■JAPAN
Summer bonuses plunge
Summer bonuses offered by companies have plunged a record 16.6 percent on average this year, the second straight year of decline, a survey found. The poll, released yesterday, was conducted by the Nikkei Shimbun, covering some 700 listed and major non-listed firms. Bonuses are traditionally given twice a year, in the summer and the winter. The poll showed that the average bonus this summer was ¥701,012 (US$7,579) per employee, some ¥140,000 lower than a year ago, with 78 percent of the firms saying they were cutting bonuses. More than half the firms were trimming their payouts by more than 10 percent.
■FINANCE
Nomura agrees to tie-up
Japan’s top securities firm, Nomura Holdings, agreed to an asset-management capital tie-up with Life Insurance Corp (LIC), India’s largest life insurer, a newspaper reported yesterday. Under the accord, Nomura will take a 35 percent stake in LIC Mutual Fund Asset Management Co, a LIC subsidiary, for about ¥6 billion, the Nikkei Shimbun reported. Nomura is expected to send executives and staff to LIC Mutual Fund Asset Management, which has ¥600 billion in assets under management, the newspaper said. Nomura, which began stock trading operations in India last year by taking over the business base of the collapsed Lehman Brothers, plans to start selling bonds in the country later this year.
■IRAN
Inflation down slightly
Inflation, one of the biggest economic challenges facing the country, fell slightly to 22.5 percent in the Iranian calendar month ending on June 21, the Sarmayeh newspaper said yesterday, quoting a central bank report. The figure is down from 23.6 percent the previous month. Inflation in Iran, OPEC’s second biggest oil exporter, has been witnessing a downward trend since September, when it peaked at 29 percent.
■MINING
Union rejects Vale contract
Union workers at Vale Inco’s Sudbury nickel mine in Canada rejected the company’s final contract offer and planned to go on strike, the United Steelworkers union said on Saturday. Negotiations between Vale Inco — the nickel mining and processing division of Brazil’s Companhia Vale do Rio Doce — and its union broke down this week as the two sides failed to agree on bonuses, pensions and other issues. Members of the union’s Local 6500 voted overwhelmingly to reject the company’s offer and were to launch a strike yesterday. The Local represents about 3,300 workers at the site. Eighty-five percent of the miners rejected the company’s proposal, the union said.
■NATURAL GAS
Progress on Nabucco deal
Turkey will have access to European gas under a Nabucco pipeline deal and has abandoned a demand to buy 15 percent of the gas, a major obstacle to finalizing the deal, Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said. The pipeline — connecting Turkey and a major natural gas hub in Austria — is to be built so that gas can flow in a west-east direction, as well as east-west as planned, to allow Turkey that access, he said. But Yildiz said that Turkey would have a right to take a share of the gas flowing through the pipeline. He did not specify what percentage Turkey would have a right to. Transit agreements for the EU and US-backed Nabucco pipeline are set to be signed in Ankara today.
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