■INTEREST RATES
Russia ends cycle of cuts
Russia left its key interest rate unchanged yesterday, signaling an end to an easing cycle of 14 interest rate cuts to help bring its economy out of the slowdown. The Bank of Russia’s board of directors left the main refinancing rate unchanged at a historic low level of 7.75 percent after its latest meeting, the bank said in a statement. It said that the decision was taken against a background of a “revival of production activity.”
■FRANCE
Public debt soars
French public debt rose sharply in the first quarter of the year to 80.3 percent of national output, an official estimate showed yesterday amid deep concern on financial markets about eurozone debt. The statistics office INSEE said in a first estimate that at the end of March the public sector debt rose by 46.5 billion euros (US$56.7 billion) from the previous quarter to 1.535.5 trillion euros.
■MANUFACTURING
S Korean output up 21.5%
South Korea’s industrial output grew year-on-year in May for the 11th straight month in another sign that the economy is rebounding fast from the global downturn, figures showed yesterday. Production in mining and manufacturing rose 21.5 percent in May from May last year, Statistics Korea said. Compared to April, output grew 2.6 percent. The manufacturing sector’s average operating rate was 82.8 percent, the highest since June 1995.
■BANKING
SMBC buying stake in India
Japanese megabank Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp (SMBC) said yesterday it would buy a stake in India’s Kotak Mahindra Bank, becoming the first Japanese bank to invest in an Indian counterpart. SMBC will take a 4.5 percent stake, or 16.4 million shares, of Kotak Mahindra for 13.66 billion rupees (US$293 million), pending shareholder and regulatory approvals. Japan’s third-largest bank, which will reportedly become the third largest shareholder in the Indian lender, said it wished to pursue new opportunities in India.
■MINING
Rio Tinto buys more Ivanhoe
Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto yesterday said it would spend US$393 million acquiring more shares in Canada’s Ivanhoe Mines to help push a landmark copper-gold project in Mongolia. Rio said it would exercise share warrants which would lift its stake in Ivanhoe shares by 7.3 percent to 29.6 percent to help keep the development of the Oyu Tolgoi mine, one of the world’s richest copper deposits, on schedule.
■TRADING
Oil broker banned for spree
The City of London watchdog has handed a five-year ban to an oil broker who made unauthorized trades that caused a spike in oil prices after a weekend of heavy drinking. Stephen Perkins was also fined £72,000 (US$110,000) for actions that cost his company, PVM Oil, more than £6 million. The Financial Services Authority (FSA) handed down the punishments on Tuesday over an incident in June last year in which Perkins drunkenly bought millions of barrels of oil, which pushed up the price of Brent crude more than US$2 to an eight-month high. “Perkins’ drunkenness does not excuse his market abuse,” said Alexander Justham, FSA’s director of markets. “Perkins has been banned because he is not a fit and proper person to be involved in regulated activities and his behavior posed a risk to the proper functioning of the market.”
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