■RETAIL
Tesco profits jump 11%
Britain’s biggest retailer, Tesco, said yesterday its net profit jumped by almost 11 percent during the group’s first half to more than £1 billion (US$1.8 billion) as it beat off economic woes. Tesco said in an earnings statement that profit after tax increased 10.9 percent to £1.038 billion in the six months to Aug. 23, compared with the same period last year. The supermarket giant also said it was on track to create 30,000 jobs this year.
■INSURANCE
Alico gets fund boost
A Japanese insurer that is a unit of troubled American International Group Inc (AIG) has received ¥90.7 billion (US$872 million) in additional funds to bolster its financial strength, the company said yesterday. Alico Japan said it received the money on Monday from its US parent, American Life Insurance Co, which is part of the AIG group, after the plunge in the price of AIG shares. As a result, Alico Japan’s capital base stands at ¥328.2 billion, it said in a statement. Alico Japan has been reassuring its clients that there will be no problems with their insurance policies.
■AUTOMOBILES
Toyota adds rear airbag
Toyota has developed a rear window air bag to upgrade protection for back-seat passengers, the company said yesterday. In the event of a rear-end collision, the air bag is ejected from the roof lining above the rear window and spreads like a curtain to protect the heads of the rear passengers, Toyota Motor Corp said in a statement. Toyota said the rear window curtain-shield air bag is the world’s first. The new safety gear will debut in the “iQ” compact four-seater vehicle, to be introduced later this year, Toyota said.
■TOYS
Bratz dolls annoy Mattel
Barbie-maker Mattel Inc filed court papers asking a federal judge to block MGA Entertainment Inc from making or selling Bratz dolls. Attorneys for Mattel filed the papers on Monday in Riverside, California, just over a month after a jury awarded the company US$100 million in damages in the fight over the pouty-lipped dolls. Judge Stephen Larson will hear arguments on the injunction request on Nov. 10.
■AVIATION
Boeing deliveries delayed
Boeing Co said yesterday it would reassess its 787 Dreamliner delivery schedule for the Japanese market once an ongoing strike ends, raising concern that a prolonged production halt could further push back deliveries. Japan’s two biggest airlines — Japan Airlines Corp and All Nippon Airways — have already announced expected delays in receiving the 787 jets because of a strike by Boeing machinists that came on top of an 18-month delay in the shipment of the planes. “Frankly, we do not know when the strike will end,” Randy Tinseth, vice president of Boeing’s Commercial Airplanes division, said in Tokyo.
■AUTOMOBILES
Volvo cuts 1,400 jobs
Volvo, one of the world’s top heavy duty truck makers, said yesterday it would cut 1,400 jobs in Belgium and Sweden because of declining demand for its trucks in Europe. “The company will initiate negotiations with the unions regarding staffing level cutbacks of approximately 1,400 employees at the company’s plant in Ghent in Belgium and Gothenburg and Umeaa in Sweden,” Volvo Trucks 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
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