■ BANKING
BOE helps Northern Rock
The Bank of England (BOE) pumped another ?4.4 billion (US$8.8 billion) into money markets yesterday amid turmoil surrounding troubled bank Northern Rock. It is offering cash-strapped financial institutions the extra funds in a bid to deal with short-term liquidity problems sparked by a global credit squeeze. It said in a statement that the cash was in addition to the ?4.4 billion pumped into money markets last Thursday. Northern Rock shares rebounded 9.99 percent early yesterday.
■ SOFTWARE
Yahoo buying Zimbra
Yahoo Inc said on Monday it would buy e-mail software maker Zimbra Inc for about US$350 million. It said Zimbra would help it expand its mail offerings and raise the Internet company's presence in businesses and universities by enabling them to host e-mail by themselves or elsewhere, while retaining their own domain names. Zimbra offers e-mail, calendar and contact management tools through an open platform that lets users tailor the features and tie them with other Web services.
■ IPR
Nintendo wants crackdown
Nintendo is demanding South Korean authorities crack down on copyright violations by companies circulating illegal copies of its games, spokesman Ken Toyoda said yesterday. Nintendo's South Korean unit filed a complaint on Monday with the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, demanding action against those who are illegally copying and selling Nintendo games on Web sites, Toyoda said. Kyoto-based Nintendo Co's portable game machine, Nintendo DS Lite, went on sale in South Korea in January, the first Nintendo machine to start selling there, Toyoda said. Nintendo DS sales in South Korea reached 270,000 units in the first four months.
■ AUTOMOBILES
Toyota mulls Japan plant
Toyota Motor Corp is looking into a plan to build a new auto assembly plant in Japan, its first plant on its home turf in nearly two decades, company president Katsuaki Watanabe said yesterday. He said the automaker was considering building a new auto plant in Japan, but he did not elaborate.
■ AVIATION
Low-cost carriers upset
Low-cost airline chiefs yesterday say they are unfairly carrying the burden of concerns about the impact of flying on the environment. "Low-cost aviation is being almost demonized, particularly in the UK," easyJet chief executive officer Andy Harrison said yesterday at the opening of the annual World Low Cost Airlines Congress in London. "We are being charged with destroying the planet." John Hanlon, secretary-general of the European Low Fares Airline Association, said that the growth of the low-cost industry had opened up air travel "from the prerogative of the wealthy few to something that everybody can contemplate."
■ CRIME
MUFG fined over lax rules
A subsidiary of Japanese megabank Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) Inc was fined US$31.6 million by US authorities for inadequate anti-money laundering measures. The Department of Justice said on its Web site that Union Bank of California (UBOC) had agreed to pay the penalty for "failing to maintain an effective anti-money laundering program."
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
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
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
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