■ Petroleum
OPEC asks for outside help
OPEC is to invite producers from outside the cartel to talks next month on how to stabilize sky-rocketing oil prices, the organization's President Purnomo Yusgi-antoro said here yesterday. The unusual move to throw open the September 14 OPEC meeting in Vienna to non-members comes just days after crude prices hit record highs, reaching US$44.77 dollars a barrel in New York on Friday. "OPEC will discuss steps to stabi-lize world oil prices with non-OPEC countries and large oil producers, among them Russia and Angola," Purnomo told journalists here. "We will discuss world oil price conditions," he said. Supply uncertainties caused by the financial woes of Russian oil giant Yukos and terrorist attacks on Iraqi oil pipelines have sent prices soaring in recent weeks.
■ Aviation
Soros may bag a carrier
China's Hainan Airlines Co, partly owned by Hungarian-born billionaire George Soros, said yesterday it was in negotiations to buy troubled Malev Hungarian Airlines. "Both sides are sitting down to discussions about cooperating together but it has not gone any further than that and it is not clear about how many shares or cash would be involved," a Hainan Airlines press official said. Malev executives will be in China for further discussions today, the official said. If a deal is hammered out it would give China's fourth-largest carrier a gateway to the European continent. Other interested buyers reportedly include Air France-KLM and Austrian Airlines. Malev, almost wholly controlled by the Hungarian state, has never managed to rise above recurrent crises since the collapse of communism.
■ Shipping
Cruise ship too big for HK
One of the world's biggest cruise liners is being forced to berth outside Hong Kong's Victoria Harbor because the water is too shallow, a news report said yesterday. The 113,000-ton Diamond Princess, managed by P&O, will have to berth at the city's container terminal when it makes three stops in Hong Kong next year, the South China Morning Post reported. The indignity forced on the Diamond Princess, which carries 2,600 passengers, brought a warning from P&O man-aging director Richard Willis that Hong Kong needs better facilities. Hong Kong is currently working on a second, deeper cruise ship terminal but it will not be ready before 2009, accor-ding to the city's Tourism Board. Willis told the news-paper he did not understand why it would take so long. He pointed out that Chinese cities Shanghai and Qingtao were already working hard to develop themselves as important port cities in the run-up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
■ Computing
HP to buy Synstar
Hewlett-Packard Co, the world's second-largest personal-computer maker, said it will pay about ?163 million (US$300 million) to buy Synstar Plc, a UK information technology services company. Hewlett-Packard, based in Palo Alto, California, will pay ?1 for each Synstar share, the companies said in a Regu-latory News Service state-ment. The price is 28 percent more than Friday's closing price for the Brack-nell, England-based com-pany. Synstar's shares have climbed 19 percent this year. The offer, which is recommended by Synstar's board, will be made by Merrill Lynch & Co on behalf of Hewlett Packard.
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