■ AUTOMOBILES
SUV factory to be closed
Sagging demand for large sport utility vehicles has forced Ford Motor Co to close a Michigan factory for nine weeks starting on Monday. The Michigan Truck Plant in Wayne, west of Detroit, makes the Lincoln Navigator and Ford Expedition. It will be idled until Aug. 25, Ford spokeswoman Angie Kozleski said on Monday. The factory employs about 1,400 hourly workers. They will be laid off but get roughly 95 percent of their pay under their contract with the United Auto Workers. Responding to the same market conditions, General Motors Corp said on Monday that it is moving up the start of a third shift at its small-car plant in Lordstown, Ohio, that makes the Chevy Cobalt and Pontiac G5.
■ PHARMACEUTICALS
Roche to invest in research
Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche announced yesterday an investment of 1.3 billion Swiss francs (US$1.25 billion) in its production and research units in Switzerland. Of the total, SF800 million has been earmarked for the company’s main factory in Basel, northern Switzerland. Roche reported a net profit of SF11.4 billion last year, a 25 percent increase on the previous year that was largely attributed to sales of the company’s cancer medication.
■ BANKING
Bank sues over investments
A US bank part-owned by billionaire Warren Buffett is suing Deutsche Bank over risky financial investments of the kind that caused the subprime crisis, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday. A Deutsche Bank spokesman contacted by the newspaper declined to comment. M&T Bank is suing Deutsche over a US$82 million investment in mortgage securities known as collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) that went sour, the paper said. M&T, in which Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway company owns 6 percent, accuses Germany’s biggest bank of fraud, it said. Money manager HBK Investments is also named in the suit. It alleges that Deutsche Bank “withheld from the ratings agencies material information about the quality and default problems” that Deutsche was experiencing with CDOs that the bank had manufactured from risky consumer loans.
■ SHIPPING
Protests interrupt exports
Export-dependent South Korea said yesterday that a strike by container truck drivers in protest at soaring fuel prices has disrupted international trade worth almost US$5 billion. The stoppage by more than 13,000 drivers, in its fifth day yesterday, has crippled major ports and inland cargo terminals where containers are stacking up. The Ministry of Knowledge Economy said the strike had affected exports worth US$2.31 billion and imports worth US$2.43 billion as of late on Monday.
■ COMMUNICATIONS
Watchdog warns of charges
Mobile phone users in Hong Kong who go online are being hit with hidden charges of up to US$1,800 a month, a consumer watchdog warned yesterday. High-tech phones that can receive e-mails and data-switch between networks sometimes lock onto paid-for wireless services without the phone owner’s knowledge, the Hong Kong Consumer Council warned. The watchdog said it had received 143 complaints about unexpected charges for Internet services between January and May and 270 last year. Bills can be particularly high in cases in which people use their mobile phones to download large data files, which phone companies charge for in terms of volume, the Consumer Council 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