■Europe
Slow growth for euro-zone
The euro-zone economy probably won't reach 1 percent growth this year and may only reach 0.7 percent, the EU Economics Commissioner Petro Solbes said Saturday. Solbes said it was "improbable"' that the euro-zone economy would reach its forecast of 1 percent growth this year. While the third and fourth quarters may change things, EU indicators today point to a rate that could be 0.7 percent, he said. The EU expects a recovery of 2.3 percent next year. The European Commission has painted a gloomy picture for the euro-zone economy this year, saying a strong euro and weak business invest-ment were holding back the continent's economy.
■ Internet
Lawmakers join spam war
Microsoft Corp and other Internet providers are at odds with state lawmakers and state officials from Missouri to California over proposed legislation limiting junk e-mail or "spam," the Washington Post reported. Microsoft as well as Yahoo Inc and America Online, a unit of AOL Time Warner Inc, market to their own members via e-mail, and argue the laws should be aimed at purveyors of frauds, the newspaper said. Lawmakers, however, are advocating such measures as "do-not-spam registries" similar to the recently established "do-not-call" list for telemarketers, according to the newspaper. Microsoft, in particular, has lobbied heavily against such efforts, the Post said. The attorney general of Missouri, Jay Nixon, has accused Microsoft of protecting its franchise of selling spam filters. "They are attempting to run a protection racket," he said. "Pay us and you won't get spammed as much."
■ Regulation
S Korea breaks up chaebol
SK Group, Hyundai Group and nine other South Korean industrial conglomerates must sell 1.7 trillion won (US$1.4 billion) of shares they own in units or face losing their voting rights on the stock, the government said. The family-owned industrial empires known as chaebol who have a combined 342 affiliates, have failed to meet a requirement that they pare investment in units to 25 percent or less of their net value, the FTC said in a statement. SK Group leads the violators with holdings exceeding the limit by 769 billion won, it said. The companies have been moving to meet the target, the commission said. The groups pared cross-holdings to 29.2 trillion won by the end of March, or about 25.3 percent. The Korean government promised the IMF it would break up the cross-shareholdings of the business empires as part of an agreement for a US$57 billion bailout following the 1997 Asian financial crisis.
■ Petroleum
Iraq needs more electricity
Iraq, holder of the world's second-largest oil reserves, needs to invest about US$5 billion in power plants to meet demand for electricity, the country's chief civil administrator, Paul Bremer, said. "There is not enough power generation in this country to meet current demand, let alone future needs," Bremer said during a press briefing. The US Agency for International Development, which is leading the reconstruction effort in Iraq with a budget of US$1.2 billion, has spent US$20 million on restoring power supplies, the agency's Iraq director, Lewis Lucke, said. The agency plans to spend "much more" on the power industry, which is meeting little more than half the demand of about 6,000 megawatts, Lewis said.
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