■ Energy
Blackout fears rise in China
The widespread use of air conditioning to escape the scorching summer heat in China has led to record energy consumption at more than half the country's power grids and stoked fears of blackouts, state media said yesterday. Officials in charge of power grids have been told to make sure emergency mechanisms are in place to prevent power failures, the official Xinhua news agency reported, citing Liu Zhenya, general manger of the State Power Grid Corp. It did not say what those emergency measures would be. Many cities across China face power shortfalls as booming industries compete with rising electricity consumption by millions of air conditioners. A shortage of coal used to fuel power plants has added to the problem.
■ Construction
Highway agency raided
Tokyo authorities raided Japan's main state-run highway agency yesterday as part of an investigation into the country's largest-ever public works bid-rigging scandal. Public broadcaster NHK showed dozens of officials from the Tokyo prosecutor's office filing into the Japan Public Highway Corp headquarters. A former director of the agency director is suspected of involvement in a bid-rigging scheme for bridge construction contracts offered by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, NHK reported. Earlier this month, prosecutors filed charges against 26 companies and eight executives for allegedly colluding to divvy up 180 contracts worth a total of ?71 billion (US$651 million) in fiscal 2003 and last year. The companies allegedly set up a system of predetermining prices and winners among 49 firms. The system may have existed since the 1960s and determined the outcome for an estimated ?350 billion worth of contracts a year, media reports said.
■ Entertainment
Mobile soaps on the way
In technological terms, the romance Appointment is a great leap forward. A media group in China has filmed a soap opera to be broadcast only on mobile phones. Each of the five episodes, about two bikers vying for the love of a beautiful woman, will last five minutes. There is very little dialogue and a lot of close-ups of characters striking exaggerated poses in the cinematic equivalent of a haiku. "The gestures I make are very limited," said Luo Ji, one of the actors. "Your emotions should only come from facial expressions. It's quite difficult acting." Technologically and commercially, it is also a leap into the unknown for Beijing's Le-TV Media Group, which produced the show. Only a few people with the most sophisticated mobile phones will be able to see the drama, which was filmed on Shanghai's Tianma race track on a budget of 3 million yuan (US$360,000).
■ Chemicals
Minister denies wrongdoing
French Finance Minister Thierry Breton told Europe-1 radio yesterday that he has no knowledge of past wrongdoing at chemicals firm Rhodia and hopes investigators found what they needed during a search of his office. Breton's office was searched in his absence on Monday as part of a probe into suspected accounting irregularities and insider trading at Rhodia SA. Breton was on Rhodia's board of directors for four years and chaired its audit committee from 1999 to 2002. Breton said he was one of 10 people who had equal responsibility on the board and was not responsible for day-to-day operations of the business.
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