■INTERNET
AOL independent again
AOL is becoming an independent Internet company again. With the company’s spinoff from Time Warner Inc complete, AOL’s stock was set to officially begin trading yesterday. AOL chief executive officer Tim Armstrong planned to ring the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange. AOL’s dial-up Internet access business has just one-fifth as many subscribers as it had at its peak in 2002. Now the company is trying to boost its fading profitability with a portfolio of Web sites supported by advertising revenue.
■ELECTRONICS
Panasonic gets Sanyo stake
Panasonic Corp announced yesterday it had secured a controlling stake in smaller rival Sanyo Electric Co in a US$4.6 billion takeover that revamps Japan’s troubled electronics industry. The deal gives Panasonic Sanyo’s coveted environmental technologies such as rechargeable batteries — seen as a promising sector given growing concerns about global warming. Panasonic said it would buy a stake of 50.19 percent in Sanyo for ¥403.78 billion (US$4.59 billion), successfully wrapping up a tender offer of ¥131 per share that was launched last month. Sanyo is now set to become a subsidiary of Panasonic, creating Japan’s No. 2 electronics maker, behind Hitachi Ltd.
■STEEL
China fines US, Russia
China said yesterday it would impose penalties on steel imported from the US and Russia, claiming the countries were allowing their products to be sold at cut prices. The preliminary ruling requires importers of grain-oriented electrical steel, which is widely used in the power industry, to pay deposits from today, the commerce ministry said in a statement on its Web site. “The domestic grain-oriented electrical steel industry suffered material damages” because of the dumping, the statement said following an investigation. Companies will have to pay a deposit based on the difference — up to 25 percent — between the normal value of the steel and the cut price, the ministry said.
■MEDIA
Axel Media spreads online
Germany’s Axel Springer on Wednesday became the latest media giant to announce moves to try to make more money online after years of the Internet eating away at their revenues. Springer, active in 35 countries with more than 170 newspaper and magazine titles, announced the launch of iPhone applications with monthly subscription fees for its two biggest national German newspapers, Bild and Die Welt. The company also plans to have readers pay for local content on the Web sites of two of its regional papers, Hamburger Abendblatt and Berliner Morgenpost, a spokesman said. Further details were due next week.
■MOTORCYCLES
Harley recalls tour bikes
Harley-Davidson Inc, the biggest US motorcycle maker, is recalling 111,569 touring cycles to reinforce front fuel-tank mounts, which can distort in crashes and cause fuel leaks and fires. The voluntary US recall affects certain models of Touring family motorcycles from this year and next year, including CVO touring and Trike products, Harley said in a letter posted on the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Web site. Harley said it hasn’t received any reports of fires, injuries or deaths caused by the defect. It said it crash-tested a 2010 bike in May, and found the bike did not meet its requirements for fuel containment. Owners will be notified by next week, the company said in the letter.
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