■INTERNET
Amazon Japan must pay taxes
Japanese authorities told a sales affiliate of US retail giant Amazon.com to pay about US$119 million in tax for unreported income over a three-year period, a newspaper said yesterday. Amazon Japan and Amazon Japan Logistics are responsible for operations in Japan, but the income has been reported in the US by the company’s Seattle-based affiliate — Amazon.com International Sales, the Asahi Shimbun said. The Tokyo tax bureau reportedly judged that the company should have paid tax in Japan for the income made in the country during the three years to 2005, the daily said. Amazon has asked for the case to be negotiated between the Japanese and US tax authorities, saying the taxation was “inappropriate,” the Asahi said.
■OIL
Samsung wins refinery bid
South Korea’s major builder Samsung Engineering said yesterday it had won an order of US$2.6 billion to renovate an oil refinery in Algeria. The company said a contract was signed Saturday with Algeria’s state-run oil company Sonatrach. Under the deal Samsung Engineering will upgrade facilities at the refinery over the next three years, it said. It was the single biggest contract Samsung had received, Yonhap news agency said. “The contract also brightens the prospects for winning more orders from Sonatrach,” Samsung Engineering CEO Jeong Yeon-ju told Yonhap.
■FRANCE
Economy to shrink 3 percent
French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde said Europe’s third-largest economy would shrink 3 percent this year. Speaking at a conference at Aix en Provence, Lagarde said France’s recession had not been as bad as those elsewhere. Lagarde also said that stress tests for banks need to be standardized across borders and as transparent as possible. “I tend to prefer throwing daylight,” she said. “But transparency won’t give much, if the tests don’t allow us to compare what is happening.” As for China’s call to rethink how international foreign exchange reserves are managed, Lagarde said authorities should better coordinate currency policies.
■BOLIVIA
Nationalization plan looms
President Evo Morales on Saturday said that parts of the country’s energy and rail sectors, currently backed by foreign capital, could soon be nationalized. “It is true we have not fulfilled all our promises, we still have railways and we still have energy,” Morales said in reference to vows of nationalizing the industries. The leftist leader said the government did not have enough money to allow nationalization to take place immediately, but hinted a move in that direction might be in the offing. the nation’s electricity sector is dominated by Spanish firms Iberdrola and Red Electrica, French firm GDF Suez and the UK’s Rurelec.
■AUTOMOBILES
Porsche, Qatar outline deal
Porsche SE and Qatar have agreed on the general outlines of a deal that would give the emirate stock options equivalent to a 20 percent stake in Volkswagen AG and an investment in Porsche’s European holding company, the Euro am Sonntag reported, citing unnamed officials involved in the talks. Three more bidders are also interested in taking a stake in Porsche, rivaling investment plans by Qatar, German magazine Focus reported on Saturday. In an advance release of remarks due to be published today, Focus said without citing sources that a Chinese and a Russian sovereign wealth fund as well as a hedge fund were interested.
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