■ AUTOMOBILES
Nissan tumbles 42.8%
Japan’s Nissan Motor Co said yesterday its net profit tumbled 42.8 percent in the fiscal first quarter, hit by a stronger yen, high raw material costs and a slowing global economy. Net profit fell to ¥52.80 billion (US$489 million) in the three months to June from 92.31 billion a year earlier, a company statement said. Operating profit slid 46.1 percent to ¥79.95 billion as revenue slipped 4.1 percent to ¥2.35 trillion. “In the face of the severe operating environment, Nissan remains resilient but cautious on the outlook for our industry,” Nissan chief executive Carlos Ghosn said in the earnings statement.
■ VENTURES
CCTV, IMG announce deal
Chinese state television and IMG, the US sports marketing giant, have announced a 20-year partnership to produce and broadcast sports in China. The deal, unveiled on Thursday ahead of the Aug. 8 start of the Olympics, comes as Chinese and foreign broadcasters and promoters race to tap into China’s increasingly lucrative sports market. The new venture, CCTV-IMG Sports Management Co, will produce live sporting events and television and multimedia programming, the companies said in a statement. No financial information or details of planned sports events were released.
■ COMPUTERS
IBM to open 'cloud' centers
International Business Machines Corp (IBM) will spend about US$400 million on computing centers in Raleigh, North Carolina, and Tokyo that deliver programs to customers over the Internet. IBM, the world’s largest computer services company, now has eight “cloud” computing centers globally and plans to open five more this year, Willy Chiu, IBM’s cloud computing strategist, said on Thursday in a telephone interview. With cloud computing, third-party networks deliver services such as e-mail and business applications from remote servers, offering clients flexibility and saving them the cost of maintaining their own systems.
■ METALS
ArcelorMittal mulls bid
ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steelmaker, is considering making an offer for Alpha Natural Resources Inc to trump Cleveland-Cliffs Inc’s US$8.8 billion bid, the Financial Times reported. ArcelorMittal may also wait for the Cleveland-Cliffs offer to either fail or create a single takeover target, the newspaper said, citing unidentified people close to the companies. Acquiring Alpha Natural, the largest exporter of coking coal from the US, would help ArcelorMittal secure additional supplies of steelmaking raw materials as record prices for coal and iron ore boost costs. ArcelorMittal is increasing output of steel to feed booming economies in India, Brazil and China.
■ AUTOMOBILES
Drivers may go electric: poll
Nearly three-quarters of British motorists would consider driving an electric car, a survey has found. Whether for “green” reasons or to escape congestion charges and fuel prices, 71 percent of drivers would consider making the switch, it said yesterday. Among the sample of 1,082 motorists, 65 percent had changed their attitude toward driving because of the credit crunch and a general tightening of the nation’s purse strings. Nearly one-fifth were thinking about changing their car to one that is more fuel-efficient. “But although there is clearly a demand for electric cars, the only way for them to become a viable option is to have a sufficient infrastructure in place,” said Mike Pickard, esure’s head of risk and underwriting.
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