■Petroleum
Prices firm despite blasts
Oil prices were modestly firmer yesterday in Asian trading with sentiment still shaken by the bomb attacks in Saudi Arabia, dealers said. In morning trade, US light sweet crude for June delivery traded at US$28.53 a barrel, up slightly from its close of US$28.50 in New York on Tuesday. The suicide car bombings in the Saudi capital of Riyadh on Monday killed at least 29 people and have triggered concerns of disruptions to oil supplies from the world's leading crude producer. However, such worries are unfounded, dealers said. "The attacks in Saudi have not disrupted oil supplies ... Prices are too high given the prevailing weak oil demand," said a dealer with a regional trading firm.
■ Fiscal policy
Japan's surplus shrinks
Japan's current account surplus shrank 26.6 percent in March, reversing an expansion the previous month after a strong yen slowed export growth, the Finance Ministry said yesterday. The surplus was Japanese Yen 1.601 trillion (US$13.7 billion) before seasonal adjustments, the ministry said. The figures reflected a slowdown in exports -- and a smaller merchandise trade surplus -- as the rising yen made Japanese products more expensive in overseas markets. For the entire fiscal year ended in March, the current account surplus expanded 12 percent to Japanese Yen 13.34 trillion (US$114.2 billion), marking the first rise in four years, the ministry said. The fast pace of merchandise export gains were the biggest factor, it said.
■ Transportation
Domestic traffic drops
Passenger traffic on China's trains, planes and buses declined last month and into this month as SARS put people off traveling, the National Bureau of Statistics said on its Web site. Domestic passenger traffic on China Southern Airlines Co and the nation's other carriers was down 81 percent from a year earlier during a five-day national holiday that started on May 1, the bureau said. The number of passengers has dropped by more than a quarter to 6 million since the start of last month. The number of passengers on all forms of transport in China fell 6.9 percent last month to 1.2 billion. Passenger numbers on international flights to and from China dropped by 85 percent during the May 1 holiday from a year earlier, while passengers traveling to Hong Kong and Macau decreased by 88 percent from a year ago, the bureau said.
■Free trade
WTO urged to keep deadline
The heads of the World Bank and IMF on Tuesday urged the 146 states in the WTO to stick to an end-2004 deadline for the conclusion of the Doha round of trade liberalization talks. "We do think that trade and the succesful outcome of the Doha round is a key, possibly the key to build confidence in the global economy," IMF managing director Horst Koehler said here. The top IMF official warned that UN poverty reduction targets set for 2015 would not be met without an opening of agricultural markets, a key element on the Doha round. World Bank President James Wolfensohn said there was no way to tackle problems with development in poor countries without dealing with the issue of global trade. Negotiators are struggling to reach agree-ments unblocking talks on the new trade round, which has been dubbed the "development round."
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
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