■TELECOMS
4G auction wraps up
Europe’s first auction of “fourth generation” frequencies, which promise to revolutionize what mobile phones can do, raised more than 4.3 billion euros (US$5.3 billion), German authorities said on Thursday. The auction, which began on April 12 in the western city of Mainz, wrapped up after 224 rounds of bidding and with the coveted licenses going to four sector giants, a Federal Network Agency spokesman said. Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone and O2 claimed the top licenses while E-Plus clinched lesser-value contracts. The total made from the auction marked a windfall for state coffers but fell far short of the 50 billion euros generated from the sale of third-generation UMTS licenses in 2000. The fourth generation Long Term Evolution networks are expected to be up and running soon and experts are confident that the new technology will not disappoint. The new technology will allow users to view high-definition videos on mobile phones, with their ability to transfer data at much higher speeds.
■FINANCE
Public-sector wages cut
The Spanish government says it will cut the wages of government employees in a bid to save 15.25 billion euros over two years and help reduce the nation’s deficit. Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega said the measures, which will cut civil servants’ wages by an average of 5 percent from next month, were approved by the Cabinet on Thursday. Workers earning below 949 euros a month will be exempt, but pay packets and retirement pensions will be frozen from next year, finance minister Elena Salgado said. Salgado said the spending cuts were aimed at bringing Spain’s large deficit back to the EU limit of 3 percent by 2013.
■NATURAL GAS
Mozambique signs deal
Mozambique on Thursday signed a US$100 million deal with donors to finance part of a major expansion in natural gas production. The French development agency AFD and the Development Bank of Southern Africa signed the deal with the state-owned Companhia Mocambicana de Hidrocarbonetos (CMH) in the capital Maputo. The financing will fund CMH’s 25 percent contribution to the US$400 million expansion of natural gas production in southern Inhambane Province, the company’s chairman John Kachamila said. Sasol Petroleum Temane, part of South African oil giant Sasol, owns 70 percent of the project. Started in 2004, the scheme produces 120 million gigajoules (GJ) of natural gas a year. The expansion will increase up production by more than half. Mozambique will keep 36 million GJ, while the rest will be exported. Minerals minister Esperanca Bias last year said that sales from the project earned US$230 million in 2008.
■GAMING
Casino operator expands
Las Vegas Sands Corp says it has secured US$1.75 billion in financing to build its next two phases of development in Macau. The Las Vegas-based casino company said on Thursday that the money will be used to build hotels along with casino, convention and retail space in the Cotai area of the Chinese gambling enclave. Sands chief executive Sheldon Adelson says a total of 6,000 hotel rooms will be built in phases to attract large conventions and trade shows. Adelson says the development’s first phase includes 3,700 hotel rooms and will open during the third quarter of next year. Another 2,300 hotel rooms will open in 2012. The company already owns three casino-resorts in Macau.
RETHINK? The defense ministry and Navy Command Headquarters could take over the indigenous submarine project and change its production timeline, a source said Admiral Huang Shu-kuang’s (黃曙光) resignation as head of the Indigenous Submarine Program and as a member of the National Security Council could affect the production of submarines, a source said yesterday. Huang in a statement last night said he had decided to resign due to national security concerns while expressing the hope that it would put a stop to political wrangling that only undermines the advancement of the nation’s defense capabilities. Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) yesterday said that the admiral, her older brother, felt it was time for him to step down and that he had completed what he
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
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft