■BANKING
Deutsche plans rights issue
Deutsche Bank is set to raise up to 9 billion euros (US$11.5 billion) through a rights issue to bolster its capital as global banking regulators finalize tough new rules for the industry, the Financial Times reported yesterday. Germany’s biggest bank aims to announce the offering on Monday or Tuesday, in what will be the largest rights issue by a European bank this year, the report said, citing people close to the plan. The issue will raise between 8 billion and 9 billion euros. Deutsche Bank’s current market value is 30 billion euros, according to the newspaper.
■RETAIL
Casey’s, 7-Eleven in talks
Casey’s General Stores Inc confirmed on Thursday it was in talks with 7-Eleven Inc after receiving an unsolicited buyout offer from the convenience store operator. Casey’s, which operates a chain of convenience stores in the US Midwest, said 7-Eleven offered last week to buy the company for US$40 a share in cash, or US$2.04 billion. Casey’s board of directors believes the company is worth substantially more than what Dallas-based 7-Eleven is offering, but opted to continue talks. There are more than 7,100 7-Eleven stores in the US and Canada. Casey’s, which is based in Iowa, operates 1,531 stores.
■INTERNET
Facebook tops Google in US
US Web surfers are spending more time socializing on Facebook than searching with Google, according to new data from researchers at comScore Inc. Last month, people spent a total of 41.1 million minutes on Facebook, comScore said on Thursday, about 9.9 percent of their Web-surfing minutes for the month. That just barely surpassed the 39.8 million minutes, or 9.6 percent, people spent on all of Google Inc’s sites combined, including YouTube, the free Gmail e-mail program, Google news and other content sites.
■AVIATION
Aussie-NZ alliance rejected
Australia’s competition regulator yesterday gave a thumbs down to a proposed airline alliance on flights between Australia and New Zealand. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s preliminary decision said a link between Virgin Blue and Air New Zealand was likely to reduce competition in the market. The commission said interested parties have until Sept. 24 to respond to the draft ruling. The decision comes a day after the US Department of Transportation tentatively denied Virgin Blue’s proposed joint-venture partnership with Delta Air Lines on flights between the US and Australia.
■ECONOMY
IMF to sell Bangladesh gold
The IMF on Thursday announced it would sell 10 tonnes of gold to Bangladesh, worth about US$403 million. “This transaction is part of the total sales of 403.3 metric tons approved by the executive board,” the IMF said in a statement. That decision was taken last September and was followed by the sale of 212 tonnes of gold to the Reserve Bank of India, the Bank of Mauritius, and the Central Bank of Sri Lanka.
■FINANCE
Dubai World plan approved
About 99 percent of creditor banks for Dubai’s troubled Dubai World conglomerate have agreed to its debt restructuring proposal, the company said in a statement yesterday. Dubai World “has received formal agreement from over 99 percent by value and approximately 99 percent by number of its creditor banks to its restructuring proposal,” the company 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