■BANKING
HK yuan deposits soar
Hong Kong could draw as much as US$14.7 billion worth of yuan-denominated bank deposits this year, underscoring the territory’s growing dominance as an offshore center for the currency. Deposits reached 89.7 billion yuan at the end of June, according to government statistics. The total was likely to climb as high as 100 billion yuan (US$14.70 billion) by year’s end, Xinhua news agency said, citing a Hong Kong Association of Banks official. The association hoped more institutions would issue yuan-denominated bonds in the territory, Xinhua quoted the official as saying on Saturday. Hong Kong’s securities regulator has approved the territory’s first yuan-denominated fund, run by the local unit of China’s Haitong Securities Co (海通證券), in another sign of Beijing’s bid to make the yuan a major global currency. HSBC Holdings PLC plans to sell its first yuan-denominated certificates of deposit in Hong Kong starting today, according to an e-mailed statement yesterday. The six-month 2 percent notes will be available to retail and commercial investors at all HSBC branches, according to the statement. The minimum subscription amount is 50,000 yuan, the statement said.
■AUSTRALIA
David Jones offers to settle
The nation’s poshest department store has offered to settle a A$33 million (US$30.3 million) lawsuit brought over the alleged sexual harassment of a publicist by its former head, a report said yesterday. David Jones has offered Kristy Fraser-Kirk “less than a million [Australian] dollars — or about 3 percent of what she was hoping for” to settle the nation’s largest sexual harassment claim, the Sun-Herald newspaper reported. The department store was not immediately available for comment, but the Sunday Telegraph revealed that Fraser-Kirk had filed a harassment complaint against a former colleague when she worked for a police force.
■ENERGY
Linc seeks partner
Linc Energy Ltd, a clean fuel company, may seek a partner to help develop its planned A$1 billion commercial coal gas-to-liquids plant amid surging construction costs. “We don’t want a partner who will just bring money,” chief executive officer Peter Bond said yesterday in an interview on Australian Broadcasting Corp television. Brisbane-based Linc wants a partner who also can add technology and help with distribution, he said. Linc last week agreed to sell a coal asset in Australia for A$3 billion to India’s Adani Enterprises Ltd. The company has a demonstration plant in Chinchilla, Queensland state, which uses underground coal gasification and gas-to-liquids technology to produce fuels.
■ENVIRONMENT
POSCO suspension appealed
Orissa State Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has appealed to New Delhi to overturn an environmental order halting construction of a US$12 billion iron ore project by South Korea’s POSCO. Patnaik sought Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s assistance in allowing work to continue on the project, the Press Trust of India reported on Saturday. Patnaik accused the environment ministry of being guided by the recommendation of a “committee of NGOs,” adding the move could hurt the flow of foreign investment to the country. POSCO’s planned steel plant has been hailed as India’s largest foreign investment in the past 20 years.
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