■ Currency
Chavez imposes controls
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez imposed a series of new foreign currency controls yesterday as his government sought to ease the economic bruising from a two-month opposition strike that failed to oust him. Chavez said currency trading -- suspended for two weeks -- would resume under a fixed exchange rate and tighter controls to shore up international reserves and the battered local bolivar currency. Chavez, who survived a coup in April, warned he could limit US currency access to private sector leaders he accuses of trying to topple him by weakening the oil-reliant economy. "We have come to the ideal decision on how to defend the Venezuelan economy," Chavez said in a national broadcast. Under the new currency mechanism, an initial exchange rate was set at 1,596/1,600 bolivars to the US dollar. The Venezuelan currency last traded at 1,853 bolivars to the dollar when the government suspended markets on Jan. 22 while it drafted the controls.
■ Online auctions
Sotheby's to end service
The auction house Sotheby's Holdings said that it would stop holding online auctions on its Web site, sothebys.ebay.com, which was built by and linked to eBay. The alliance between Sotheby's and eBay will end in May, officials said. "As our online auctions offered by our dealer associates and Sotheby's have not generated a profit for Sotheby's, we are discontinuing separate online auctions," said William F. Ruprecht, president and chief executive of Sotheby's Holdings Inc. The company plans to continue operating a Web site, officials said, to provide details on its live auctions and for other company information. The auction house said that it has lost about US$100 million on Internet operations in about three years. In June, Sotheby's started selling its fine art, antiques and other collectibles on the Web. But online sales did not meet company expectations; Sotheby's said it made about US$135 million through its eBay-affiliated site.
■ Manufacturing
Airbus awarded contract
Airbus has won a US$2.1 billion deal to sell 43 passenger planes to Indian Airlines, French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin and the airline said yesterday. While at Aero-India exposition in Bangalore, India's technology hub, Raffarin also witnessed the signing of joint production deals between two French companies and an Indian aircraft engine maker. There are 176 foreign companies vying for Indian defense and civilian deals worth billions of dollars at the show, which is India's first since allowing private investment in defense production.
■ Precious metals
Gold futures decline
Gold futures dropped for a second day after US Secretary of State Colin Powell failed to convince some members of the UN Security Council that Iraqi weapons violations justify an immediate assault. Gold futures rose almost 2.9 percent in the first two days of this week to a six-year high as speculators bet Powell's address to the UN may hasten conflict.Gold for April delivery fell as much as US$8.20, or 2.2 percent, to US$369 an ounce in after-hours electronic trading on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. It traded at US$371 at 4:15pm Sydney time after falling 0.7 percent yesterday in floor-trading.
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