■ Automobiles
Toyota to increase output
Annual global production by Japan's car giant Toyota is forecast to top 7 million units next year, closing in on the world leader, General Motors, a press report said yesterday. Toyota Motor Corp will start up new plants in Tianjin and the Czech Republic early next year while marketing "strategic cars" to suit particular consumer tastes in Europe and the rest of Asia, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun said. Toyota's global output last year came to 6,070,000 units, behind the roughly 8.3 million units produced by GM and nearly 7 million units produced by another US leader, Ford, the economic daily said. Toyota's output is targeted to reach 6.7 million units this year. Its overseas production will also expand to about 50 percent of total global output by next year, the report said.
■ Retail
Japan 7-Eleven to cut costs
7-Eleven stores will share trucks to cut costs
7-Eleven Japan Co, Japan's largest chain of conven-ience stores, plans to simplify its transportation system to cut up to ?2.5 billion (US$23 million) of annual costs a year, the Nihon Keizai newspaper reported. 7-Eleven stores will use the same trucks to transport processed food, confectionary, alcohol and toiletry items, a move which could cut gaseous emissions by 10 percent and save up to one-10th in annual trans-portation costs, the newspaper said, without citing anyone. 7-Eleven also plans to cut the number of transport hubs around Japan to 48 from 105 and reduce its agents to 11 from 18, the paper said. Japanese retailers are struggling to increase sales as changes in the tax laws discourage consumer spending, which makes up about half of the economy.
■ Real Estate
China to shuffle assets
China Huaneng Group Corp (華能), parent of Hong Kong-listed Huaneng Power International Inc, will transfer its real-estate assets to China Real Estate Development Group Corp as part of a central government push to redistribute the real-estate assets under its control, the Economic Observer said. China's State Assets Regulatory and Management Commission completed a plan this month to transfer real estate assets of 191 government-owned companies to five units, the report said, citing a person in the commission who didn't want to be identified. China Real Estate may get about US$24 billion in assets, the report said.
■ Jurisprudence
Halliburton deal approved
Halliburton Co. has won court approval for its US$4.2 billion plan for settling asbestos-related health claims and a judge's signature on bankruptcy restructuring plans for several of its key business units. US Bankruptcy Judge Judith Fitzgerald's action is one of the final hurdles before the subsidiaries, including KBR and DII Industries, can emerge from bankruptcy. They still must fund a trust, using cash, stock and notes, that will be used to pay future claims. KBR and DII Industries filed for bankruptcy protection last December to deal with claims by about 400,000 people who said they were injured by asbestos exposure. Halliburton, once run by US Vice President Dick Cheney, inherited most of the claims five years ago when the conglomerate, during Cheney's tenure as chief executive officer, acquired Dresser Industries Inc for US$7.7 billion.
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