■ Aviation
FBI raids ANA office
The FBI raided the North American headquarters of All Nippon Airways (ANA), halting the Japanese carrier's ticket reservations for the region for several hours, a company spokeswoman said yesterday. Law enforcement agents searched the office in Los Angeles on Thursday but ANA "doesn't know the reason as the FBI's warrant for the raid did not state what kind of suspicions they have," she said. The US government said in February of last year that it was investigating possible price fixing by the air cargo industry in a joint probe with EU authorities. But ANA said it was unclear whether the search of its Los Angeles office was connected with the air cargo probe.
■ Currencies
Thai baht keeps rising
The Thai baht continued to hit new nine-year highs against the US dollar yesterday on sustained speculation that the government would soon end controversial currency rules, dealers said. The baht was quoted at 34.92-94 to the US dollar in late morning trading after breaking the 35 barrier on Thursday when the unit closed at 34.98-35.01. Last December the central bank introduced stringent currency rules aimed at halting gains in the baht, which has soared nearly 12 percent over the past year. The central bank and finance ministry have repeatedly said the government would keep the currency measures to rein in the rising baht, but dealers said market players believed the opposite.
■ Economy
No spillover: Greenspan
The troubles plaguing lenders of risky mortgages are not likely to spill over into the broader economy unless housing prices see another substantial dip, former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan said on Thursday. "I think it's important to recognize that what we're dealing with ... is more an issue of house prices than it is mortgage credit," Greenspan said at a Futures Industry Association conference in Boca Raton, Florida. Greenspan said that as home prices dipped, "sub-prime borrowers have not been able to build up enough equity." If home prices drop in a year, he said that could cause the problems to "spill over into other areas," At the moment, "we're not seeing this," he said.
■ Automobiles
Hyundai, Infineon team up
Hyundai Motor Co has formed a partnership with German chipmaker Infineon Technologies AG to jointly develop automotive electronics, South Korea's largest automaker said yesterday. Under the agreement, the two sides opened a joint research center at Hyundai's headquarters in Seoul to develop electronics parts for cars that Hyundai and its affiliate Kia Motors produce, the company said in a statement. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed. The two firms expect their first jointly developed products to be used in Hyundai and Kia cars starting 2010, it said.
■ Steel
Krakow center planned
Steel giant Arcelor Mittal said yesterday it planned to build a new service center in the Polish city of Krakow as part of an expansion in central and eastern Europe. In a statement the company said the new center would have a processing capacity of 450,000 tonnes a year and would start operating late this year. Separately, the firm said it had signed a US$300 million deal with the US' Noble International Ltd to combine their laser-welded tailored blanks business.
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