■PHARMACEUTICALS
Roche launches hostile bid
Swiss drugmaker Roche on Monday officially launched its US$42 billion hostile offer for Genentech Inc. As expected, Basil, Switzerland-based Roche said it would pay US$86.50 per share for all remaining publicly held shares of Genentech, developer of Avastin and other groundbreaking cancer treatments. Roche already holds a 56 percent stake in Genentech, which is based in San Francisco, California. Genentech’s board committee urged shareholders to take no action with respect to the tender offer at this time. The committee said it would take a formal position regarding the Roche offer within 10 business days and explain its position in an upcoming regulatory filing.
■ENERGY
Sanyo to build solar cell fab
Sanyo Electric Co plans to build a new solar cell plant in Japan, with the aim of doubling production to meet growing demand for clean energy. The plant, to be built in Osaka Prefecture in western Japan, is scheduled to start operations by the end of next year, Sanyo spokeswoman Kumiko Makino said yesterday. The facility will produce solar cells with a higher power generation capacity than those made at another Sanyo plant in central Japan, she said. Sanyo also plans to build a joint factory for another type of solar cell with Nippon Oil Corp, aiming to sell the cheaper products to developing countries such as China, she said.
■RETAIL
M&S admits ‘screw-up’
Marks and Spencer chairman Stuart Rose said the British retailer had made several “basic shopkeeping” mistakes in launching its first China store. Rose told the Financial Times, in an interview published yesterday, he was in Shanghai to put some urgency into efforts to solve the problems at the store, which has been dogged by poorly stocked shelves and a lack of smaller sizes since it opened in October. “We had a screw-up,” Rose said of the supply problems. The retailer’s China managing director, Richard Sweet, left the company last month, but Marks and Spencer insisted his departure had nothing to do with the Shanghai store’s difficulties, the Hong Kong-based China Retail News reported.
■AUTOMOBILES
China overtakes US
China overtook the US as the largest auto market in the world last month, data published by Chinese state media showed yesterday. A total of 735,000 automobiles were sold in China last month, state television said, citing Dong Yang, deputy director of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. By contrast, 656,976 vehicles were sold in the US, according to preliminary estimates issued last week by market research firm Autodata. However, analysts said last month was an unusual month because the Lunar New Year boosted sales in China as the US saw a post-Christmas drop.
■TRADE
EU crisis summit called
An EU crisis summit at the end of the month has been called to address the danger of protectionism, the EU’s Czech presidency said yesterday. “The presidency thinks that the biggest risk at the moment is the risk of protectionism,” Czech Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek told journalists as he arrived for a meeting with fellow EU finance ministers in Brussels. “Some of the signals are so strong that the [Czech] PM has decided to organize a summit as soon as possible, so that heads of state and governments say a clear no to protectionism,” he said.
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