■TRADE
Free trade zone launched
Southern African nations said on Sunday they had launched a free-trade agreement after two decades of negotiations. The announcement came at the end of a summit of the 15-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC). It means removing tariffs on 85 percent of the goods traded among members. But import licenses, visa fees and bureaucratic delays can still make cross-border business expensive. There also are fears industries in South Africa, with the most sophisticated economy in the region, will flood neighboring markets. SADC members Angola and Congo did not immediately sign on.
■TELECOMS
Deutsche Telekom cuts back
Germany’s Deutsche Telekom, the biggest telecoms group in Europe, intends to shut nearly half its call centers in Germany, a report in the Focus news weekly said yesterday. Its CEO Rene Obermann had already told the mayors of the communities concerned about the plans that would see the elimination of thousands of jobs, the magazine said, adding that a group announcement would be made on Thursday. In a statement, Deutsche Telekom confirmed it wanted to consolidate its call centers into a smaller number of “modern and competitive” facilities, but added that there would be no outsourcing abroad. Headquartered in Bonn, Deutsche Telekom has 60 call centers with a total of 18,000 employees.
■TELECOMS
Vodafone seals Ghana deal
British mobile phone giant Vodafone said yesterday it had completed the purchase of a 70 percent stake in state-run Ghana Telecommunications. “Further to the ... approval from the Ghanaian parliament, Vodafone announces today that it has completed the acquisition of a 70 percent stake in Ghana Telecom for US$900 million,” a statement said. Last week, the Ghanaian parliament ratified the controversial sale, which the country’s opposition had argued was a sellout. The purchase, worth £483 million (US$902 million), sees the government of Ghana retain a 30 percent holding. The deal values the nation’s leading fixed-line operator at about US$1.3 billion.
■AUTOMOBILES
Hyundai wants bigger cut
Hyundai Motor Co, South Korea’s largest automaker, and affiliate Kia Motors Corp aim to almost double their global market share by 2010 after increasing overseas capacity. Hyundai and Kia aim to take 9 percent of the global auto market by 2010, up from 5.5 percent last year, the Seoul-based carmaker said in an e-mailed statement yesterday. The two automakers will be able to build more than 6 million vehicles worldwide by 2010, compared with 5.3 million this year. Chairman Chung Mong-koo plans to build factories in Russia and Brazil to meet growing demand in emerging markets, following the addition of new plants in China and India. Hyundai will open a factory in the Czech Republic later this year, while Kia’s plant in the US state of Georgia is set to start operations next year.
■RETAIL
Swiss sales disappoint
Swiss retail sales rose less than economists expected in June as higher energy and gas bills left households with less money to spend on clothing and furniture. Sales, adjusted for inflation, increased 0.7 percent from a year earlier after rising 7.4 percent the previous month, the Federal Statistics Office in Neuchatel said yesterday. Economists expected a gain of 3.3 percent in June, according to the median of five estimates in a Bloomberg News survey.
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