■ MINING
Sterlite to buy Asarco
India’s metals and mining company Sterlite Industries said it has signed a deal to buy US copper mining company Asarco for US$2.6 billion. Sterlite, a subsidiary of British mining group Vedanta Resources, will acquire three open-pit copper mines, a copper smelter and a refinery among other assets, the company said in a statement on Saturday. “We are delighted to have reached agreement on this important acquisition. which is a significant milestone for our group,” Sterlite chairman Anil Agarwal said in the statement. The acquisition will make Sterlite the world’s third largest copper producer. Asarco, formerly known as American Smelting and Refining Company, is the third largest copper producer in the US. The agreement with Asarco marks the biggest takeover of a US firm by an Indian company.
■ INTERNET
Students sue Facebook
Students at the University of Ottawa have filed an official complaint against Facebook, accusing the social networking Web site of violating Canada’s privacy laws, Radio-Canada reported on Saturday. In a complaint to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, the students said the popular US-based site sends users’ personal information to third parties for advertising and marketing activities without the users’ knowledge or consent, the report on the public broadcaster said. The students, many of whom are dedicated Facebook users, filed the complaint after studying the company’s policies and business practices in their university course, Radio-Canada reported. Launched in 2004 and now claiming 70 million active users worldwide, including seven million in Canada, Facebook is the globe’s second-most popular networking site after MySpace.
■ INVESTMENT
Aldar sells dirham bonds
Aldar Properties PJSC, Abu Dhabi’s biggest developer, started marketing its first Islamic bonds in United Arab Emirates dirhams that will help pay for new projects. The five-year Ijarah sukuk will pay a profit distribution of between 1.5 percentage points and 1.75 percentage points more than the three-month Emirates interbank offered rate, Aldar said in a filing to Abu Dhabi’s stock exchange yesterday, without indicating the size of the sale. The rate was last at 1.8875 percent, data compiled by Bloomberg News showed. Aldar on May 25 said it hired eight banks including Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank PJSC, Credit Suisse Group AG and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc to help it sell dirham sukuk.
■ ELECTRONICS
Panasonic workers strike
About 1,000 workers at a Panasonic factory in northern Vietnam have gone on strike to demand higher pay to keep pace with the rising cost of living, state media reported yesterday. The workers at Panasonic Communications Vietnam Co, Ltd walked off the job on Saturday in Hanoi, the Dan Tri newspaper’s Web site reported. Consumer prices in Vietnam have climbed 25.2 percent in the past year, government figures showed. About 300 strikes have hit companies across the country in the first quarter of the year. It was unclear how much of a wage increase the Panasonic workers were demanding. The company has been paying its workers an average monthly salary of 1,050,000 dong (US$66), 50,000 dong higher than the minimum wage required by the government, the Dan Tri report 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