■ OIL
OPEC to cut output: official
OPEC should order a “substantial” cut in oil output at this week’s emergency meeting in Vienna, Algerian Energy Minister and current OPEC chief Chakib Khelil said on Saturday. “There will be a reduction in production at the next extraordinary meeting of OPEC, and it will have to be a substantial one to get the balance right between supply and demand,” he told reporters. “If it has to be 1.5 million barrels per day, or 2 million barrels per day, that’s what it will be,” Khelil said, during a visit to the southern Algerian province of Tamanrasset. Khelil said that OPEC wanted to see oil prices “remain stable” throughout the first half of next year at “between US$70 and US$90.” Iran — OPEC’s second largest exporter — also called Saturday for a significant cut amid prospects of reduced demand in the face of the global economic slowdown, the state broadcaster reported.
■ ENTERTAINMENT
Media giant to cut spending
A trade paper reports that NBC Universal plans to cut US$500 million in spending next year to prepare for an expected continuation of the worldwide economic slowdown. Variety says president and CEO Jeff Zucker announced the cuts Friday in a staff memo. The reduction would equal 3 percent of the company’s budget. Variety says division heads will decide how to reduce their spending. But Zucker’s memo suggested several ways, including staffing reductions and cutbacks in budgets for travel, entertainment and promotions. Variety says the memo didn’t specifically mention any layoff plans. It’s unclear how many staffers might be affected by the spending drop. An NBC Universal spokesman didn’t return a call seeking comment on Saturday.
■ HEALTH
Aussie economy hit by injury
Chronic diseases such as back pain and arthritis are forcing many older Australians out of work and costing the economy US$10 billion a year, a study released yesterday said. Researchers used Australian Bureau of Statistics data to estimate that 663,235 people aged between 45 and 64 were missing from the labor market in 2003 because of ill health. The study, published in The Medical Journal of Australia, found the cost to GDP of the absent employees was some A$14.7 billion (US$10.1 billion) per year. “Back injuries, arthritis and mental health disorders accounted for approximately half the missing workers,” researcher Deborah Schofield said. She said as the government dealt with an ageing population, and encouraged older people to remain in the workforce, more attention needed to be paid to the health of workers in their 40s, 50s and 60s.
■ MANUFACTURING
Tata warns of capital flight
Tata group chief Ratan Tata, forced to relocate production of the world’s cheapest car from eastern India, has warned there could be a flight of capital and industry from the poverty-hit region. In an open letter to residents of communist-ruled West Bengal, Tata asked whether they wanted to build a prosperous state or “see the state consumed by the destructive political environment of confrontation, agitation, violence and lawlessness?” The tea-to-steel group earlier this month shifted production of the high-profile Nano car to the business-friendly western state of Gujarat, abandoning the original site in West Bengal. The Nano has attracted worldwide attention due to its planned price tag of just 100,000 rupees (US$2,100).
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