■ Oil exploration
Japanese firm wants rights
A Japanese oil producer yesterday requested oil and natural gas drilling rights in an area of the East China Sea disputed by Beijing and Tokyo, the company said. Teikoku Oil Co said it has asked to test drill in three areas covering a total of 400km2 after Japan's Trade Ministry said earlier this month it would start reviewing applications from companies hoping to explore the deep-sea reserves. Teikoku Oil already applied in 1969 and 1970 to drill in the area, but Thursday's request covers a more specific region based on studies the company conducted in the 1980s and research carried out by the Japanese government, said Masaaki Akasaka of Teikoku Oil. Both Japan and China claim the gas deposits and are hungry for the resource to power their huge economies.
■ Internet
Australians shop online
Australians rank third in the world in their embrace of online shopping behind Americans and the British, research released yesterday showed. The money spent over the Internet has risen by over a third in the 12 months to March, the Visa International research found. More than 4 million of the 20 million Australians now purchase online. EBay Australia said it had over 2 million members.
■ Auto industry
DaimlerChrysler plans SUV
DaimlerChrysler AG said yesterday it will build a new sports utility vehicle (SUV) at a plant in northern Germany as it expands its range of vehicles. The German-US automaker, the world's fifth largest, had said it was looking to add another SUV to its lineup, and was determining whether it would be built in Brazil or in Germany. "The decision to produce the vehicle in Bremen is a building block of our employment accord, and also shows that Germany is a competitive production location if the right framework conditions are defined," chief executive Juergen Schrempp said.
■ Biotechnology
Malaysia to offer incentives
Malaysia announced plans yesterday to jump-start its biotechnology industry by giving financial incentives to new ventures and finding ways to tap the nation's tropical flora and fauna to produce new health care and food products. Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi unveiled a National Biotechnology Policy that includes establishing a corporation to manage financial support for research and identify commercial prospects for new biotech products and services. The government will offer tax incentives for biotech investments to encourage participation by the private sector and set up new facilities for research in genomics, molecular biology and pharmaceutical products, Abdullah said.
■ Real Estate
China to curb growth
China's State Council, the Cabinet, has vowed to curb overheating investment in the property sector and soaring house prices, state press reported yesterday. During a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) concluded that overheated investment and rising housing prices were the two major problems in the real estate sector, the official Xinhua news agency said. It was the third time within a week that Beijing has expressed concern over the country's fast developing property sector, where residential house prices grew 13.5 percent year-on-year in the first quarter.
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