■TELECOMS
Ericsson receives deal
Swedish wireless equipment maker L.M. Ericsson AB says it has received a deal worth US$1.3 billion from India’s largest telecommunications operator, Bharti Airtel Ltd, to expand and upgrade its networks. Ericsson says the expansion will help Airtel to put a converged network into place and expand its coverage in rural India. The contract, announced yesterday, covers Airtel networks in 15 of 22 telecom circles and will result in better voice quality and faster data access for users.
■STOCKS
Australia approves exchange
Australia is ending its stock exchange’s monopoly and has given approval in principle to a unit of Japanese brokerage Nomura to open a second exchange in a move to spur development of the industry, the financial services minister said yesterday. Australia needs to open its share market to competition in order to develop into an Asia-Pacific financial services hub, minister Chris Bowen said. He said more competition also should cut costs for 6 million Australians who own shares directly or through pension funds.
■FRANCE
Deficit reaches 7.5% of GDP
France’s public deficit hit 7.5 percent of GDP last year, a record level and more than twice the maximum for a eurozone member, the state statistics agency INSEE said yesterday. At the same time France’s public debt rose to 1.489 trillion euros (US$2 trillion) or 77.6 percent of GDP, up from 67.5 percent in 2008 and still above the 60 percent eurozone ceiling. The ministries of the economy and of the budget pinned the blame for last year’s historic figures on the “effects of the global crisis.”
■GERMANY
Jobless rate drops to 8.5%
Official data show the unemployment rate in Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, declined to 8.5 percent last month. The unadjusted jobless rate is down from 8.7 percent in February. Federal Labor Agency chief Frank-Juergen Weise said that the labor market benefited from a traditional spring revival. The total number of people registered as unemployed was 3.568 million — down 75,000 on the month.
■APPAREL
Levi’s to focus on retail
The head of Levi Strauss & Co’s European operations said the clothing brand is stepping up its investment in retail as it sees this channel to market as key to its future growth. Levi’s, the San Francisco-based maker of the 501 jeans brand, is expanding retail operations worldwide and plans to double capital expenditure to US$166 million this year. “It [retail] is becoming an increasingly important component of our business. In Europe in particular I think we’re looking to build retail as a driver of growth,” Armin Broger, president of Levi Strauss & Co Europe, Middle East and North Africa, said on Tuesday.
■KUWAIT
S&P downgrades KIPCO
Standard and Poor’s has lowered the rating of Kuwait’s biggest private holding firm Kuwait Projects Co (KIPCO) for a second time in a week, but with a stable outlook, a statement said yesterday. S&P downgraded KIPCO’s long-term and short-term corporate credit ratings from “BBB” to “BBB-” and from A-2 to A-3, respectively. “The downgrade reflects our view that KIPCO’s financial risk profile is weakening as a result of the company depositing a relatively significant share of its cash balances at its banking subsidiaries,” S&P said.
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