■AUTOMOBLIES
Porsche triples profits
Luxury sports car maker Porsche AG said on Monday its net profit this fiscal year more than tripled with help from a revaluation of its 22 percent stake in Volkswagen AG and strong results from its core business. Porsche said it earned 4.24 billion euros (US$6.18 billion) for the full year, up from 1.39 billion euros a year earlier. The revaluation resulted in a one-time addition of 520.80 million euros. Pretax profit for the year ended July 31 more than doubled to 5.86 billion euros from 2.11 billion euros in the previous fiscal year.
■ INVESTMENT
Gore joins capital firm
Former US vice president Al Gore is becoming a partner at Silicon Valley's most storied venture capital firm. Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers said on Monday that Gore, who campaigns to slow global climate change, will join the Menlo Park, California-based venture capital firm as a partner focused on alternative energy investments. The venture firm, which since 1972 has backed seminal computer start-ups ranging from Sun Microsystems to Compaq Computer to Amazon.com and Google Inc, has emerged in recent years as a leading funder of alternative energy companies.
■ AID
IMF to help Liberia
The IMF struck a "milestone" deal with member countries allowing it to provide debt relief to Liberia, the fund said on Monday. Member states have made pledges totaling more than US$842 million, the IMF said in a statement. "Today's milestone is a critical step in moving Liberia onto a path toward comprehensive debt relief," IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn said in the statement. It was the first concrete achievement for the new IMF director, who took over his post on Nov. 1. Ravaged by a decade of civil war, Liberia has a multilateral debt of US1.5 billion for a total debt of US$3.7 billion.
■ AVIATION
Saudi buys jumbo jet
The world's 13th-richest man has taken executive jetsetting to a new level with the first VIP order for the A380 superjumbo. Saudi prince Alwaleed bin Talal, who topped the Forbes Arabia rich list last year, has invested a small piece of his estimated US$20 billion fortune in an Airbus "Flying Palace." The plane is out of most tycoons' range with a retail price of US$310 million. Airline customers for the mega-jet, which can seat up to 850 people, have won sizeable discounts by placing bulk orders, but the Riyadh billionaire is expected to have paid the full price.
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