■MINING
BHP, Rio to work with EC
Mining giants BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto said yesterday they would cooperate with European regulators probing their proposed iron ore joint venture, which has also raised concerns in China. The European Commission (EC) said on Monday it would investigate the Anglo-Australian companies’ plans to jointly produce iron ore at their West Australian Pilbara operations. “We aim to convince them of the benefits of the joint venture structure and why it will not raise competition concerns,” a BHP Billiton spokeswoman said. The EC said it had opened a formal antitrust investigation into the proposal to combine BHP and Rio’s western Australian operations to produce iron ore — a key ingredient in steel production.
■DEVELOPMENT
EBRD to boost its capital
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) plans to boost its capital by 50 percent by 2015, its president said on Monday. Thomas Mirow said he hoped the next annual EBRD meeting of shareholder countries, in Zagreb in May, would approve increasing capital from its current level of 20 billion euros (US$28 billion) to 30 billion euros. The bank, which focuses on the former Soviet bloc, also wanted to increase its annual investment from 8.5 billion euros to 9 billion euros between 2010 and 2015, Mirow said. Last week, the EBRD raised its GDP growth forecast for the former Soviet bloc countries in which it invests — which were badly hit by the economic crisis — from 2.5 percent to 3.3 percent.
■INTERNET
AOL acquires StudioNow
AOL said on Monday it paid US$36.5 million for StudioNow, a Tennessee-based firm that creates and distributes online video for companies. AOL, which recently regained its independence from media and entertainment giant Time Warner after their disastrous 2001 merger, said the stock-and-cash acquisition of StudioNow closed last week. “The integration of StudioNow into Seed.com will enable us to increase our video content [and] offerings significantly,” AOL chairman and chief executive Tim Armstrong said in a statement. Seed.com is AOL’s newly launched content management system. StudioNow, which is based in Nashville, Tennessee, and was founded in 2007, has a stable of more than 3,000 freelance filmmakers, editors and other talent. StudioNow creates content for commercial companies and syndicates it to online video channels and portals. AOL, citing eMarketer, said US online video advertising spending is projected to increase from US$734 million in 2008 to US$5.2 billion by 2014.
■ECONOMICS
Blair strikes gold with talks
Former British prime minister Tony Blair will give a number of private talks to executives at Lansdowne Partners in London, in a deal that media said could net the former leader as much as £2,000 (US$3,250) a minute. It is the latest engagement for Blair, who already works as an adviser to US investment bank JP Morgan and Zurich Insurance. Lansdowne is best known for making millions of pounds betting on the collapse of Northern Rock and the fall of Barclays amid the worst economic crisis since World War II, British media reported. The Guardian newspaper said he charges up to £180,000 for 90 minutes for his thoughts on geopolitical matters.
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