■Banking
Chohung requests funds
Mass bank client withdrawals forced South Korea's Chohung Bank to ask the country's central bank for an emergency injection of 6.25 trillion won (US$5.27 billion) yesterday. A general strike by the lender's 5,800-strong union opposes a deal to privatize the country's nationalized lender. The union says it fears the move will result in job losses. The strike crippled operations yesterday at 239 of Chohung's 476 branches at the nation's fourth-largest lender with a customer portfolio of about 8,000 corporate and 10 million individual depositors. The government is hoping to receive 2.7 trillion won worth of public funds injected into Chohung Bank since the 1997 financial crisis.
■ Scandals
Martha Stewart trial set
Home decorating queen Martha Stewart will go on trial in January to face charges that she lied to investigators and investors about a questionably timed 2001 stock sale. A federal judge on Thursday set a Jan. 12 trial date for Stewart and her former stockbroker, giving their attorneys months to sift through computer evidence and dozens of boxes of documents the government has amassed. Stewart is accused of lying to investigators and deceiving her own company's shareholders during a probe into her sale of nearly 4,000 shares of ImClone Systems stock. She and stockbroker Peter Bacanovic have pleaded innocent. Stewart arrived a half-hour early for a hearing in Manhattan federal court. In court, she briefly waved to courtroom sketch artists seated in the jury box.
■ Trade
US tech exports fall
US technology exports fell 26 percent from 2000 to last year, a US$67 billion decline during a period that also saw China replace Japan and Mexico as the largest supplier of electronics to the US, the American Electronics Association announced Thursday. High-tech goods exported from the US fell from US$223 billion in 2000 to US$166 billion this year. The findings echoed a report released by the same Washington, DC-based trade association earlier this year that noted a 10 percent drop in US-based high-tech employment. "Clearly, the worldwide economic downturn is taking a toll on the technology industry," said association president, William Archey. US imports from China increased by US$54 billion, or 32 percent, between 2000 and last year, surpassing imports from Japan and Mexico.
■ Counterfeiting
Software smugglers jailed
Two brothers who attempted to smuggle millions of dollars worth of counterfeit Microsoft software from Hong Kong to the US have been given prison terms. Peter Yi, 39, was sentenced Thursday to 33 months in prison, and his older brother, Sung Yi, 45, to two years. Both were convicted in November 2001 of conspiracy to smuggle and smuggling. Peter Yi also was convicted of being a felon in possession of a gun and a felon in possession of ammunition. Authorities said the brothers worked with a former US Customs agent, his brother and a criminal defense attorney to smuggle fake Microsoft software between 1999 and 2000. The defendants were about to receive 10,000 discs of the counterfeit software when they were taken into custody in July 2000. The software was estimated to be worth US$7 million, but authorities said the Yis believed it was worth much less than that.
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