■MINING
Guinea rescinds iron deal
Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto said yesterday a concession which potentially could open a massive new iron ore field in west Africa appeared to have been rescinded. In a statement issued on Friday, Rio Tinto said it received correspondence from Guinean President Lansana Conte “purporting to rescind the Simandou Mining Concession.” A company spokeswoman said yesterday that the situation had not changed since then. Simandou is said by analysts to have potential to become one of the world’s major iron ore resources. Rio Tinto said it believed it had conformed with Guinean law and would be considering the situation.
■COMMUNICATIONS
Unions postpone strike
Verizon Communications Inc and two unions representing some 65,000 of its workers agreed to “stop the clock” on contracts that were set to expire at 12:01am yesterday. One of the unions, the Communications Workers of America (CWA), said a strike had been postponed “in light of progress that has been made” in the negotiations. The CWA, which represents about 50,000 workers, said the current contracts remain in effect as talks continue. Major bargaining issues include healthcare coverage for employees and retirees, wages and union representation for new job areas.
■REAL ESTATE
Gazit-Globe acquires Meinl
Gazit-Globe Ltd said it completed its acquisition of Meinl European Land Ltd with Citigroup Inc and renamed the third-largest Austrian property developer Atrium European Real Estate. The acquisition agreement stipulates staged investment in Meinl. Gazit-Globe, an Israeli developer of commercial real estate, said in a statement to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange yesterday that it had invested 270 million euros (US$420 million) in the first stage alongside a 230 million euro investment by Citigroup. Meinl shareholders on July 16 approved the plan by Gazit- Globe and Citigroup to buy the company.
■OIL
‘No TNK-BP shares’: Kremlin
State-owned Russian gas and oil giants Gazprom and Rosneft do not intend to buy a stake in the Russian-British oil group TNK-BP currently in the grip of a shareholder conflict, a government official said on Saturday. Questioned on the matter by Interfax news agency, Kremlin economic adviser Arkadi Dvorkovich referred to comments made by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev when he was Gazprom’s No. 2. Medvedev was quoted in June last year as saying that neither Gazprom nor Rosneft, the country’s top oil producer, had any plans to buy a share in TNK-BP. “We confirm it and think that TNK-BP has a good perspective on the Russian and global market,” Dvorkovich said.
■BANKING
ABC posts Q2 loss
Arab Banking Corp (ABC), the Bahrain-based investment bank that lost millions of dollars in US subprime-related writedowns, posted a loss in the second quarter. The net loss was US$71 million in the three months ended June 30, or US$0.06 a share, compared with net income of US$73 million, or US$0.07, in the year-earlier period, the bank said yesterday in a filing to the Bahrain Stock Exchange. The first-half loss was US$658 million. “In the face of continued deterioration in market values and uncertainties as to their ultimate recoveries, ABC decided to make a clean sweep and write-down in entirety its remaining net exposures to collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) of US$134 million,” it said in the statement.
The paramount chief of a volcanic island in Vanuatu yesterday said that he was “very impressed” by a UN court’s declaration that countries must tackle climate change. Vanuatu spearheaded the legal case at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, which on Wednesday ruled that countries have a duty to protect against the threat of a warming planet. “I’m very impressed,” George Bumseng, the top chief of the Pacific archipelago’s island of Ambrym, told reporters in the capital, Port Vila. “We have been waiting for this decision for a long time because we have been victims of this climate change for
MASSIVE LOSS: If the next recall votes also fail, it would signal that the administration of President William Lai would continue to face strong resistance within the legislature The results of recall votes yesterday dealt a blow to the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) efforts to overturn the opposition-controlled legislature, as all 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers survived the recall bids. Backed by President William Lai’s (賴清德) DPP, civic groups led the recall drive, seeking to remove 31 out of 39 KMT lawmakers from the 113-seat legislature, in which the KMT and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) together hold a majority with 62 seats, while the DPP holds 51 seats. The scale of the recall elections was unprecedented, with another seven KMT lawmakers facing similar votes on Aug. 23. For a
Taiwan must invest in artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics to keep abreast of the next technological leap toward automation, Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) said at the luanch ceremony of Taiwan AI and Robots Alliance yesterday. The world is on the cusp of a new industrial revolution centered on AI and robotics, which would likely lead to a thorough transformation of human society, she told an event marking the establishment of a national AI and robotics alliance in Taipei. The arrival of the next industrial revolution could be a matter of years, she said. The pace of automation in the global economy can
All 24 lawmakers of the main opposition Chinese Nationalists Party (KMT) on Saturday survived historical nationwide recall elections, ensuring that the KMT along with Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) lawmakers will maintain opposition control of the legislature. Recall votes against all 24 KMT lawmakers as well as Hsinchu Mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) and KMT legislative caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅崐萁) failed to pass, according to Central Election Commission (CEC) figures. In only six of the 24 recall votes did the ballots cast in favor of the recall even meet the threshold of 25 percent of eligible voters needed for the recall to pass,
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