■Oil markets
Glut causes crude to fall
Crude oil fell as much as 1.3 percent as traders speculate a pledge by OPEC to cut output in June won't be enough to prevent a glut after Iraq resumed output for the first time since US-led forces invaded the country. The price fall extended a 14 percent slump last week amid concern that OPEC failed to restore confidence in its output quotas that have been flouted since January 2001. Even Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi's promise on Friday of a "significant" output cut by OPEC's top producer wasn't enough to stem the decline in prices. "The market was very disappointed with OPEC and that's why they're selling," said Tetsu Emori, a commodity strategist at Mitsui Bussan Futures Ltd in Tokyo. Crude oil for June delivery fell as much as US$0.35 to US$25.91 a barrel in after-hours electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
■ Electronics
Hitachi posts small profit
Hitachi Ltd, Japan's biggest electronics maker, posted a smaller-than-expected fourth-quarter profit and said net income will decline this fiscal year, sending its shares down as much as 6.9 percent. Tokyo-based Hitachi's net income totaled Japanese Yen 13.7 billion yen (US$114 million), or Japanese Yen 4.07 a share, in the three months ended March 31, compared with a net loss of Japanese Yen 257 billion, or Japanese Yen 77.13, a year ago. Hitachi said weaker global growth, partly because of a deadly respiratory disease and the cost of rebuilding Iraq, will make it difficult to sustain an earnings recovery this year. In Japan, it expects lower spending by individuals and corporations to continue, weighing on its earnings and those of its local peers. Sales in the fourth quarter rose 6 percent to Japanese Yen 2.35 trillion from Japanese Yen 2.22 trillion a year earlier.
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