■ OIL
OPEC crude price picks up
The price for OPEC-produced crude picked up toward the end of the week after a downward trend following revised demand forecasts. One barrel of crude produced by one of OPEC's 12 members stood at US$87.01 on Thursday, up from US$86.57 the previous day, the OPEC Secretariat said yesterday. OPEC crudes peaked above US$90 last week. In its monthly oil market report released on Thursday, revised down demand for the fourth quarter by 70,000 barrels a day owing to a late onset of the US winter and the impact of higher consumer prices. Growth for this year was lowered to 1.7 million barrels per day, down 100,000 barrels from previous estimates.
■ AUTOMOBILES
Chery delays US entry
China's Chery Automobile (奇瑞汽車) may delay its planned entry into the US and European markets because of problems meeting tougher regulations on safety and emissions standards, Lin Zhang, general manager of the firm's international operations, said at seminar in Detroit on Thursday. He said Chery would likely enter the European market well after it delivers cars to its US-based partner, Chrysler LLC.
■ FINANCE
US eases accounting rule
A top EU regulator on Thursday welcomed a move by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to abolish rules that had obliged publicly listed European companies to comply with US accounting standards. SEC regulators approved new rules which will no longer oblige publicly traded EU companies with operations in the US to file accounting reports that comply with the US' Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). The SEC's move will also make it cheaper for EU companies to do business in the world's biggest economy, as they will no longer have to hire accountants to file accounting statements under GAAP.
■ FOOD
Police raid Senba Kitcho
One of Japan's classiest restaurant groups was raided by police yesterday on suspicion of falsely labeling its products in the latest scare about food safety in the country. TV footage showed more than a dozen police officers clad in dark suits entering the Osaka headquarters of Senba Kitcho, which runs high-end Japanese-style restaurants across the nation. The firm has already admitted that it sold confectionery and delicatessen items with false expiry-date labels after parttime workers told reporters about the practice. The raid was on suspicion that the company also marked ordinary beef as being expensive Kobe beef, media reports said.
■ AUTOMOBILES
Volkswagen recalls Passat
Volkswagen AG's (VW) Shanghai venture announced a recall of 2,440 of its Passat model cars this week because of problems with the locking system, China's General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said in a statement on its Web site yesterday. The recalled cars were produced by Shanghai Volkswagen Automotive Co between Aug. 11 and Aug. 24, it said. Shanghai Volkswagen is a 50-50 joint venture between the German automaker and Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp. It was China's third biggest passenger-car maker by sales last year, reporting sales of 340,600 vehicles, data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers showed.
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