■ War fallout
US companies lose sales
Northwest Airlines Corp, Walt Disney Co and General Motors Corp are among hundreds of US companies feeling the effects of the six-day-old war on Iraq as consumers rein in spending and airlines cut flights. Northwest will eliminate 4,900 jobs, and analysts said every large carrier could go bankrupt in a war longer than a few weeks. Terrorism fears are keeping some people away from Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. Analysts project a 9.4 percent decline in US car sales this month, twice that in January and February. The lost sales threaten an already fragile quarter. Analysts predict first-quarter earnings for companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 Index will rise 8.1 percent, half the forecast in October, according to Thomson Financial. More companies could cut profit estimates than at any time since the terrorist attacks of September 2001, said Chuck Hill, Thomson's research director.
■ Economy
France feels war impact
France's finance minister said Sunday that he believes the worst French economic fallout from the war in Iraq had already taken place. "In the last year, or rather in the last six months, I think the Iraqi events have already created negative consequences that France regrets now," Francis Mer told LCI television and RTL radio. "I'm not saying that to deny the intensity of the Iraqi problems, but the main part of the negative consequences from the Iraqi crisis is behind us," he said. According to a survey by the IFOP agency published Sunday in the French newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche, 46 percent of French people worry the war will aggravate economic and other problems in France. The French unemployment rate held steady at 9.1 percent in January, the most recent figures released. Consumption fell 0.2 percent that month, suggesting that the French economy got off to a weak start this year.
■ Banking
China faces NPL dilemma
Chinese regulators are unlikely to take decisive steps this year to reduce the banking sector's mountain of non-performing loans, even though they recognize the potentially disastrous consequences of ignoring the problem, state media said yesterday. The People's Bank of China, the country's central bank, has not yet done a feasibility study on how to reduce the non-performing loans, Xinhua news agency said, citing Wang Yu, a PBOC official. "So it is not likely that China will put the policies in place within the year," Wang reportedly said. China's banks have a tight timetable to prepare themselves for the onslaught of foreign competition.
■ Energy
ExxonMobil finds gas
Energy giant ExxonMobil said yesterday it had made what it believes to be the largest gas discovery in Australian waters. ExxonMobil Corp said its Jansz gas field off Western Australia state holds around 6.1 trillion cubic meters of recoverable and saleable gas. "ExxonMobil believes this to be the largest gas discovery ever to have been made in Australian waters," Australian exploration director Dough Schwebel said in a statement. "Jansz now represents around 40 percent of the undeveloped discovered gas resources in the deepwater Carnarvon Basin." The field covers 2,000km2. Production tests are scheduled for mid-year. ExxonMobil is the operator of the field under a venture with ChevronTexaco.
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