating in the US, the company said. "ABN AMRO announced in its third-quarter results release that it is taking steps to lower expenses and improve the operational performance of businesses in mature markets such as the US," ABN AMRO said. "The North American staff reductions coincide with this effort." In October, the bank said it would cut 500 jobs at its headquarters in the Netherlands.
■ Unions
Strike ends on good note
A US union representing 14,000 striking workers at Goodyear tire plants across the country announced yesterday that members had ratified a new contract and ended an 86 day strike. Workers with the United Steelworkers union went on strike on Oct. 5 to protest planned plant closures. The union reached a tentative contract agreement with the Ohio-based Goodyear last Friday and workers ratified the contract in a vote late on Thursday, the union announced. "It took a strike, but we achieved a fair and equitable contract that protects quality health care for active and retired members," Steel Workers union executive vice president Ron Hoover said.
■ Transportation
Honda announces eco-car
Japanese carmaker Honda believes it can mass-produce environmentally friendly fuel-cell cars by 2018, a press report said yesterday. Honda Motor Co, Japan's third biggest vehicle maker, plans to begin leasing a pricy new hydrogen-powered fuel-cell car in Japan and the US in 2008. "By evolving a next model based on this, I think the level of technology will become very close to that of mass-produced ordinary vehicles within 10 years or so," Honda president Takeo Fukui said in an interview with Kyodo News. Fukui told Kyodo that there would be many customers who want to buy a Honda fuel-cell car if it goes on sale for US$84,114 in the general market.
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