■UNITED STATES
Pay czar to widen review
The pay czar of President Barack Obama’s administration is launching a review of compensation for 25 top executives at all financial firms that received federal bailout money, according to three people familiar with the plan. Kenneth Feinberg can seek to renegotiate any pay deemed not in the public’s interest but can’t forcibly recoup funds, government and banking industry officials said on Monday. Feinberg was to announce the review yesterday, the officials said.
■AUTOMOBILES
Nissan in talks with Daimler
Japan’s Nissan Motor, under the control of France’s Renault, is in talks with Germany’s Daimler to procure large engines and cooperate on the development of green cars, a report said yesterday. Renault, which has a 44.3 percent stake in the Japanese automaker, is already in partnership talks with Daimler that are likely to expand into three-way negotiations, the Nikkei business daily said.
■OIL
Cairn Energy profit slumps
Cairn Energy, the British group which recently began pumping oil in India, said yesterday that its net profit slumped 93 percent to US$24.7 million last year. Profit after tax slumped as lower energy prices dented income and on higher expenditure by the company caused by its new oil project in Rajasthan, India. The net figure beat analyst expectations of profit totalling US$6.6 million, Dow Jones Newswires said. Analysts expect oil production in India to transform Cairn Energy’s balance sheet and profitability this year, with cash flow from operations forecast to increase more than 15 times.
■PHARMACEUTICALS
US officials pull vaccine
US health officials are telling pediatricians to stop using one of two vaccines against a leading cause of diarrhea in babies — GlaxoSmithKline’s Rotarix. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) calls Monday’s move a precaution after the discovery that Rotarix doses were contaminated with bits of an apparently benign pig virus. FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg said Rotarix has been used worldwide with no signs of safety problems. Nor is the pig virus known to cause any kind of illness in people or animals. But vaccines are supposed to be sterile, so the FDA is investigating.
■MILITARY
Babcock agrees offer
Babcock International has made an agreed £1.33 billion (US$1.99 billion) offer for British defense services rival VT Group, in a deal which will create a FTSE 100-listed defense services giant. Babcock’s offer is worth 734.9 pence per share based on its closing price on Monday. Under the terms of the deal, VT shareholders will receive 361.6 pence in cash and 0.701 new Babcock shares for each share they hold. The price represents a premium of about 45 percent to VT’s closing price on Feb. 12, the day prior to the announcement by Babcock of a possible offer for VT.
■MINING
Big project faces delay
Mining giant Rio Tinto yesterday said its massive iron ore joint venture with BHP Billiton would likely be delayed because of regulatory constraints. The tie-up of the miners’ vast iron ore operations in Western Australia is expected to generate more than US$10 billion in savings but is opposed by steelmakers in Asia and Europe. Rio’s iron ore chief executive Sam Walsh said the merging of operations could be held back until late this year because of “complex and demanding” regulations.
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