■ ENERGY
Ecuador to rejoin OPEC
Ecuador will return to OPEC's fold next month, Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa said in his weekly radio program on Saturday. Ecuador's bid is backed by Venezuela, the only Latin American member of OPEC. Ecuador produces 530,000 barrels of oil per day -- the country's top export -- and is the fifth-largest producer in South America. Correa had announced that Ecuador would apply to rejoin OPEC after he was elected last November. However, the Andean nation faces a debt to OPEC of US$5.3 billion left over from when it withdrew from the group.
■ AVIATION
HK airport's traffic soars
Hong Kong International Airport, Asia's third-busiest, said the number of flights it handled in the six months through last month rose 6 percent as a stronger euro boosted demand for Asia's goods. Planes carrying cargo increased 8.5 percent to 23,205 and passenger traffic rose 5.3 percent to 123,405, Airport Authority Hong Kong said in a statement yesterday. The European currency climbed 5.5 percent against the Hong Kong dollar in the same period. "The long-haul freight markets to the US and Europe have been particularly robust, with the latter benefiting from the appreciation of the euro," chief executive officer Stanley Hui (許漢忠) said in the statement.
■ RETAIL
Quixtar sues bloggers
Direct-marketing firm Quixtar Inc, a sister company of Amway Corp, has sued 30 people who anonymously posted what it considers disparaging remarks about Quixtar in blogs and online forums and in YouTube.com videos. In the lawsuit filed last week in Ottawa County Circuit Court, Quixtar seeks an injunction and damages of more than US$25,000 against the posters, identified only as John Does. Quixtar believes the videos and other postings are part of an organized effort by former distributors who unsuccessfully sued Alticor and are under court order not to disparage the company or disclose proprietary information, according to the lawsuit.
■ SOUTH KOREA
Seoul warns tax evaders
Seoul's city government yesterday threatened to ban thousands of delinquent taxpayers from traveling abroad in a rare campaign to collect nearly US$900 million in unpaid taxes, officials said. The city government said in a statement it would wage "a war against delinquent taxpayers" till year's end, vowing to mobilize all possible means. It said some 6,500 people, who each owe the city government 50 million won (US$54,000) or more in taxes, should pay the money by late next month or face a travel ban by the justice ministry. It said the amount of unpaid taxes totaled some US$890 million as of last week, adding 76 percent of the delinquents were rich enough to pay their unpaid taxes.
■ BEVERAGES
Kerela questions Coke
Kerala state government has asked US soft drinks giant Coca-Cola to respond to allegations that its bottling plant was polluting water and soil, an official said yesterday. The plant has been closed since March 2004 following a temporary ban by the government and subsequent protests by residents who say the facility was also depleting water in the region. "We have given them 15 days to respond to our notice," S.D. Jayaprasad, an official with Kerela's Pollution Control Board said.
RETHINK? The defense ministry and Navy Command Headquarters could take over the indigenous submarine project and change its production timeline, a source said Admiral Huang Shu-kuang’s (黃曙光) resignation as head of the Indigenous Submarine Program and as a member of the National Security Council could affect the production of submarines, a source said yesterday. Huang in a statement last night said he had decided to resign due to national security concerns while expressing the hope that it would put a stop to political wrangling that only undermines the advancement of the nation’s defense capabilities. Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) yesterday said that the admiral, her older brother, felt it was time for him to step down and that he had completed what he
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
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft