■SOUTH KOREA
Oaktree to invest
South Korea’s state pension fund said yesterday that a US investment firm has agreed in principle to invest US$3 billion in the country, a move that could ease pressure on the won. Oaktree Capital Management will invest the money, while the National Pension Service will invest an equal amount in the local currency, said Kim Moon-soo, senior investment officer at the pension fund. The fund said in a statement that Oaktree’s investment will help ease the local foreign currency shortage, which yesterday drove down the won to a 10-year low against the dollar. The pension fund, the country’s biggest institutional investor, manages more than 229 trillion won (US$168.5 billion) in funds.
■BANKING
Mitsubishi reaffirms deal
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc reiterated it is not pulling out of an agreement to invest US$9 billion in Morgan Stanley, saying it expects to close the deal on Monday, after the US firm’s stock dropped as much as 40 percent amid speculation the deal might collapse. “There is no basis for any such rumors,” Japan’s biggest bank said in a statement yesterday. The lender said it expects the agreement to be completed on the first banking day in New York and Tokyo after the end of a five-day waiting period from when it received the US Federal Reserve’s approval on Monday.
■GERMANY
MAN to sell subsidiary share
The German conglomerate MAN said on Tuesday it would sell 70 percent of its Ferrostaal subsidiary to the Abu Dhabi state-owned group International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC) for an undisclosed amount. The transaction would be retroactive to Jan. 1 this year, a MAN statement said, and finalized in the first quarter of next year, at which point the amount involved would be announced. MAN intended to conserve 30 percent of Ferrostaal, a company that supplies industrial services for the construction of factories and supplies machines, the statement said. IPIC invests in the petrochemical sector and in industries connected with it.
■AUTOMOBILES
Volvo to cut workforce
Ford-owned carmaker Volvo Cars said yesterday it will slash more than 13 percent of its work force because of falling global demand. Citing a “rapidly deteriorating market situation in the global car industry,” the Goteborg-based company said it would cut about 3,300 jobs, of which 2,000 would be blue-collar and 700 of them white-collar positions in Sweden. Another 600 jobs would be eliminated abroad and some 700 contracts with consultants would be terminated. Including staff reductions already announced in June, Volvo Cars said total layoff numbers now come to around 6,000 people worldwide, of which about 1,200 are consultants.
■ELECTRONICS
MySpace and HP team up
MySpace and Hewlett-Packard (HP) on Tuesday announced an alliance aimed at getting people to print out more of the billions of pictures digitally stored at the world’s leading social networking Web site. The US technology titans said the “strategic business relationship” will integrate HP software into MySpace, particularly in photo sections, to make it easier to print comments, messages, blogs, pictures and other content. “Sharing and storing photos online is integral to the social networking experience,” said the News Corp-owned firm’s chief executive, Chris DeWolfe.
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