■RETAIL
Firm pays big for store
A company run by Hong Kong’s best-known entertainment mogul has paid a record US$108 million for a shop in one of the busiest districts, a report said yesterday. The sale of the 112.6m² outlet comes as the region’s government tries to contain soaring property costs amid fears that they are getting out of control. The price works out to about US$954,000 per square meter, making it the special administrative region’s most expensive retail space, the South China Morning Post reported, quoting an unnamed source.
■AUTOMOBILES
Spyker extends deadline
Spyker Cars, a niche automaker based in the Netherlands, is giving General Motors Co more time to consider selling it the Saab brand, keeping the fate of the Swedish automaker up in the air. Spyker had previously given GM until 5pm on Monday to consider its latest offer, but Spyker said it has extended that deadline until further notice. Spyker submitted its latest offer on Sunday, just days after talks with GM to buy Saab collapsed over unspecified issues.
■AUTOMOBILES
Ford offers early retirement
Ford Motor Co has offered buyout or retirement incentive packages to all of its 41,000 US hourly workers as it tries to further reduce its factory work force. Ford, the healthiest of Detroit’s three automakers and the only one to avoid government aid and bankruptcy protection, still has more workers than it needs to produce cars and trucks at current sales levels, company spokesman Mark Truby said.
■AUTOMOBILES
GM hires Microsoft’s Liddell
General Motors announced on Monday that outgoing Microsoft chief financial officer Chris Liddell would take charge of the automaker’s books. Liddell, who announced his departure from the software giant last month, will start work as GM’s vice chairman and chief financial officer in the new year. Liddell, 51, joined Microsoft in May 2005 after serving as CFO of International Paper Co and chief executive of New Zealand’s Carter Holt Harvey Ltd.
■MINING
Alcoa confirms joint venture
Alcoa Inc said on Monday that it and the Saudi Arabian mining company Ma’aden would invest US$10.8 billion in a joint venture to develop an aluminum industrial complex in Saudi Arabia. The complex, which will range from a bauxite mine to production facilities, will be developed in two phases with initial production expected in 2014. Ma’aden will own 60 percent of the joint venture. Alcoa will control the other 40 percent through an investment partnership in which it will own 20 percent. Alcoa and its partners will invest US$900 million over a four-year period as well as their share of the project financing.
■INTERNET
Twitter reaches profitability
Twitter has reached profitability after signing deals with Google and Microsoft to make the micro-blogging service searchable on the Internet, BusinessWeek magazine reported on Monday. BusinessWeek, which was purchased in October by financial news agency Bloomberg, said Twitter had signed a US$15 million data-mining deal with Google and a US$10 million agreement with Microsoft. “The deals were huge,” Bloomberg BusinessWeek quoted an unidentified person “familiar with the company’s finances” as saying. “With two scoops of the pen, a lot of revenue came in.”
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