■ SOUTH KOREA
US beef imports jump
Just three months after going back on sale despite massive protests, US beef imports last month accounted for nearly half of the total value of the meat brought in, a report said yesterday. The Agro-Fisheries Trade Corporation statistics, issued by Yonhap news agency, said South Korea imported US$43.98 million of US beef, 43 percent of the total value of beef imports last month. In terms of tonnage, US beef accounted for 35 percent of the total last month, with 7,030 tonnes shipped to South Korea, the figures said. The country was once the world’s third-largest market for US beef, with imported US$850 million of it per year until imports were suspended in 2003 after a US case of mad cow disease.
■ AUTOMOBILES
Daimler suspends production
German carmaker Daimler, hit by falling demand amid the global financial crisis, plans to suspend production for a month beginning in December, a newspaper said in report to be published yesterday. The break in production would begin on Dec. 11 and last until Jan. 12, Frankfurter Sonntagszeitung reported, citing a company spokesman. Daimler, the first luxury car maker to present its quarterly results, unveiled big drops in profits on Thursday and issued a new profit warning owing to the global banking crisis. “The financial crisis is turning into an economic crisis,” Daimler chairman Dieter Zetsche told a telephone news conference. It provoked “in recent weeks a dramatic slump on our major markets,” he said. “The situation is very challenging,” Zetsche said. “We are living in extraordinary times.”
■ TELECOMS
Saudi Telecom profit drops
Saudi Telecom Co, the kingdom’s largest telecommunications company, said third quarter profit fell 4.1 percent on expansion costs. Net income declined to 3.01 billion riyals (US$804 million) from 3.14 billion riyals a year earlier, the company said in a statement to the Saudi bourse yesterday. Nine-month earnings per share rose to 4.94 riyals from 4.48 riyals. Saudi Telecom will pay a dividend of 2 billion riyals, or 1 riyal a share, for the third-quarter, the company said.
■ FINANCE
Kuwait to guarantee deposits
The Kuwaiti government will move urgently to guarantee deposits in local banks in a bid to strengthen confidence in the financial system, the central bank said yesterday. “The government will urgently submit a draft law [to parliament] to guarantee deposits in local banks,” said a statement by the central bank posted on the Kuwait Stock Exchange Web site.
■ TEXTILES
China exports ‘stable’
China will keep textile exports “stable and sustainable” next year as it ends controls on shipments to the US and Europe, and WTO restrictions end. The Ministry of Commerce will maintain “dialogue and communication” with relevant countries as limits imposed on China’s textile exports by the WTO expire on Dec. 31, the ministry said in a statement published on its Web site. China aims to boost next year’s textile exports while avoiding any unwanted expansion of output after the restrictions end. The nation wants to minimize trade friction next year as textile agreements signed with the US and Europe also run out next year. “Local ministry of commerce offices should continue to do their job in helping enterprises to change growth models and adjust product structures,” the ministry said.
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