■ CREDIT RATING
EU probes credit agencies
The European Commission will investigate the role played by credit rating agencies in the recent crisis over subprime US home loans, the Financial Times reported yesterday. "If the rating agencies believe this is going to be business as usual, they are very wrong," an anonymous commission official told the business daily. "The securitized subprime mortgage market would not have grown to the extent that it did without the favorable ratings given by some agencies," the official said. The FT said that banks first warned about a potential crisis in subprime home loans last year, but credit agencies Standard & Poor's and Moody's only downgraded ratings on relevant securities earlier this year.
■ AVIATION
A380 to take off on Oct. 25
Singapore Airlines Ltd, the first carrier in the world to fly the new superjumbo A380, said yesterday that the first delivery of the hulking jet has been set for Oct. 15. The double-decker aircraft -- the world's biggest passenger jet -- will be handed over by European plane manufacturer Airbus at a ceremony in Toulouse, France, Singapore Airlines said in a statement. The A380's inaugural flight has been scheduled for Oct. 25 to Sydney, the carrier said. Singapore Airlines had earlier announced it will auction all seats on the first A380 flight on eBay and donate the proceeds to charities.
■ AUTOMOBILES
Mercedes Benz sales surge
DaimlerChrysler AG boosted Northeast Asia sales of Mercedes-Benz luxury sedans 24 percent in the first seven months of the year, led by demand in China. The carmaker sold 22,038 cars in the region, which includes China, Taiwan and South Korea, compared with 17,805 a year earlier, it said in an e-mailed statement yesterday. Sales in China surged 30 percent to 15,830. Mercedes-Benz sales in both Taiwan and South Korea rose 13 percent in the period, the Stuttgart, Germany-based carmaker said.
■ TRADE
PRC expects record suplus
A Chinese government think tank said that the nation's politically sensitive trade surplus was likely to rise to a record US$275 billion this year, the government-run Shanghai Securities News reported yesterday. The forecast by the State Information Center would represent an increase of nearly 55 percent over the US$177.5 billion surplus reported last year. Total trade this year is likely to grow US$23.1 billion to US$2.2 trillion, the report said.
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