■BANKING
Postbank future in balance
The German logistics group Deutsche Post could decide by the middle of this month on the future of its banking subsidiary Postbank, a press report said yesterday as sector consolidation shifted up a gear. Deutsche Post’s supervisory board is to meet on Sept. 12, the business daily Handelsblatt reported. The logistics company owns 50 percent plus one share of Postbank, but has made it known that it would like to sell the unit, which has 14.5 million clients. Commerzbank, the second biggest German bank, had said it was interested but has just announced it will buy the No. 3 Dresdner Bank in a deal worth 9.8 billion euros (US$14.2 billion).
■ENERGY
GDF Suez to buy First Light
New French energy giant GDF Suez was to announce yesterday the acquisition of US electricity producer First Light, the daily Le Figaro reported, publishing an interview with GDF Suez CEO Gerard Mestrallet. The takeover would cost 1.3 billion euros (US$1.88), or 835 euros per kilowatt, the paper said, adding that GDF Suez had won a contract for more than US$650 million for supplying energy to a number of US Defense Department sites. First Light manages 15 power stations in the US totaling 1,500 megawatts and plans an additional 500 megawatts, Mestrallet said in the interview, adding that the acquisition would give his company a “sufficient production capacity” on the other side of the Atlantic.
■BANKING
Bank welcomes convictions
The Bank of China (中國銀行), one of that nation’s top lenders, yesterday welcomed the conviction in the US of two former managers for record-setting fraud estimated at nearly US$500 million. The two, Xu Chaofan (許超凡) and Xu Guojun (許國俊), were convicted by a federal jury in Las Vegas on Friday of masterminding a plot to embezzle US$485 million, the China Daily reported, calling it the biggest case of its kind since 1949. “[The conviction] is good news,” said a Bank of China spokesman, Wang Zhaowen (王兆文). “It is still undergoing the legal process — it’s just conviction and a sentence is yet to come.”
■ELECTRONICS
Sony to sell new PSP
Sony Corp, the world’s largest maker of game consoles, will sell a new PlayStation Portable player in Japan from Oct. 16 in time for the year-end shopping season. The machine will be priced at ¥19,800 (US$183), Shawn Layden, head of the Japan business at Sony Computer Entertainment Inc, the game division, said yesterday. Tokyo-based Sony said last month it will start selling the handheld device in North America on Oct. 14 and in Europe on Oct. 15. Sony introduced a slimmer version of the PSP in September last year and is adding games for its newest PlayStation 3 machine to reduce market-share loss to Nintendo Co. “Sales of the PSP are healthy and on an upward trend,” Layden said at a briefing in Tokyo.
■TELECOMS
Alcatel appoints ex-BT man
Alcatel-Lucent said yesterday it has appointed former BT chief executive Ben Verwaayen to replace outgoing CEO Patricia Russo. The world’s largest manufacturer of fixed-line telecommunications gear also named former EADS co-CEO Philippe Camus as non-executive chairman, replacing longtime Alcatel chairman Serge Tchuruk. Verwaayen’s appointment is effective immediately, and Camus will take over as chairman on Oct. 1, Alcatel-Lucent said in a statement.
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