■ AVIATION
Airport operators swap shares
The state-owned company that runs Paris’ airports and Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport operator will take stakes in each other’s companies in a deal meant to make them more competitive, the French Finance Ministry said yesterday. In a statement, the ministry said the boards of both companies had approved an “industrial partnership project.” The French government will cede 8 percent of its majority stake in Aeroports de Paris (AdP) to Schiphol Group for 67 euros (US$89.94) per share, or about 530 million euros, the statement said. AdP will then obtain 8 percent of Schiphol’s capital for about 370 million euros. The French government will retain 60 percent of AdP’s capital after the deal and intends to remain the chief stakeholder, the ministry said.
■ AUTOMOBILES
Nissan cuts production
Nissan Motor Co said yesterday it would cut Japanese production of large and luxury cars meant for export to the US as demand slows in the world’s largest economy. Nissan will reduce production of its Infinity brand luxury cars and its Murano and Rogue sports utility vehicles by a total of 65,000 units between next month and March. The cuts would reduce Nissan’s total output in Japan by 4.7 percent from the 1.388 million vehicles it initially planned to produce in the year through March. Nissan is also considering cutting jobs for some of its 2,000 temporary workers at the plants, the company said.
■ SAFETY
Chinese cribs recalled
China, embroiled in a tainted milk scandal that has made thousand of babies sick, said it took product safety very seriously, especially where children were concerned, after a new report about faulty Chinese-made cribs. New York-based Delta Enterprises recalled on Monday almost 1.6 million cribs made in China, Indonesia and Taiwan after it said two babies died. It did not give details. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang (秦剛) said he had no information on the cribs but urged consumers and producers to report faulty products. The crib recall is one of the largest in US history and follows another recall of 2,000 cribs, also made in China, issued by the Consumer Product Safety Commission on Thursday.
■ RATINGS
South Korea retains A+
Fitch Ratings affirmed South Korea’s credit rating, saying the US$130 billion financial-rescue package announced this week was “sufficiently focused and affordable.” Fitch kept its A+ rating, the fifth-highest of 10 investment grades, on South Korea’s foreign currency debt. The government on Sunday pledged to guarantee US$100 billion in banks’ foreign-currency debt and said it would provide US$30 billion in US dollars to banks. The measures “are sufficiently focused and affordable to be consistent with [South] Korea’s current sovereign ratings,” Fitch said in a statement yesterday.
■ ELECTRONICS
CE sales growth halves
Consumer electronics sales are expected to grow 3.5 percent in the fourth quarter, half the growth rate for the holiday season last year, a trade industry group said on Monday. The Consumer Electonics Association (CEA) said that while consumers were expecting to spend nearly US$200 less this holiday season than last year, they plan to spend more on consumer electronics. The CEA study found that 28 percent of the total holiday budget was being allocated for consumer electronics purchases, an increase of 6 percent from last year.
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