■ AVIATION
Qantas strike blocks flights
A temporary strike yesterday by Qantas engineers disrupted some domestic and international flights as their union held meetings over a wage dispute. The engineers are asking for a 5 percent annual pay raise. Qantas has offered them 3 percent. To press their demand, about 100 engineers in Sydney refused to certify aircraft for four hours in the morning; about 100 more in Brisbane were striking for four hours in the evening. Their colleagues in Melbourne will strike today. Qantas prepared for the strike ahead of time by canceling some of its flights for yesterday and today.
■ FINANCE
Temasek eyes Latin America
Singapore’s state-linked investment firm Temasek Holdings will increase its focus on opportunities in Latin America with the appointment of two top executives to look after the region, the firm said. “We believe the Latin American region holds long term potential and offers attractive investment prospects,” Tow Heng Tan, Temasek’s senior managing director and chief investment officer, said in a statement on Wednesday. Tow said that the firm expected to increase its portfolio exposure in Brazil, Mexico and elsewhere in Latin America. “We will look seriously at opportunities that may arise, but we also do not seek to target any specific investment amount of capital within any given time frame,” he said.
■ FINANCE
Gallagher buys Norilsk stake
The Gallagher investment firm of billionaire Russian Alisher Usmanov plans to buy up to 10 percent of Norilsk Nickel in an asset swap with Interros, Gallagher said in a statement with Interros on Wednesday. In view of the growth potential of Norilsk, the world’s largest nickel and palladium producer, “Gallagher expresses its intention to acquire up to 10 percent of the shares in this company,” the statement said. It said that Interros could buy up to 25 percent plus one share of Usmanov’s holding company, Metalloinvest, and intended to present such a proposal to Russian anti-monopoly authorities. The two sides plan investment of US$50 billion to US$60 billion in the combined concern, the statement said.
■ VIETNAM
Fitch lowers outlook
Credit risk evaluator Fitch Ratings yesterday lowered its outlook on the country’s BB-minus sovereign rating from stable to negative, calling double-digit inflation “a serious concern.” The state-run General Statistics Office this week estimated that consumer prices shot up by 25 percent in May year-on-year in the country of 86 million, driven mainly by surging prices of food, energy and construction materials. The Fitch report said that government responses to inflation, including price controls and higher interest rates, had not produced results.
■ COMMODITIES
Food prices to stay high
Food prices will remain high over the next decade even if they fall from current records, meaning millions more risk further hardship or hunger, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization said in a report released yesterday. The report said food prices would remain high in the decade ahead. Beef and pork prices would probably stay around 20 percent higher than the last 10 years, while wheat would likely command 40 percent to 60 percent more in the 10 years ahead, in nominal terms, 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