■ PRODUCT SAFETY
Fake toothpaste seized
Mozambican authorities have seized thousands of boxes of counterfeit toothpaste which they fear may contain a potentially deadly chemical. State radio said yesterday that the health ministry had banned all sales of Colgate Maximum Cavity Protection toothpaste and ordered storekeepers to remove it from their shelves. The fake toothpaste -- which has been sold by discount retailers in a number of countries including the US -- has nothing to do with Colgate-Palmolive Co. It contains diethylene glycol, a chemical used in antifreeze, which damages the kidneys and liver and can ultimately prove fatal to humans.
■ CAMBODIA
Economy too narrow
Cambodia's economy is too narrowly focused on its garment sector, World Bank chief Robert Zoellick said yesterday, suggesting it needs to build on its successes to draw investors to other industries. "Cambodia has a particular opportunity and need to develop a global brand," Zoellick said at the end of a two-day visit to the country, which has carved out a lucrative niche by selling itself to buyers as a labor-friendly textile producer. Cambodia's garment sector continues to expand, employing some 330,000 people in more than 200 factories and accounting for 80 percent of the country's export earnings.
■ FINANCE
Doha Bank opens in PRC
Doha Bank Ltd, Qatar's fourth-biggest lender by market value, said its representative office in China will begin operations on Wednesday in Shanghai. The office, part of the bank's expansion strategy, adds to its branches in New York and Dubai and its representative offices in Singapore, Tokyo and Turkey, the Doha-based bank said in a statement posted on the Doha Securities Market.
■ HOTELS
IFA to build in Seychelles
IFA Hotels & Resorts Co KS, a Kuwaiti hotelier partly owned by Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, said it will build a US$450 million resort in the Seychelles to expand its overseas operations. IFA will form a joint venture with Indian Ocean Resorts Ltd to build a five-star hotel, villas and a marina on the island of Ste Anne in the Indian Ocean island chain, the Kuwait-based company said. IFA aims to increase its overseas operations by developing four properties in Namibia, after opening its Yotel at the UK's Gatwick Airport in June and buying 25 percent of Thai property developer Raimon Land Pcl last year.
■ OIL
Refiners resume pay talks
Oil refiners in South Africa including BP Plc and Royal Dutch Shell Plc were to resume pay talks in Johannesburg yesterday to end a strike that has caused fuel shortages in Africa's largest economy, a labor union said. Keith Jacobs, deputy secretary-general of the Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood and Allied Workers' Union didn't give further details in a telephone interview yesterday. South Africa's largest refinery, BP and Shell-owned Sapref, earlier said it is preparing for a shutdown as a result of the strike. Sapref can process 180,000 barrels of oil a day. Some South African filling stations have already run dry as truckers and fuel-depot workers joined the strike that began last Monday.
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