■AUTOMOTIVE
Ssangyong shuts factory
South Korea’s smallest automaker, Ssangyong Motor, said yesterday that it had temporarily shut its main factory, which has been occupied by workers striking over massive planned job cuts. “The closure was inevitable because of mounting losses, which have endangered our survival,” the company said in a statement, adding that it would ask police to evict the workers from the plant in Pyeongtaek, south of Seoul. The work stoppage began on May 21 after the company announced plans to sack 2,646 employees — 36 percent of its workforce — in what would be the country’s first mass layoffs since the onset of the global economic crisis.
■TRADE
India to ink FTA with ASEAN
India is set to sign a long-awaited free trade agreement (FTA) with ASEAN by October, news reports said yesterday. FTAs with the ASEAN nations and South Korea are on the 100-day agenda of the newly elected United Progressive Alliance government, aimed at energizing the economy, PTI news agency reported. “All the differences have been resolved and the free trade agreement would be signed either on the sidelines of [the] ASEAN trade ministers meet[ing] in August or at the ASEAN Summit in October,” a senior Commerce Ministry official was quoted as saying.
■GAMING
Nintendo to update ‘Wii Fit’
Nintendo Co plans to release an updated version of its Wii Fit game software this fall, the Nikkei Shimbun reported. The new version, Wii Fit Plus, measures body weight more precisely and has Internet connection so users can compare game data with people at remote locations, the report said, without citing anyone. Sales of Nintendo’s Wii game console have been slowing down because of the lack of hit games, the Nikkei report said.
■AVIATION
Korean Air drops price plans
Korean Air Lines Co, South Korea’s biggest air carrier, decided to postpone a planned increase in international air fares because of falling travel demand, Internet news provider MoneyToday said. Travel demand has slowed because of an economic slump and the spread of swine flu. Korean Air hasn’t yet decided when it will raise fares, MoneyToday said, citing a company official it didn’t identify. The airline had planned to raise international fares by as much as 10 percent starting on June 1. Korean Air had its sixth-straight quarterly loss in the first quarter as the global recession damped travel demand.
■ENERGY
Australia plans oil projects
Australia’s oil and gas producers propose projects valued in excess of A$200 billion (US$160 billion) that may help lead the country out of its first recession since 1991, the industry’s biggest lobby group says. Developing the projects may create 50,000 jobs, yield A$10 billion in government revenue and avoid 180 million metric tonnes of carbon emissions each year, Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association Chairman Eric Streitberg said in an e-mailed statement today. Australia provides 9 percent of global LNG supply and has the potential to grow this to 20 percent “if we get the policy settings right,” Streitberg said. “The right emissions trading scheme design will result in new business investment and many thousands of new jobs for Australians, billions of dollars in government revenue” and lower greenhouse gas pollution, 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
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