■ Internet
eBay abandons pet plan
Howls of thousands of online users caused eBay to back off the idea of allowing pets to be sold on the major US Internet auction Web site, a company spokesman confirmed on Tuesday. EBay floated the notion on its online discussion boards on Friday and received thousands of replies during the weekend, company spokesman Hani Durzy said. People feared changing eBay policy to allow sales of creatures other than fish and snails would invite abusive animal breeders such as "puppy farms" into the pack of online buyers and sellers at the site, according to eBay. EBay then proposed limiting online pet postings to animal shelters, but users argued it would be too difficult to cull the illegal breeders from legitimate shelters, Durzy said. Opposition to the move far outweighed support, according to eBay. EBay scuttled the pet-peddling proposal on Monday, according to Durzy.
■ Retail
Instant checkout tested
In a bid to make the queue at the cashier a thing of the past, a Japanese convenience store will test a checkout system that scans shopping baskets instantly. The trial run will take place at a FamilyMart convenience store in Tokyo for a month from Jan. 30, using special tags on 500 kinds of goods and electronic money, trading house Itochu said yesterday. If a shopper places the basket on the checkout counter, the system scans the prices in one second without the sales clerk having to scan each item. Including the time for procedures such as putting the goods in a bag, "it takes less than 10 seconds to leave the counter," company spokesman Yasuhiko Takahashi said. It is not decided when the system will be put to practical use.
■ Banking
Official sentenced to death
A Chinese bank official has been sentenced to death for accepting bribes and embezzling public funds worth 15 million yuan (US$1.85 million), Chinese media said yesterday. The China Daily said a Beijing court handed the sentence down on Tuesday against Wen Mengjie, 49, former director of the science and technology department in the Beijing branch of the Agricultural Bank of China. It said Wen received 10.7 million yuan in bribes from four information technology firms between 1999 and last year when he was in charge of purchasing electronic equipment and software for the bank, and that he embezzled 4.3 million yuan in 2003 and last year while he was purchasing automatic teller machines.
■ Oil industry
OPEC expects stable prices
Oil prices are expected to remain stable and trade within a defined range, the head of OPEC said yesterday, adding that the cartel's stocks could reach a 55-day reserve in the next three months. "Prices as we see them remain within a defined range that they have not breached," Sheikh Ahmad Fahd al-Sabah, also Kuwait's energy minister, said before leaving on a trip to Russia and China. He said the 11-nation OPEC will allow its stocks of oil to build up to a reserve of 54 to 55 days over the next quarter. OPEC's production quota stands at 28 million barrels per day and it decided at a meeting in Kuwait on Dec. 12 not to renew its offer for emergency extra output of 2 million barrels per day. The cartel will meet again on Jan. 31 in Vienna to assess an expected seasonal drop in demand for energy between April and September, with a possible cut in output on the cards.
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