■INTERNET
Yahoo layoffs expected
Yahoo is preparing a new round of layoffs and several hundred employees could be affected, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times reported late on Tuesday. The newspapers said the layoffs, which would be the first since Carol Bartz took over in January as chief executive of the Internet company, could be announced as early as next week, when Yahoo reports its quarterly earnings. Sunnyvale, California-based Yahoo cut 2,400 jobs last year and had 13,600 employees at the end of last year.
■PHARMACEUTICALS
Sanofi-Aventis to buy BiPar
Sanofi-Aventis SA has agreed to pay up to US$500 million to buy California-based BiPar Sciences to strengthen its research and development in cancer treatments, the Paris-based pharmaceutical company said yesterday. BiPar Sciences, based in Brisbane, California, is focused on research into a new cancer treatment that blocks tumor cells from repairing their own DNA, causing the cancer cells to die, Sanofi-Aventis said in a statement. The final price paid for BiPar Sciences will depend on its achieving targets related to the development of the new treatment, known as BSI-201, Sanofi-Aventis said.
■ENERGY
Petrobras discovers crude
Brazilian state-run oil company Petrobras says it has made a new deep-water discovery of light crude in the Santos Basin off the coast of Sao Paulo state. Petroleo Brasileiro SA has yet to say how many barrels of oil the new discovery may hold. The field lies about 340km offshore in pre-salt reservoirs some 5km below sea level. Petrobras said on Tuesday that the discovery was made in partnership with the Spanish oil company Repsol YPF and Britain’s BG Group PLC.
■AVIATION
All Nippon hit by strike
A 24-hour strike by pilots at All Nippon Airways (ANA) forced Japan’s No. 2 carrier to cancel or delay more than 160 domestic flights yesterday, a company spokesman said. “A total of 149 flights have been canceled, with 14 flights delayed,” affecting some 7,300 passengers, the official said, after 610 union members went on strike from 2:45am yesterday. The affected flights, mostly services to provincial cities and remote islands, account for some 18 percent of ANA’s domestic operations. No international flights were affected by the dispute.
■MINING
Rio Tinto production down
Mining giant Rio Tinto yesterday said first-quarter iron ore production fell 15 percent but predicted a recovery in Chinese steel demand in the second half of this year. Rio said reduced market demand and heavy rainfall at its Pilbara operations in Western Australian meant iron ore production dropped 15 percent compared with the same period last year. Chief executive Tom Albanese said Rio remained committed to a proposed deal with Chinalco for the Chinese state-owned firm to take a major equity stake in return for US$19.5 billion.
■RETAIL
Wal-Mart may cut PRC staff
Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, said yesterday it is restructuring its management in China, which could lead to staff cuts. “We are slashing one layer of mid-level executives off the five-layer executive structure established when we entered China 13 years ago,” said Chen Lu, a Shenzhen-based Wal-Mart spokeswoman.
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