■ FINANCE
Standard opens in Jiangxi
Standard Chartered Plc, which runs 13 branches in China, will be the first foreign lender to open an outlet in Nanchang City, Jiangxi Province, the state-run Xinhua news agency said. The branch was approved by the nation's banking regulator this month and will be the London-based bank's first in the central part of the country, Xinhua said. Standard Charted incorporated operations in China last March before receiving a license for local-currency business.
■ JAPAN
Former minister speaks out
Former economy minister Heizo Takenaka said the country needs "strong" measures to revitalize its economy. Possible steps may include reducing corporate taxes and extending operations around the clock at Tokyo's Haneda Airport, Takenaka said on a news program broadcast by TV Asahi. He did not elaborate. The former minister also said he expected the US to inject public funds to ease the impact of the subprime crisis. "Sooner or later, the US will take this measure," Takenaka said.
■ AUTOMOBILES
Hyundai wins Qatar project
Hyundai Engineering & Construction Co, South Korea's largest builder by market value, received US$301 million of orders from Qatar to build power-generation facilities. Qatar General Electricity & Water Corp placed a US$201 million order for a transformer substation, Hyundai Engineering said in a statement yesterday. Hyundai Engineering also won a US$100 million power cabling contract from the company, also known as Kahramaa. The substation will take 30 months, while the cabling contract will be completed in 23 months, it said.
■ TRADE
Peru, China reach deal
Peru and China have agreed to boost trade and investment between their countries ahead of a free trade deal planned for November, Peruvian President Alan Garcia said. The countries, whose trade balance reached US$5.3 billion last year, will in coming months sign a preliminary partnership to increase commerce more than fourfold by 2015, Garcia told local media on Friday night, after a six-day visit to China and Japan. They plan to ink a formal trade deal during the annual APEC forum, to be held in Peru in November, Garcia said, giving no details on tariff reductions or other preferential terms of trade. China is Peru's second-largest commercial partner after the US.
■ TELECOMS
DoCoMo eyeing Android
NTT DoCoMo Inc may start employing a mobile phone-operating system developed by Google Inc by 2010, the Yomiuri Shimbun said. The move would allow DoCoMo to simplify the platform software for mobile phones and gain better access to growing markets in other Asian countries, the report said, without saying where it obtained the information. The operating system, known as Android, was developed by Google and a group known as the Open Handset Alliance. DoCoMo previously developed a mobile phone operating system for domestic customers in Japan, the report said. Some Japanese mobile-phone handset makers have withdrawn their businesses because of shrinking demand at home, it 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
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