■
TELECOMS
Swisscom profit falls 13%
Swisscom AG, Switzerland’s largest phone company, said second-quarter profit fell 13 percent on a provision to cancel agreements leasing parts of its fixed-line and mobile networks. Net income dropped to 412 million Swiss francs (US$380 million) from SF475 million a year earlier, the company said in a statement yesterday. Analysts predicted SF468.6 million, the average of 10 estimates compiled by Bloomberg News. Sales advanced 13 percent to SF3.06 billion. The purchase last year of 80 percent of FastWeb SpA, Italy’s second-largest fixed-line phone company, boosted Swisscom’s sales as growth slowed in Switzerland.
■TRADE
Doha may be revived: Silva
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said there was a “small chance” of reviving the failed Doha round of talks under the WTO. Silva’s office said the president called Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday as part of an effort to restart the trade talks that collapsed at the end of last month in Geneva because of disagreements between China, India and the US. Silva spoke with US and Chinese leaders during his visit to the Beijing Olympics. Based on those discussions, he told Singh he believed there was a “small chance” of reviving the talks in September.
■CASINOS
Crown completes financing
Crown Ltd, Australia’s biggest casino owner, completed a A$1 billion (US$867 million) debt refinancing to extend the maturity of its borrowings. The company agreed to a new five-year, A$600 million syndicated loan with 11 banks at an interest rate of 5.5 percent, Melbourne-based Crown said in a statement yesterday. The proceeds will be used to pay down an existing A$2.15 billion loan that was due to mature in 2010. Crown also agreed to a five-year, A$200 million facility with National Australia Ltd at an interest rate of 5.13 percent. Bank of America Corp and Royal Bank of Scotland Group arranged a US$200 million placement in the US market at an average rate of 7.57 percent.
■ENTERTAINMENT
S Korea to invest in movies
The South Korean province of Gyeonggi was to announce on Tuesday plans for a 100 billion won (US$98.5 million) fund to promote joint ventures between Hollywood producers and graphic artists based in Seoul. The investment fund seeks to reproduce the Korean-US partnerships behind movies such as The Forbidden Kingdom, Son of the Mask and Shark Bait. The government said graphic arts enterprises were burgeoning in and around Seoul — which is surrounded by Gyeonggi Province — partly helped by the wave of popularity enjoyed abroad by South Korean films and TV shows since the late 1990s.
■TRADE
Free trade zone for SADC
The 14-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC) will formally launch a free-trade zone at a summit on Saturday, South Africa said on Tuesday, hoping to boost the region’s economic muscle. The free-trade area will exempt 85 percent of trade from tariffs and aim for full liberalization by 2012. South African Trade and Industry Minister Mandisi Mpahlwa said while that was a realistic target, greater efforts were needed to develop and integrate the region. SADC first mooted the idea of a free-trade zone in 1996. Progress has been slow and some economies continue to lag behind in developing infrastructure and policies crucial for integration.
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
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
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
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