■ Textiles
China's exports up 21%
Chinese textile exports rose 21 percent in the first six months from a year earlier to US$50.35 billion as manufacturers rushed shipments ahead of quotas imposed by the US and Europe, the government said. Exports to the US rose 76 percent to US$8.34 billion in the first six months, while shipments to Europe jumped 57 percent to US$8.65 billion, Lu Jianhua, director of the foreign trade department of the Beijing-based Ministry of Commerce, said in a statement on its Web site yesterday. Through the first four months of this year, US imports of apparel from China rose 79 percent from a year ago. In response, the US Commerce Department on May 23 placed caps on shipments of some categories of shirts, cotton trousers and underwear -- and limited growth in their import from China to 7.5 percent for a year.
■ Oil industry
Japanese firm in Egypt pact
Japan's largest oil producer, Arabian Oil, said yesterday that it will sign an accord with Egypt this week to start extracting crude oil in 2007 as part of a US$270 million investment in the Middle East. "As we have been notified that the Egyptian government has completed its internal procedures, we expect to sign a formal accord by the end of this month," a company spokesman said. Arabian Oil Co had obtained development rights in February for the Northwest October site, located in the middle of the Gulf of Suez. The spokesman said production was due to start in 2007. The company plans to invest a total of ?30 billion (US$270 million) over the three years to March 2008 for development in the Middle East and neighboring areas. Arabian Oil plans to start producing crude oil at the Egyptian site in 2007.
■ Airlines
Cathay to hike surcharge
Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd, Asia's second-most-profitable carrier, will increase its surcharge on long-haul flights by 33 percent starting next month to cover the rising cost of jet fuel. The airline won permission from Hong Kong's Civil Aviation Department to raise the levy on long-haul routes to HK$332 (US$43) per flight from HK$250, Johnny Fung, a spokesman for the aviation regulator, said yesterday. The new charge will apply to tickets issued in August and September. Jet fuel prices have jumped more than 40 percent this year. Global airline losses will widen to a record US$6 billion this year because of higher fuel and wage bills, according to a May 30 forecast from the International Air Transport Association. Fuel costs now make up more than 30 percent of Cathay Pacific's operating costs, compared with 24 percent last year, chief executive Philip Chen said on May 11.
■ Japan
Top executive arrested
Prosecutors arrested a top executive of Japan's state-run highway body yesterday in a widening probe into the country's largest-ever public works bid-rigging scandal. The Tokyo High Prosecutors' Office arrested Michio Uchida, the vice president of Japan Highway Public Corp, on suspicion of having violated the anti-monopoly law, prosecutors said in a statement. Prosecutors raided the offices of the highway agency last month after charges were filed against 26 Japanese companies and eight executives for allegedly colluding to divvy up 180 contracts worth a total of ¥71 billion (US$635 million) in fiscal 2003 and last year.
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