■ Petroleum
Insurgents attack oil depot
Insurgents attacked pipelines and a petrol storage depot in three different parts of Iraq, setting fires that blazed for hours and lost millions of liters of oil, officials and media reported yesterday as the country confronts a critical fuel shortage. Rebels firing RPG rockets hit storage tanks in southern Baghdad on Saturday, creating fires that burned about 10 million liters of gasoline, said Issam Jihad, a spokesman for the Oil Ministry. He said Iraqi police were investigating the attack. Also Saturday, a pipeline exploded in the al-Mashahda area 25km north of Baghdad, in what Jihad called "an act of sabotage." "The explosion led to the destruction of [part of] the pipeline and to the leakage of vast quantities of oil products," Jihad said. He said he had no immediate information about another reported attack on oil pipelines in northern Iraq.
■ Automobiles
Ssangyong deal endorsed
Creditors of Ssangyong Motors have endorsed a Chinese firm as preferred bidder to take over the South Korean corporation, which specializes in sports utility and recreational vehicles, reports said Sunday. In a vote last week, 90 percent of the creditors confirmed China National Bluestar Group as a favored bidder for Ssangyong, Yonhap news agency said. Chohung Bank, a key creditor, will hold a ceremony Monday to sign a memorandum of understanding allowing Bluestar to launch a three-week due diligence study on Ssangyong, it said. The vote was not affected by news reports that Shanghai Automotive Industry was the only Chinese firm cleared for the deal, Yonhap said. Bluestar has denied it lacks Beijing's approval for the deal.
■ Public Relations
Banks, insurers top hate list
Banks and insurance companies top a consumer hate list for the first time, the Consumers Association of Singapore (CASE) reported yesterday. They were the target of 1,915 complaints between January and last month, edging out timeshare companies, which received 1,228 blasts and motor vehicle shops with 1,027. Renovation companies were the recipients of 963 complaints and 710 were aimed at electrical and electronics shops, according to the list in The Sunday Times. Complaints about banks and insurance companies started mounting about three years ago and peaked this year, said CASE. "Banks are becoming more aggressive," CASE executive director Seah Seng Choon was quoted as saying.
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
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft
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