■OIL
Prices drop in Asian trade
Oil prices fell in Asian trade yesterday on demand concerns after the US economy performed below expectations in the fourth quarter, dealers said. New York’s main futures contract, light sweet crude for delivery next month fell US$0.8 to US$43.96 a barrel. Brent North Sea crude for next month shed US$0.75 to US$45.6 per barrel. “The momentum of economic data is looking down ... the GDP numbers brought the reality that the [US] economy is weak,” said Tony Nunan, assistant general manager of the risk management office at Mitsubishi Corp in Tokyo. Oil prices had surged last week in reaction to rising US gasoline stocks and indications of output cuts by OPEC members.
■ENERGY
RIL merging subsidiary
India’s largest private sector firm, Reliance Industries (RIL), said yesterday it would buy out its subsidiary, Reliance Petroleum, and create a crude refining giant in the country’s biggest-ever merger. The share-swap merger will create the world’s sixth-biggest refiner and signal “a significant step in our goal to be among the world’s largest global corporations,” RIL chairman Mukesh Ambani said. The merger will create a refining behemoth, giving RIL total crude refining capacity of 1.24 million barrels of crude a day. It will have the largest single refining capacity at any single location in the world at its complex in Jamnagar in western India. Under the merger, Reliance Petroleum shareholders will receive one RIL share for every 16 Reliance Petroleum shares.
■MEDIA
Fairfax raises US$318m
Fairfax Media Ltd, Australia’s second-largest newspaper owner, has raised A$500 million (US$318 million) by selling stock to institutional shareholders to cut debt. The company, which owns the Australian Financial Review and the Sydney Morning Herald, is seeking to raise more through an offer to retail shareholders that opens tomorrow, Fairfax said in a statement yesterday. The proceeds from the retail offer won’t be known until early next month, it said.
■TELECOMS
Telkom gets refinancing
PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom), the nation’s biggest telephone company, agreed to borrow about 5 trillion rupiah (US$417 million) from a group of banks to repay maturing debt and to fund expansion. PT Bank Rakyat Indonesia and PT Bank Negara Indonesia are among the lenders, Telkom president and director Rinaldi Firmansyah said in an interview Jakarta yesterday, declining to be more specific. Telkom will use 3 trillion rupiah in loans from 15 banks to fund acquisitions, including an Iranian telecommunications company, Bisnis Indonesia reported yesterday, citing Finance Director Sudiro Asno.
■AUTOMOBILES
Japanese car sales dip
Sales of new cars in Japan plunged last month, industry figures showed yesterday, underlining the sector’s deepening woes as the economic downturn causes a slump in consumer spending. The decline, for a seventh straight month, comes as Asia’s biggest economy endures its worst recession in decades. Vehicle sales dropped 32.4 percent last month from a year earlier to 218,212 vehicles, the Japan Automobile Dealers Association reported. Sales of mini-vehicles dropped 9.8 percent to 162,370 vehicles, a separate association 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