■FINANCE
Citigroup names new head
Troubled US banking giant Citigroup on Wednesday named as its new chairman Richard Parsons, a longtime top executive at media giant Time Warner, to steer it through its most challenging period. Parsons pledged to revamp the bank as it moves to split into two business entities amid retrenchments, massive losses and a deepening global financial crisis. Parsons will succeed Win Bischoff as chairman of the board of directors, effective Feb. 23. Bischoff, with the bank since 2000, will retire later this year.
■AUTOMAKERS
Hyundai profits plunge
Hyundai Motor’s fourth-quarter profit fell sharply as the South Korean automaker absorbed increased branding expenditure while sales fell in its home market. Hyundai Motor Co earned 243.6 billion won (US$177.6 million) in the three months ended Dec. 31, down 27.9 percent from 338 billion won in net profit posted a year earlier, it said in a release yesterday. The company, which, with affiliate Kia Motors Corp, forms the fifth-largest automotive group in the world, said sales in the quarter rose 1.1 percent to 8.83 trillion won from 8.74 trillion won. For all of last year, net profit declined 13.9 percent to 1.45 trillion won, while sales gained 5.1 percent to 32.2 trillion won.
■ELECTRONICS
LG posts loss in Q4
South Korea’s LG Electronics said yesterday it swung to a loss in the fourth quarter of last year, hit by big shortfalls at its flat-screen panel unit and tougher competition. Its net loss for the period stood at 671 billion won (US$489 million) compared to a 621 billion won net profit a year earlier. Sales increased 12.2 percent to 6.59 trillion won, but the operating balance recorded a 309 billion won loss from a 154 billion won profit a year earlier.
■ENTERTAINMENT
Disney trims management
Walt Disney Co said on Wednesday that it had offered severance packages to about 600 executives at its theme parks and resorts in the US to cut costs in the economic downturn. Disney said the voluntary separation plan was made to managers earning US$100,000 or more per year in an effort “to contain costs and maximize efficiency.” “Given the continued uncertainty of the economic environment, we must manage our business even more productively,” Walt Disney Parks and Resorts spokeswoman Leslie Goodman said in a statement.
■FINANCE
Belgium helps ailing KBC
Authorities in the Flanders region of Belgium have agreed to provide struggling bank KBC with 2 billion euros (US$2.6 billion) in exchange for a non-voting stake in its capital, KBC said yesterday. “The group is further strengthening its capital base by a two-billion-euro non-dilutive core capital issue to be subscribed by the Flemish regional government,” KBC said in a statement. “In addition, a stand-by core capital facility of 1.5 billion euros is also being provided,” it said.
■MALAYSIA
No hiring of foreign workers
The government has banned the hiring of new foreign workers in the manufacturing and services sectors amid fears the economic crisis will lead to more job losses for locals, reports said yesterday. Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar told the New Straits Times there was no reason to bring in foreigners after a report found 45,000 people would be laid off over Lunar New 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
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