■REAL ESTATE
Victoria Peak prices plunge
Property prices at Hong Kong’s most prestigious location — Victoria Peak — plunged 41.4 percent in the last quarter, real estate consultant CB Richard Ellis said in a report yesterday. The percentage drop compared with the third quarter was the largest for any luxury residential areas on Hong Kong island, CB Richard Ellis said in its report. The plunge in prices at the scenic location, perched above the skyscrapers of Hong Kong and a favorite for the territory’s wealthy elite, was blamed on collapsing confidence during the economic downturn.
■BANKING
Proposal may help banks
German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Cabinet approved a draft law yesterday that would allow Berlin to nationalize stricken banks to shore up the financial system, a government source said. The bill paves the way for the government to take control of Munich-based lender Hypo Real Estate and leaves open the possibility of an expropriation of its shareholders as a last resort. Hypo has received a total of 102 billion euros (US$128.7 billion) in guarantees from the state and fellow banks, but its financial condition remains shaky.
■FINANCE
Former executive indicted
A former Morgan Stanley vice president has been indicted on charges of embezzling more than US$2.5 million from the investment bank and spending it on high-end cars, expensive vacations and other personal luxuries. Richard Garaventa Jr of Manalapan, New Jersey, pleaded not guilty on Tuesday at his arraignment in Manhattan’s state Supreme Court on 43 counts that include grand larceny, possession of stolen property and falsifying business records. Garaventa, 36, was authorized to approve checks for corporate payments from the company’s in-house accounts, the prosecutors said.
■INTERNET
Rival sues Google
A would-be challenger to Google Inc said on Tuesday it was suing the Internet search leader for alleged abuses that include illegally rigging its prices to thwart potential competitive threats. In a 38-page page complaint, TradeComet.com LLC accused Google of manipulating its system for setting ad rates to make it too expensive for a specialty search engine called SourceTool to promote itself within Google’s vast online marketing network. Google said it hadn’t reviewed the allegations as of late Tuesday.
■AUTOMOBILES
Toyota may raise output
Toyota Motor Corp will boost domestic production in May after deep cuts in recent months to reduce a stockpile of cars left by the global economic crisis, an official said yesterday. Toyota, the world’s biggest automaker, plans “slightly higher” output in May because it has managed to reduce its inventories and also has new vehicle launches coming up, a company spokesman said.
■METALS
Xiao may join Cabinet
The general manager of China’s biggest aluminum producer has been named to a Cabinet post, news reports said yesterday, a week after his company helped secure access to foreign resources with a US$19.5 billion investment in miner Rio Tinto Group. The reported appointment of Xiao Yaqing (肖亞慶) of Aluminum Corp of China (中國鋁業) as the Cabinet deputy secretary-general reflects the close ties between the communist government and the nation’s major firms. The Cabinet press office did not immediately confirm the report.
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