■Crude oil
Venezuela cuts US supply
Crude oil may extend gains, after surging above US$30 a barrel to a two-month high, as a national strike in Venezuela reduces shipments from the fourth-biggest supplier of oil to the US, analysts said. US crude-oil inventories probably fell between 1.1 million and 1.7 million barrels last week from 283.8 million barrels the previous week because of the Venezuelan strike, according to a Bloomberg survey of seven oil analysts. The American Petroleum Institute will release its report on US inventories today. "The Venezuelan troubles will be reflected in [the] API report," said Marshall Steeves, an analyst with Refco Group Ltd in New York. "There is no end in sight so in coming weeks the report will continue to show declines." Crude oil for January delivery rose as much as US$0.23, or 0.8 percent, to US$30.33 a barrel, and traded at US$30.08 at 2:33pm. Tokyo time in after-hours electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
■ Wire services
Reuters to eliminate jobs
Reuters Group Plc, the biggest publicly traded provider of financial news and information, plans an efficiency drive next year that might mean another 1,000 job losses, the Times of London reported, without citing anyone. Chief Executive Tom Glocer is likely to announce the initiative when the company announces its full-year results in February, the newspaper said. Reuters is expected to say then that, though revenue has fallen by 5 percent, profit margins have widened to 12.5 percent and costs have been cut by 8 percent, it said. Executives foresee an improvement in the second half of next year, the newspaper said.
■ Currency
Yen rises against US dollar
Japanese Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa said the government may take steps to stem the yen's gains against the dollar. "It's extraordinary that the yen has risen by Japanese Yen 5 to Japanese Yen 6 per dollar in just one week," he said at a twice-weekly news conference. "We may need to consider some warning action." In Tokyo, the yen was Japanese Yen 121.33 to the dollar at 11:22am, up from Japanese Yen 121.41 Monday in New York. The yen has risen 3.7 percent in the last eight days. He also said he wants the next Bank of Japan governor to be someone "currently working in the private sector," and dedicated to fighting four years of falling prices. Central bank governor Masaru Hayami will quit on March 19.
■ Role models
Gates and Welsh idolized
Businessmen in China have named US computer tycoon Bill Gates and former General Electric boss Jack Welsh as their top role models, a news report said yesterday. Gates garnered most votes in a poll of senior business executives in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, followed by Welsh, the Hong Kong Standard reported. The former chairman of Japan's Matsushita empire, Konesuke Matsushita, Hong Kong property tycoon Li Ka-shing and Australian media mogul Rupert Murdoch take up the remaining three places in the top five. Places six to 10 went to Intel boss Andy Grove, international financier George Soros, Liu Chuanzhi of the Hong Kong Legend Group, designer Coco Chanel and Playboy founder Hugh Hefner. The poll of 200 business leaders in China was commissioned by the Chinese-language weekly Business Watch, the Standard said.
Agencies
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