■TRADE
Canada, EU start FTA talks
Canadian International Trade Minister Stockwell Day and EU Trade Commissioner Catherine Ashton formally launched Canada-EU free trade talks on Wednesday. Canada and the EU announced last month their intentions to sign a broad trade agreement within two years. The EU is Canada’s second-largest export market, after the US. Last year, two-way trade in goods and services between Canada and the EU totaled US$114.6 billion, up 6.2 percent from 2007. Canada-EU free trade in aerospace, chemicals, wood products, automotive vehicles and parts, agricultural products, transportation and other sectors is forecast to increase trade by about 20 percent.
■CONSUMPTION
Luanda costliest expat city
Angola’s capital Luanda has again been rated the most expensive city in the world for expatriate workers, followed by Tokyo, Nagoya, Yokohama and Kobe, said the Cost of Living Survey by ECA International published on Wednesday. The survey, however, said Maseru in the small mountain state of Lesotho was the cheapest. Oil-rich Angola has enjoyed an unprecedented economic boom since a 27-year civil war ended in 2002, which has attracted an influx of foreign workers. The country’s war-damaged industry and poor infrastructure means the bulk of food, construction materials and other goods have to be imported, driving up costs.
■INTERNET
Craigslist ad revenue up
Advanced Interactive Media Group (AIM) is predicting that revenue at popular online classified ad Web site Craigslist will surge to US$100 million this year. San Francisco-based Craigslist does not disclose revenue figures, but AIM estimates it took in US$81 million last year and that the figure would jump more than 23 percent this year. Craigslist Web sites localized to communities around the world act, in part, as online notice boards where people can post messages on a range of topics including apartment rentals, items for sales and jobs.
■ENGINEERING
Larsen & Toubro buys stake
Larsen & Toubro Ltd, India’s biggest engineering company, sold its 11.49 percent stake in UltraTech Cement Ltd for 10.37 billion rupees (US$219 million), or 725 rupees a share. Larsen sold 14.3 million shares, UltraTech said in an exchange filing. UltraTech shares fell as much as 5.6 percent to 720.50 rupees in Mumbai and traded at 727.15 rupees, down 4.7 percent. The cement maker is 50.7 percent owned by Aditya Birla Group’s Grasim Industries Ltd, its Web site said. Mumbai-based Larsen sold the shares in blocks to local and overseas financial investors and the Aditya Birla Group didn’t participate in the sale, its CFO said.
■BANKING
Ex-financial advisers sued
Bank of America Co’s Merrill Lynch sued three of its former financial advisers in Florida over claims they engaged in an “unlawful campaign” to solicit customers to a competitor. In violation of their employment agreements, advisers Peter Weitz and Steven Weitz resigned and Eugene Morgia was fired from the firm last month. All three, based in Coral Springs, Florida, joined Fusion Analytics Investment Partners, a complaint Merrill filed yesterday in federal court in Fort Lauderdale. In violation of their employment agreements, the advisers took “confidential information of hundreds of Merrill Lynch accounts” worth US$130 million in an attempt to move the accounts to Fusion.
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