■ Petroleum
CPC to buy Iraqi oil
State-run Chinese Petroleum Corporation (CPC, 中油) has reached an agreement with Iraq's State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO) to import 1.8 million barrels of oil from Iraq, the Central News Agency (CNA) said on Saturday. "CPC has reached agreement with SOMO on importing 1.8 million barrels of Iraqi oil between July 1 and December 31, averaging 1,000 barrels a day," CNA quoted CPC President Wenent Pan (潘文炎) as saying. During the rule of Saddam Hussein, CPC tried to import Iraqi oil but all efforts failed, possibly due to lack of diplomatic ties between Taipei and Baghdad. Taiwan imports about 600,000 barrels of oil each day. Seventy percent of this oil comes from the Middle East, 20 percent from Southeast Asia, and 10 percent from Africa and Latin America. Pan said CPC hopes to diversify its source of import.
■ Airlines
Landing rights expanded
Singapore offered landing rights in the island-state to India's Jet Airways and Air Sahara landing rights, The Hindu newspaper reported, without saying where it obtained the information. The offer was made after Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟) held discussions with Indian officials in New Delhi, the report said. Prime Minister Goh is on a visit to India. Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh are the only three that by Air Sahara and Jet Airways, India's biggest private airlines, fly to. The two airlines, which fly to most major cities in India, have been asking the Indian government for permission to fly to Southeast Asia and the Middle East. At the moment, only Indian state carriers Indian Airlines Ltd and Air India Ltd fly to Singapore. The government permits local private airlines to fly to South Asian countries only.
■ Automobiles
Japanese get eco-tax
Japan's automakers may charge passenger-car owners as much as ?18,000 next year to pay for the recycling of vehicles, the Asahi Shimbun said, without saying where it got the information. Owners of cars with engines larger than 2 liters will pay from ?10,000 to ?18,000, while those with engines smaller than 2 liters will pay ?7,000 to ?16,000, the paper said. An additional data processing and administration charge of ?510 to ?610 may also be charged, it said. The charge will be levied by automakers on all new cars sold starting in January, while current car owners will pay the charge when they take their vehicles in for maintenance, the report said.
■ Mobile Phones
KDDI pushes fuel cells
Japan's second-largest mobile phone carrier, KDDI Corp, plans to develop handsets powered by small fuel cells, and to commercialize them in 2007, a news report said yesterday. KDDI wants to develop the phones through separate tie-ups with high-tech firms Hitachi Ltd and Toshiba Corp, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun said. A fuel-cell-powered handset is expected to last more than twice as long as existing sets that use lithium-ion batteries, the newspaper said. As mobile phones become increasingly multifunctional, equipped with television viewing and game-playing capabilities, they are consuming more and more power, the newspaper said. Japan's top mobile phone carrier NTT DoCoMo Inc has also been conducting research on a fuel cell for mobile phones, but KDDI will be the first to start a development project that seeks to commercialize the product, it said.
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