■ PRODUCE
Camembert wins battle
France’s creamy raw milk Camembert cheese won a battle of exclusiveness on Thursday after producers and a government body agreed on a revision of criteria for a coveted label after months of conflict. Under new rules the iconic cheese must be made from raw milk from a region half the size of the previous area in Normandy. Major groups Lactalis and Isigny-Sainte-Mere which together make more than 80 percent of Camembert with the Appelation d’Origine Controllee label had contested the exclusive use of raw milk for health reasons.
■LUMBER
Company fined
Brazilian environmental authorities on Friday announced a nearly US$280 million fine on a lumber company owned by a Swedish sporting goods magnate for alleged illegal logging activities. Gethal Amazonas SA was fined 450 million reals (US$279 million) for the illegal logging, transportation and sale of nearly 700,000m³ of timber, the equivalent of roughly 230,000 trees, said Marcelo Dutra, a spokesman for Ibama, Brazil’s environmental agency. Gethal is owned by Johan Eliasch, chairman and chief executive officer of sporting goods manufacturer Head and co-founder of Cool Earth, an environmental activist group based in Britain that seeks to buy portions of the rain forest for preservation purposes.
■OIL
Caracas seeks investment
Venezuela says it will encourage investment by private companies in part of the country’s oil-rich Orinoco River basin. Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez says investment in each of three oil fields will be about US$8 billion. He said the main aim is building heavy crude upgrader plants in partnership with the state-run Petroleos de Venezuela SA. The company said in a statement Thursday that it will soon announce a bidding schedule. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s government took majority control of the last remaining privately run oil projects last year. US-based Exxon Mobil Corp operated in the eastern Orinoco area before pulling out last year.
■BANKING
Credit Agricole raises capital
French banking giant Credit Agricole launched a 5.9 billion euro (US$9.1 billion) capital increase on Friday aimed at shoring up its resources after suffering losses on its US subprime exposure. Europe’s leading retail bank, which has lost 4.2 billion euros since the start of the subprime crisis in August, wants to boost its capital ratio to 8.5 percent from about 7.7 percent as of late March. Capital ratios measure the financial health of a bank by weighing its own funds against its liabilities. The bank, in a move favoring existing shareholders, will offer shares at 10.60 euros a piece, representing a discount of about 37 percent compared with the closing level on Tuesday.
■INTERNET
Amazon hit by glitch
Amazon.com’s Web site experienced problems in North America for more than two hours in the middle of the day on Friday because of system issues, the online retailer said. The company’s retail Web site shut down, giving an error code to anyone visiting it, said Keynote Systems Inc, a California-based company that measures Web site performance. “Amazon’s systems are very complex and on rare occasions, despite our best efforts, they may experience problems,” Amazon spokesman Craig Berman said in a brief e-mail statement. “We work to minimize any disruption and to get the site back as quickly as possible.”
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