■ECONOMY
Stiglitz issues warning
Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz said there is a “significant” chance that the US economy will contract in the second half of next year and urged the government to prepare a second stimulus package to spur job creation. “The likelihood of this slowdown is very, very high,” Stiglitz told reporters in Singapore. Stiglitz, a professor at Columbia University, called on Washington to make more funds available to state governments that face a drop in tax revenue. The US economy, the world’s largest, must grow at least 3 percent to create enough jobs for new entrants into the labor force, he said.
■CONSTRUCTION
Terex sells mining business
Terex Corp, the world’s third-biggest maker of construction equipment, agreed to sell its mining business to Bucyrus International Inc for US$1.3 billion in cash after a slump in demand drove losses this year. The purchase is expected to be completed the purchase in the first quarter of next year, the South Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based company said in a statement yesterday. It estimates it can cut operating costs by more than US$100 million a year by 2012. Bucyrus said the acquisition will double its addressable market to more than US$30 billion. Terex in October reported its fourth straight quarterly loss as the global recession slowed demand for construction and mining equipment. Terex fell 0.6 percent to US$19.21 on Friday on the New York Stock Exchange. Bucyrus fell 2.7 percent. Terex may request to get US$300 million of the purchase price in shares, Bucyrus said.
■ELECTRONICS
LG unveils thinnest TV
South Korea’s LG Display said yesterday it had developed the world’s thinnest LCD TV panel, measuring 2.6mm. The company, the world’s second largest maker of liquid-crystal displays (LCDs), said the panel uses an ultra-slim, edge-lit light emitting diode backlight system and proprietary optical film technology. It said in a statement the 42-inch panel weighs less than 4kg, making it ideal for wall-mounted TVs.
■SECURITIES
Mizuho, Maybank tie up
Mizuho Securities Co announced yesterday a business tie-up with Malaysian Maybank Investment Bank Berhad targeting corporate clients, part of a push by Japanese banks to expand abroad. The deal is Mizuho’s first alliance with a Southeast Asian partner, a company spokesman said, adding that their joint operation has already begun. The two companies will team up to provide corporate clients with advisory and other information related to merger and acquisition as well as fundraising. “Under the new cooperation, the two companies can jointly offer business advice to our Japanese and other clients operating in Malaysia,” said the spokesman for Mizuho Securities, part of Japan’s No. 2 banking group, Mizuho Financial.
■OIL
Prices agreeable to OPEC
OPEC is comfortable with current oil prices and will maintain output levels, Angolan Oil Minister and the group’s president, Jose Maria Botelho de Vasconcelos, told state radio station Radio Nacionale de Angola. Everything indicates that we will maintain the present situation” when OPEC ministers meet today, he said. OPEC, supplying about 40 percent of the world’s oil, is meeting in the Angolan capital Luanda amid expectations that crude demand will rebound next year after a two-year slump as the global economy mends.
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
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
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
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