■CHINA LABOR
Honda plant workers strike
A strike has broken out at a south China factory supplying parts for Japan’s Honda Motor Co, the latest in a string of stoppages by Chinese workers demanding a bigger piece of the country’s economic wealth. The strike, at Atsumitec Co in the city of Foshan, began on Monday, with 170 workers striking after management fired about 100, a worker who declined to give his name told reporters by telephone. A Honda spokeswoman in Tokyo said the factory supplies shift levers (gear sticks) to the carmaker’s local plants.
■TELECOMS
NTT buys Dimension Data
Japanese telecom giant NTT will acquire South African information technology firm Dimension Data for £2.1 billion (US$3.2 billion), both companies said in a statement yesterday. The deal would help Japan’s top telecom operator to crack into the fast-growing African market for mobile phone and IT services. The boards of directors of both NTT and Dimension Data unanimously recommended the all-cash offer for 100 percent of the shares, the companies said.
■AUTOMAKERS
GM guarantees battery life
General Motors Co (GM) is guaranteeing the battery in its Chevrolet Volt electric car for eight years or 160,000km in an effort to inspire confidence in the new technology. The guarantee is better than warranties on GM’s conventional car engines and transmissions, which run for five years or 160,000km. The rechargeable Volt is due in showrooms in November. The vehicle can travel 65 kilometers on battery power before a small gasoline engine takes over to power the car for longer distances.
■AUTOMAKERS
VW to build new China plant
Volkswagen says it will build a new manufacturing plant in Yizheng, China which will start operating in 2013 and produce up to 300,000 vehicles a year. The automaker based in Wolfsburg, Germany, said it signed contracts to build the factory in Jiangsu Province yesterday. It says some 4,000 jobs will be created at the plant. The company says it delivered more than 950,000 vehicles in China in the first half of this year — up 45.7 percent from a year earlier.
■PHARMACEUTICALS
Novartis posts net growth
Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis yesterday posted net profit growth of 19 percent in the second quarter, prompting it to raise its revenues forecast for the full year. Net profit reached US$2.44 billion during the second quarter, up from US$2.04 billion a year ago. Net sales were also up 11 percent at US$11.7 billion. Novartis said in a statement that the company now expects its sales growth at constant currency to reach “mid to high-single digits,” while earlier it had forecasted growth of about 5 percent.
■ELECTRONICS
Sanyo Semiconductor sold
Japanese electronics maker Sanyo Electric will sell its semiconductor business to US-based ON Semiconductor for US$336 million, both companies said yesterday. The purchase of Sanyo Semiconductor will be a cash and stock transaction and is to be completed by year’s end, they said. The acquisition “is another significant step by ON Semiconductor to solidify its position as a premier global supplier of high-performance, energy efficient silicon solutions,” ON Semiconductor president and CEO Keith Jackson 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