■BANKING
UBS to cut 240 jobs
Switzerland’s biggest bank UBS said yesterday that 240 jobs would be cut from its wealth management division in the Asia-Pacific region as part of a cost reduction exercise. Despite the job losses, the region remains important for the company, UBS said in a statement from its Singapore office. The job cuts represent less than three percent of the bank’s total staff force in the region and under eight percent of its employees in the wealth management group, a UBS spokeswoman said. She said the job cuts extend across all levels within the wealth management group.
■TIRES
Alabama plant to close
The US subsidiary of French tire maker Michelin said on Monday it will shut a US plant in Alabama, where it employs 1,000 people, due to an “unprecedented” slump in demand. Michelin North America said the closure of the plant in Opelika, Alabama, by Oct. 31 was part of a restructuring plan for its manufacturing operations “in response to the unprecedented drop in market demand.” “The decision comes in the wake of the continuing economic crisis as consumers are driving fewer miles, purchasing fewer vehicles and delaying tire replacement purchases,” the company said in a statement.
■BANKING
Fortis reports loss
Fortis Bank, the former Belgian banking arm of stricken financial group Fortis, yesterday reported a loss of 20.6 billion euros (US$27.5 billion) for last year owing to the group’s break-up and losses on toxic assets. The bulk of the loss, which was roughly in line with a previous estimate, came from the “negative impact of 12.5 billion euros” relating to the parent company’s carve-up by the Dutch, Belgian and Luxembourg states. As part of a bailout of the group, Belgium took over Fortis Bank and is now in the process of selling a 75 percent stake to French banking group BNP Paribas. Shareholders in Fortis Holding are to vote on the sale of Fortis Bank to BNP on April 28 and April 29.
■OIL
Shell talking to Chinese firms
Royal Dutch Shell is talking to Chinese oil companies about a possible bid to develop oil fields in Iraq, CEO Jeroen van der Veer said yesterday. “We are in the process of forming partnerships for certain bids, and Chinese companies are a part of that,” van der Veer said. He declined to say which potential partners Shell is talking to, or which fields they might bid on. Van der Veer said the deadline for bids is expected to be in late June or early July and details on partnerships would be announced then.
■COMMUNICATIONS
Mobile data use soars
People in Hong Kong people sent 14 times as much mobile data in January than they did in the same month two years ago, figures released yesterday revealed. The rise in the sending of mobile data from phones and hand-held computers also represented a four-fold increase on the figure from January last year, the territory’s telecommunications authority said. Figures from the authority show that there were 10.5 million mobile phone subscriptions in Hong Kong in January, equivalent to 1.5 subscriptions for every person in the former British colony. Every mobile phone customer sent an average of 41 SMS messages in January while the total number of SMS messages sent was 421.5 million, a 22 percent year-on-year rise.
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