■UNITED KINGDOM
Public borrowing increases
The British chancellor of the exchequer will announce that annual public borrowing will reach almost £175 billion (US$260 billion) over the next two years when he unveils the budget next week, the Financial Times said yesterday. The figure will represent more than 12 percent of expected national income in the next financial year and the worst deficit since the second world war, it said. As a result, public spending will jump to about 48 percent of national income next financial year — a figure not seen for 27 years. Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling is expected to lower his economic growth projections when he delivers the government’s annual budget next Wednesday, after Britain fell into in late last year.
■CRIME
Funds to be liquidated
Two Luxembourg-domiciled investment funds that had money invested with Wall Street swindler Bernard Madoff are to be wound up, the country’s financial sector watchdog said on Wednesday. A Luxembourg court has ordered the Lux Alpha and the Herald Lux funds to be liquidated and proceeds are to be divided among investors, the Financial Sector Monitoring Commission said. Lux Alpha and Herald Lux were among the biggest Luxembourg-domiciled investment funds to have entrusted money with Madoff, a former fund manager and chairman of the NASDAQ stock market. Madoff was arrested on Dec. 11 and is to be sentenced on June 16 after pleading guilty to a massive US$50 billion pyramid fraud.
■TELECOMS
AT&T seeks deal extension
US telecom giant AT&T Inc is seeking to extend until 2011 the deal with Apple making it the exclusive service provider for the iPhone in the US, the Wall Street Journal said on Wednesday. The newspaper, citing “people familiar with the matter,” said AT&T chief executive Randall Stephenson was in discussions with Apple to extend their agreement, which expires next year. The report said the iPhone has been a huge boon to AT&T, which added 4.3 million iPhone subscribers in the second half of last year alone. Stephenson said that with or without the iPhone AT&T plans to invest heavily in wireless and that two-thirds of its capital outlays in the next five years will go to wireless-network investments and acquisitions.
■FOREX
PRC, Argentina swap money
Argentina and China have finalized a deal to swap US$10.2 billion worth of their currencies and avoid using US dollars in bilateral trade. A central bank statement on Wednesday says the swap is a contingency plan to bolster liquidity amid the global financial crisis. It was China’s first such agreement in Latin America. The move aims to cut trading costs associated with currency exchanges by letting Argentine importers buy Chinese products directly in yuan — and vice versa.
■INDONESIA
Exports may drop 30 percent
The country’s exports may decline 30 percent in value this year due to the global economic crisis, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said. In terms of volume, shipments may drop by between 5 percent and 8 percent this year on lower demand for goods, Sri Mulyani told reporters in Jakarta yesterday. Separately, Trade Minister Mari Pangestu said imports may decline by as much as 12 percent. Exports tumbled 33 percent in February from a year earlier to US$7.08 billion, the country’s statistics agency said, as companies sold less at lower prices.
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