■MINING
Rio Tinto to cut production
Rio Tinto Ltd said yesterday it would cut production and jobs at an Australian diamond mine because of the global economic downturn. Underground expansion work at the Argyle Diamonds mine in the state of Western Australia would be “slowed to only critical development activities,” the company said in a statement. “Given global market conditions, we will also reduce diamond production by taking an extended maintenance shutdown of the diamond processing facilities for up to three months, commencing in March,” Argyle Diamonds chief operating officer Kevin McLeish said in the statement.
■SOFTWARE
Oracle cut 500 jobs: report
Oracle Corp eliminated about 500 jobs in its North American sales and consulting businesses last Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. The Redwood Shores, California, software maker had 33,526 employees in the Americas at the end of November and 86,657 worldwide, the report said. An Oracle spokeswoman declined to comment, the paper said.
■BANKING
RBS sells PRC bank stake
Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) sold its entire stake in Bank of China (中國銀行), the third-largest lender in China, for nearly US$2.37 billion, joining a recent string of investors who have cut their holdings in Chinese banks. RBS sold its 4.3 percent stake, about 10.8 billion shares, in the Bank of China for HK$1.71 per share, representing as 7.6 percent discount over Tuesday’s closing price, a person familiar with the matter said.
■COMPUTERS
Satyam names new auditors
India’s fraud-hit Satyam Computer Services Ltd named new auditors yesterday, the first step by the government-appointed board as the company battles for survival after unveiling the country’s biggest corporate scandal. KPMG and Deloitte were appointed as the auditors, said Deepak Parekh, a senior Indian banker and part of the outsourcer’s new three-member board. Satyam’s founder and chairman Ramalinga Raju quit last week and confessed the company’s profits had been falsely inflated for years. The new audit firms replace PricewaterhouseCoopers.
■THAILAND
Bank of Thailand cuts rate
Thailand’s central bank cut its interest rate more than economists expected for a second month after inflation cooled to the slowest pace in six years and political protests sent confidence to a record low. The Bank of Thailand lowered its one-day bond repurchase rate by three-quarters of a percentage point to 2.00 percent. “We still have lots of ammunition,” Duangmanee Vongpradhip, a Bank of Thailand assistant governor, told a press briefing. “Domestic demand continued to soften, both in consumption and investment, partly as a result of fragile sentiment. We can be less aggressive now as we see fiscal measures in place.”
■ECONOMY
China overtakes Germany
China’s economy overtook Germany’s in 2007 to become the world’s third largest, underscoring the nation’s increasing economic and political clout. Its GDP expanded 13 percent from a year earlier, more than a previous estimate of 11.9 percent, to 25.731 trillion yuan (US$3.38 trillion), the statistics bureau said on its Web site yesterday. That topped Germany’s 2.424 trillion euros (US$3.32 trillion), using average exchange rates for 2007.
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