■ AVIATION
Airbus spells out job cuts
European planemaker Airbus has set out details of job reductions under its Power8 restructuring plan, including 4,100 job cuts in France, French newspaper Le Monde reported on Saturday. The restructuring calls for 10,000 Europe-wide job cuts and six full or partial factory sales by 2010. The job losses are to be split between Airbus and suppliers. Airbus told employees in a works council meeting on Friday that 2,305 posts would vanish at Airbus France production sites at Toulouse, France, and 964 jobs would disappear at the company's headquarters, also in Toulouse, Le Monde reported. Hamburg, Germany will lose the biggest number of produc-tion jobs, with 2,317 posts affected, the reports said.
■ ENERGY
Zelan eyes power projects
Malaysia's Zelan Holdings is bidding for another 2 billion ringgit (US$571 million) power plant project in Indonesia as well as one in Botswana, a report said yesterday. In February, a Zelan-led consortium won a 2.12 billion ringgit project to build a coal-fired power plant in Rembang in Java, Indonesia. Zelan chief executive Albert Chang was quoted by the Edge Daily as saying that the company has tied up with China's Dongfong Electric Corp to bid for a second 600 megawatt power project at Tanjung Jati, also in Java.
■ MANUFACTURING
Hon Hai profits up 47%
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), the world's largest contract electro-nics manufacturer, said fourth-quarter profits rose 47 percent to NT$22 billion (US$661 million) from NT$15 billion a year earlier. The numbers were derived by subtracting nine-month profit reported earlier from full-year profit filed to the exchange on Saturday night. The Taipei-based company said last year's profit rose 41 percent to NT$59.86 billion, from NT$42.36 billion a year earlier. Full-year consolidated sales gained 39 percent to NT$1.32 trillion. Parent-company sales rose 28 percent for the year to NT$907.4 billion.
■ WEALTH
Steel baron Mittal tops list
Lakshmi Mittal, the owner of the world's largest steel company, increased his personal fortune by 29 percent in the last year and remained atop Britain's Sunday Times Rich List after he acquired rival Arcelor SA. Mittal, worth ?19.25 billion (US$38.5 billion), led the list for the third straight year, the London-based newspaper said yesterday. Roman Abramovich, the 40-year-old Russian oil billionaire and Chelsea soccer club owner, was second with a fortune of ?10.8 billion, unchanged from a year earlier. Third was the property owner the Duke of Westminster, worth ?7 billion. The country's 1,000 wealthiest individuals had their combined fortunes swell by 20 percent to ?360 billion, the 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
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