■ MEDIA
Bertelsmann eyes stake sale
German media group Bertelsmann is in talks with Japanese partner Sony on the sale of Bertelsmann’s half in their jointly owned music company Sony BMG, a newspaper said yesterday. Each has owned half of the music publishing firm since 2004, and Sony has an option to buy should Bertelsmann decide to sell its stake, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper said, without identifying its source. The newspaper said Bertelsmann boss Hartmut Ostrowski has decided to get out of the music business owing to falling sales caused by Internet downloads. Bertelsmann and Sony have not yet agreed on a price for their deal, but it could nonetheless be finalized within a few months, the report said.
■ FAST FOOD
McDonald's pulls tomatoes
McDonalds pulled tomatoes from sandwiches served in the US on Monday amid a nationwide salmonella outbreak. The move came two days after the Food and Drug Administration warned restaurants and retailers not to serve round or Roma tomatoes unless they were grown in areas untouched by the outbreak. McDonald’s said it was imposing a total ban on those types of tomatoes as a precautionary measure. The chain said it had received no reports of illness among its customers. A number of other restaurant chains also pulled tomatoes from their menus, and retailers pulled fresh tomatoes from their shelves.
■ AUTOMAKERS
Toyota widens production
Toyota says it will start making the Camry hybrid in Australia and Thailand as part of the Japanese automaker’s efforts to step up production of such green cars around the world. Toyota Motor Corp said in a release yesteray that it would start making the Camry hybrid at its Samrong plant in Thailand next year, targeting annual production of 9,000 vehicles. Toyota said it plans annual production of 10,000 Camry hybrids at the Altona plant in southeastern Australia starting in early 2010.
■ OIL
Demand set to slow: IEA
World oil demand will rise at its slowest pace in six years during this year as a recent raft of subsidy cuts in several Asian countries cuts into oil demand, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said yesterday. The adviser to 27 industrialized economies said in its monthly Oil Market Report that global oil consumption would now rise by 800,000 barrels per day (bpd) this year, 230,000 bpd less than its previous forecast. The head of the IEA’s oil industry and markets division, Lawrence Eagles, said this year’s demand growth will be the slowest since 2002. Oil prices pared losses after the IEA’s report. US crude was down US$0.25 at US$134.10 a barrel by 8:20am GMT, off lows of US$133.41.
■ SEAFOOD
Malaysia faced with EU ban
The EU may ban seafood imports from Malaysia over health concerns, officials and a report said yesterday. The possible suspension follows a visit in April by EU health inspectors to Malaysia’s seafood processing companies and their facilities after earlier warning of shortcomings in the industry, said Geert Anckaert, a senior official at the European Commission office here. EU officials had in 2005 discovered shortfalls in the safety of Malaysian seafood exports but subsequently launched a program to help educate local officials about EU health regulations, he said. The Star daily, citing an EU draft on the matter, said two-thirds of Malaysian vessels and establishments visited didn’t comply with EU regulations on imports.
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