■ Electronics
BenQ may face huge claims
BenQ Corp (明基) may face a combined 1.2 billion euros (US$1.6 billion) in claims from creditors and 504 million euros from the insolvency administrator Martin Prager, the Central News Agency reported. The report, citing Prager, said that around 4,350 creditors of bankrupt cellphone unit BenQ Mobile & Co filed the claims. Among them are 3,500 former BenQ Mobile employees. The report said BenQ Mobile's total assets are worth 300 million euros, which is far below the creditors' demand. BenQ Mobile applied for insolvency protection to a Munich court last September.
■ Electronics
Mexico factory closes
Japanese electronics maker Hitachi Ltd said yesterday it will close a factory in Mexico and shed about 4,400 jobs as part of a global overhaul of its slumping hard disk drive business. The plant in Guadalajara will be shuttered by the middle of next year and its production of HDD components shifted to an existing plant in Laguna, Philippines, the company said in a release. The change will help Hitachi save nearly US$300 million over the next five years by bringing component manufacturing closer to the company's final assembly plants in Thailand and China, Tokyo-based Hitachi said.
■ Environment
IBM pledges gas cut
IBM Corp is pledging that by 2012, it will have reduced its greenhouse gas footprint by 7 percent since 2005, primarily through energy conservation. The technology company made the vow yesterday as part of the US Environmental Protection Agency's voluntary "Climate Leaders" program, in which more than 100 firms have committed to reducing their output of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. IBM's first such pledge was a 4 percent decrease from 2002 to 2005; the company says it achieved a 6.2 percent reduction. IBM said it planned to achieve further reductions with improved energy efficiency in the offices used by its 356,000 employees worldwide.
■ Taxes
Malaysia scraps tax
Malaysia will scrap capital gains tax on property deals from April 1, the prime minister said yesterday as he announced a slew of pro-investment programs and incentives in a bid to boost the economy. Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said he hoped the decision would "inject more excitement and dynamism in both the property and financial sectors." He said the government would continue to reduce stakes in government-linked firms in which it has a high level of ownership to increase equity market liquidity.
■ Aviation
Iberia mulls merger
Spain's national carrier Iberia signaled on Wednesday it was ready to look at a merger, with consolidation of the industry expected to gather pace on prospects of an EU-US deal to open up transatlantic air travel. Although the Spanish carrier said no such alliance was under discussion it added that it would consider all options. The carrier has charged chairman Fernando Conte with making relevant information available to potential investors. A tie-up between Lufthansa and Iberia would produce an airline carrying 100 million passengers per year, compared with Air France-KLM's 70 million per year.
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