■ Oil
Prices rise again in US.
US oil prices struck a fresh record high above US$44 a barrel yesterday, on contin-uing concerns that any hiccup in the tightly stretched supply chain could lead to a major dis-ruption in global crude flows. US crude struck US$44.28 a barrel, US$0.13 up from Tuesday's settle-ment and the highest since oil futures were launched on the New York Mercantile Exchange in 1983. London's Brent crude was US$0.18 higher at US$40.82 a barrel. Oil's latest boost was triggered on Tuesday, when the head of the OPEC producers' cartel said there was no spare oil imme-diately available to cool ed-hot prices.
■ Oil
PetroChina scraps gas plan
A Chinese state oil company has called off plans for a foreign consortium inclu-ding Royal Dutch/Shell and ExxonMobil to invest in a multibillion-dollar pipeline to supply natural gas to China's booming eastern cities, according to Shell. The announcement came as PetroChina Co said its workers on Tuesday welded into place the last segment of the 4,000km-long pipeline that links gas fields in the northwest to Shanghai and nearby cities. The US$5.2 billion pipeline was the first major energy project opened to foreign investors. Shell said the consortium failed to find "common ground" with PetroChina.
■ Banking
Foreign firms' limits eased
China has announced new steps meant to ease the expansion of foreign banks, cutting capital requirements and scrapping a waiting period for opening branch offices. The measures take effect Sept. 1 and will help China comply with inter-national standards, the China Banking Regulatory Commission said in a statement issued late on Tuesday. The government has promised to let foreign banks compete on an equal footing with Chinese banks by 2006 under the terms of its WTO membership. The latest changes affect foreign banks licensed to handle the yuan, China's tightly regu-lated currency, and will "reduce the operating costs of foreign banks and pro-mote their healthy develop-ment," the commission's statement said. The capital requirement for branches dealing with Chinese com-panies will be cut by 25 percent to 300 million yuan (US$36 million), while the limit for branches handling individuals will fall by 15 percent to 500 million yuan, the agency said. It said a one-year waiting period between the openings of new bank branches will be scrapped.
■ Pharmaceuticals
Bristol-Myers to pay SEC
Bristol-Myers Squibb Co, the largest US maker of AIDS drugs, will pay at least US$75 million to settle a US Securities and Exchange Commission probe of whether the company encouraged wholesalers to buy excessive supplies, people familiar with the matter said. The settlement may be announced today, the people said. The com-pany has been under SEC scrutiny since 2002 over "channel stuffing" -- giving incentives to wholesalers to buy more drugs than they could sell. Bristol-Myers agreed last week to settle related shareholder lawsuits for US$300 million, the largest payment by a drug company in a securities-fraud case in US history. Bristol-Myers in March last year restated more than US$2.5 billion in revenue, saying it improperly booked sales to two of its largest wholesalers after shipping more goods than they needed for retail demand.
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