■ SOUTH KOREA
Revised GDP growth slower
South Korea’s economic growth was slower in the third quarter than originally estimated, the central bank said yesterday, further evidence that Asia’s fourth-largest economy is being hit by the global meltdown. GDP rose 3.8 percent in the three months ended Sept. 30 compared with the same period last year, revised down from the preliminary 3.9 percent expansion announced in October, the Bank of Korea said. The bank also said that the economy expanded 0.5 percent in the third quarter from the previous three months, down from October’s estimate of 0.6 percent growth.
■AUTO PARTS
Bridgestone to cut jobs
Japan’s Bridgestone Corp, the world’s largest tiremaker by sales, will lay off 158 workers at a plant in Tennessee this month and may cease some production at the factory next year as demand for tires drops. The company is laying off 148 hourly and at least 10 salaried workers at its US plant from Dec. 21, the company said in an e-mailed statement yesterday. About 500 jobs may be eliminated if the plant stops production of passenger and light-truck tires on or before June 30, it said.
■AVIATION
Boeing union votes for deal
Boeing Co engineers and technical workers have voted to ratify new contracts, ensuring four years of labor peace at the company’s commercial airplane operations. Seventy-nine percent of members in the professional unit of the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace voted for the deal. Union spokesman Bill Dugovich says the vote was 69 percent for ratification in the technical unit. Votes were counted on Monday. The union represents about 20,000 Boeing employees in the Seattle area and 550 others in Oregon, Utah and California. The agreements were reached on Nov. 14. They include pay raises averaging 5 percent a year, higher pension payments and improved medical coverage with small cost increases for employees.
■BEVERAGES
PRC reviews Coca-Cola bid
The Chinese government is conducting an anti-monopoly review of Coca-Cola’s multibillion-dollar takeover bid for the Huiyuan Juice Group, the two companies said in a joint statement yesterday. “The application under [China’s] Anti-Monopoly Law has been submitted to the Ministry of Commerce. The approval process is progressing and we are working in full cooperation with the Ministry of Commerce,” the statement said. Coca-Cola announced in September plans to buy Hong Kong-listed Huiyuan, which controls more than 40 percent of the Chinese market for pure juice, for US$2.4 billion. If approved, it would be Coca-Cola’s largest acquisition in China and, according to analysts, the biggest ever foreign takeover of a Chinese firm.
■AVIATION
Aer Lingus rejects offer
Irish airline Aer Lingus rejected on Monday a 748 million euro (US$950 million) cash takeover offer from Ryanair, Europe’s biggest budget airline, saying it was way below its real value. “The board rejects this new offer and Aer Lingus shareholders are strongly advised to take no action in relation to the offer,” the former national carrier’s board said in a statement. “Aer Lingus remains a strong business with significant cash reserves and a robust long-term future. The board believes that the offer significantly undervalues Aer Lingus,” it added.
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