■MINING
BHP, Rio to work with EC
Mining giants BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto said yesterday they would cooperate with European regulators probing their proposed iron ore joint venture, which has also raised concerns in China. The European Commission (EC) said on Monday it would investigate the Anglo-Australian companies’ plans to jointly produce iron ore at their West Australian Pilbara operations. “We aim to convince them of the benefits of the joint venture structure and why it will not raise competition concerns,” a BHP Billiton spokeswoman said. The EC said it had opened a formal antitrust investigation into the proposal to combine BHP and Rio’s western Australian operations to produce iron ore — a key ingredient in steel production.
■DEVELOPMENT
EBRD to boost its capital
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) plans to boost its capital by 50 percent by 2015, its president said on Monday. Thomas Mirow said he hoped the next annual EBRD meeting of shareholder countries, in Zagreb in May, would approve increasing capital from its current level of 20 billion euros (US$28 billion) to 30 billion euros. The bank, which focuses on the former Soviet bloc, also wanted to increase its annual investment from 8.5 billion euros to 9 billion euros between 2010 and 2015, Mirow said. Last week, the EBRD raised its GDP growth forecast for the former Soviet bloc countries in which it invests — which were badly hit by the economic crisis — from 2.5 percent to 3.3 percent.
■INTERNET
AOL acquires StudioNow
AOL said on Monday it paid US$36.5 million for StudioNow, a Tennessee-based firm that creates and distributes online video for companies. AOL, which recently regained its independence from media and entertainment giant Time Warner after their disastrous 2001 merger, said the stock-and-cash acquisition of StudioNow closed last week. “The integration of StudioNow into Seed.com will enable us to increase our video content [and] offerings significantly,” AOL chairman and chief executive Tim Armstrong said in a statement. Seed.com is AOL’s newly launched content management system. StudioNow, which is based in Nashville, Tennessee, and was founded in 2007, has a stable of more than 3,000 freelance filmmakers, editors and other talent. StudioNow creates content for commercial companies and syndicates it to online video channels and portals. AOL, citing eMarketer, said US online video advertising spending is projected to increase from US$734 million in 2008 to US$5.2 billion by 2014.
■ECONOMICS
Blair strikes gold with talks
Former British prime minister Tony Blair will give a number of private talks to executives at Lansdowne Partners in London, in a deal that media said could net the former leader as much as £2,000 (US$3,250) a minute. It is the latest engagement for Blair, who already works as an adviser to US investment bank JP Morgan and Zurich Insurance. Lansdowne is best known for making millions of pounds betting on the collapse of Northern Rock and the fall of Barclays amid the worst economic crisis since World War II, British media reported. The Guardian newspaper said he charges up to £180,000 for 90 minutes for his thoughts on geopolitical matters.
REMINDER: Of the 6.78 million doses of flu vaccine Taiwan purchased for this flu season, about 200,000 are still available, an official said, following Big S’ death As news broke of the death of Taiwanese actress and singer Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛), also known as Big S (大S), from severe flu complications, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and doctors yesterday urged people at high risk to get vaccinated and be alert to signs of severe illness. Hsu’s family yesterday confirmed that the actress died on a family holiday in Japan due to pneumonia during the Lunar New Year holiday. CDC Deputy Director-General Tseng Shu-hui (曾淑慧) told an impromptu news conference that hospital visits for flu-like illnesses from Jan. 19 to Jan. 25 reached 162,352 — the highest
COMBINING FORCES: The 66th Marine Brigade would support the 202nd Military Police Command in its defense of Taipei against ‘decapitation strikes,’ a source said The Marine Corps has deployed more than 100 soldiers and officers of the 66th Marine Brigade to Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) as part of an effort to bolster defenses around the capital, a source with knowledge of the matter said yesterday. Two weeks ago, a military source said that the Ministry of National Defense ordered the Marine Corps to increase soldier deployments in the Taipei area. The 66th Marine Brigade has been tasked with protecting key areas in Taipei, with the 202nd Military Police Command also continuing to defend the capital. That came after a 2017 decision by the ministry to station
TRIP TO TAIWAN: The resumption of group tours from China should be discussed between the two agencies tasked with handling cross-strait tourism, the MAC said President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday reassured China-based businesspeople that he would follow former president Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) cross-strait policy to facilitate healthy and orderly exchanges with Beijing and build a resilient economy. “As president, I have three missions. First, I will follow president Tsai’s ‘four commitments’ to ensure that the country continues to exist and survive,” Lai told participants at a Lunar New Year event in Taipei hosted by the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF). Lai said his second mission is to uphold the “four pillars of peace” by bolstering national defense, developing a growing and resilient economy, building partnerships with
‘INVESTMENT’: Rubio and Arevalo said they discussed the value of democracy, and Rubio thanked the president for Guatemala’s strong diplomatic relationship with Taiwan Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo met with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Guatemala City on Wednesday where they signed a deal for Guatemala to accept migrants deported from the US, while Rubio commended Guatemala for its support for Taiwan and said the US would do all it can to facilitate greater Taiwanese investment in Guatemala. Under the migrant agreement announced by Arevalo, the deportees would be returned to their home countries at US expense. It is the second deportation deal that Rubio has reached during a Central America trip that has been focused mainly on immigration. Arevalo said his