■ MINING
Sterlite to buy Asarco
India’s metals and mining company Sterlite Industries said it has signed a deal to buy US copper mining company Asarco for US$2.6 billion. Sterlite, a subsidiary of British mining group Vedanta Resources, will acquire three open-pit copper mines, a copper smelter and a refinery among other assets, the company said in a statement on Saturday. “We are delighted to have reached agreement on this important acquisition. which is a significant milestone for our group,” Sterlite chairman Anil Agarwal said in the statement. The acquisition will make Sterlite the world’s third largest copper producer. Asarco, formerly known as American Smelting and Refining Company, is the third largest copper producer in the US. The agreement with Asarco marks the biggest takeover of a US firm by an Indian company.
■ INTERNET
Students sue Facebook
Students at the University of Ottawa have filed an official complaint against Facebook, accusing the social networking Web site of violating Canada’s privacy laws, Radio-Canada reported on Saturday. In a complaint to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, the students said the popular US-based site sends users’ personal information to third parties for advertising and marketing activities without the users’ knowledge or consent, the report on the public broadcaster said. The students, many of whom are dedicated Facebook users, filed the complaint after studying the company’s policies and business practices in their university course, Radio-Canada reported. Launched in 2004 and now claiming 70 million active users worldwide, including seven million in Canada, Facebook is the globe’s second-most popular networking site after MySpace.
■ INVESTMENT
Aldar sells dirham bonds
Aldar Properties PJSC, Abu Dhabi’s biggest developer, started marketing its first Islamic bonds in United Arab Emirates dirhams that will help pay for new projects. The five-year Ijarah sukuk will pay a profit distribution of between 1.5 percentage points and 1.75 percentage points more than the three-month Emirates interbank offered rate, Aldar said in a filing to Abu Dhabi’s stock exchange yesterday, without indicating the size of the sale. The rate was last at 1.8875 percent, data compiled by Bloomberg News showed. Aldar on May 25 said it hired eight banks including Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank PJSC, Credit Suisse Group AG and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc to help it sell dirham sukuk.
■ ELECTRONICS
Panasonic workers strike
About 1,000 workers at a Panasonic factory in northern Vietnam have gone on strike to demand higher pay to keep pace with the rising cost of living, state media reported yesterday. The workers at Panasonic Communications Vietnam Co, Ltd walked off the job on Saturday in Hanoi, the Dan Tri newspaper’s Web site reported. Consumer prices in Vietnam have climbed 25.2 percent in the past year, government figures showed. About 300 strikes have hit companies across the country in the first quarter of the year. It was unclear how much of a wage increase the Panasonic workers were demanding. The company has been paying its workers an average monthly salary of 1,050,000 dong (US$66), 50,000 dong higher than the minimum wage required by the government, the Dan Tri report said.
ANNOUNCEMENT: People who do not comply with the ban after a spoken warning would be reported to the police, the airport company said on Friday Taoyuan International Airport Corp on Friday announced that riding on vehicles, including scooter-suitcases (also known as “scootcases”), bicycles, scooters and skateboards, is prohibited in the airport’s terminals. Those using such vehicles should manually pull them or place them on luggage trolleys, the company said in a Facebook post. The ban intends to maintain order and protect travelers’ safety, as the airport often sees large crowds of people, it said, adding that it has stepped up publicity for the regulation, and those who do not comply after a spoken warning would be reported to the police. The company yesterday said that
QUIET START: Nearly a week after applications opened, agencies did not announce or promote the program, nor did they explain how it differed from other visitor visas Taiwan has launched a six-month “digital nomad visitor visa” program for foreign nationals from its list of visa-exempt countries who meet financial eligibility criteria and provide proof of work contracts. To apply, foreign nationals must either provide proof that they have obtained a digital nomad visa issued by another country or demonstrate earnings based on age brackets, the Bureau of Consular Affairs said. Applicants aged 20 to 29 must show they earned an annual salary of at least US$20,000 or its equivalent in one of the past two years, while those aged 30 or older must provide proof they earned US$40,000 in
NEW YEAR’S ADDRESS: ‘No matter what threats and challenges Taiwan faces, democracy is the only path,’ William Lai said, urging progress ‘without looking back’ President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday urged parties across the political divide to democratically resolve conflicts that have plagued domestic politics within Taiwan’s constitutional system. In his first New Year’s Day address since becoming president on May 20 last year, Lai touched on several issues, including economic and security challenges, but a key emphasis was on the partisan wrangling that has characterized his first seven months in office. Taiwan has transformed from authoritarianism into today’s democracy and that democracy is the future, Lai said. “No matter what threats and challenges Taiwan faces, democracy is the only path for Taiwan,” he said. “The only choice
UNITY MESSAGE: Rather than focusing on what Trump said on the campaign trail about Taiwan, Taipei should be willing to engage with the US, Pompeo said Taiwan plays a key role in Washington’s model of deterrence against China, former US secretary of state Mike Pompeo said in a speech in Taipei yesterday. During US president-elect Donald Trump’s first term, “we had developed what we believe was a pretty effective model of deterrence against adversaries who wanted to undermine the set of rules and values that the people of Taiwan and the people of the US hold dear,” Pompeo said at a forum organized by the Formosa Republican Association. “Succeeding in continuing to build this model will not solely rest at the feet of president Trump and his team,
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