■CRIME
Madoff will not appeal
Disgraced Wall Street financier Bernard Madoff, convicted of running the biggest financial fraud in US history, has decided not to appeal his 150-year prison sentence, his lawyer said on Thursday. “We decided not to file an appeal,” said Madoff’s lawyer, Ira Sorkin. Legal experts had said an appeal would have been unlikely to achieve a reduction in Madoff’s sentence, which effectively means the 71-year-old will spend his last days in prison.
■CHINA
Exports drop 21.4%
Chinese exports dropped 21.4 percent year-on-year last month, state media reported yesterday, narrowing from May’s fall of 26.4 percent. The latest plunge was the eighth straight monthly decline, underlining how China’s crucial export sector has been hit by a fall in demand from the US and Europe during the global economic crisis. Imports tumbled 13.2 percent year-on-year last month, Xinhua reported citing customs figures. For the first six months of the year, the trade surplus was US$96.9 billion, down 1.3 percent compared to the same period last year, Xinhua said.
■JAPAN
Wholesale prices plummet
Japanese wholesale prices fell at the fastest pace yet last month, data showed yesterday, deepening concern that renewed deflation could hinder a recovery in the world’s No. 2 economy. The prices of goods traded between companies dropped by 6.6 percent last month from a year earlier, the Bank of Japan said, the steepest decline since records began in 1960. It was the sixth straight year-on-year fall, following a revised 5.5 percent drop in May, with lower commodity prices seen as the main cause.
■INVESTMENT
Derivatives caused turmoil
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is telling lawmakers the US economy stumbled last year in part because the power and risks of an explosive derivatives market blindsided the government. In congressional testimony prepared for delivery yesterday, Geithner said the ease with which derivatives were bought and sold in an era of easy credit encouraged financial institutions and investors to take on too much risk. At the same time, government regulators weren’t given the proper tools to mitigate those risks and protect the US consumer, he said.
■MINING
John Parker heads Anglo
Mining group Anglo American Plc, which has rebuffed a merger approach from rival Xstrata Plc, has appointed veteran industrialist John Parker as chairman. Anglo, which owns the world’s biggest platinum producer, said yesterday Parker would join the board immediately and take up the post held by retiring Mark Moody-Stuarton on Aug. 1. Parker is chairman of National Grid Plc and also co-chairman of paper and packaging group Mondi.
■FINANCE
Citi shuffles management
Citigroup Inc shuffled its top management again on Thursday, naming its third chief financial officer of the year and bringing in a new head of its Citibank division as it returns its focus to traditional banking. Edward Kelly, who took over as the bank’s finance chief in March, is on the move for the second time in less than five months and will now oversee strategy and mergers in a new role as vice chairman. John Gerspach, 56, currently the bank’s chief accounting officer, is taking over as CFO.
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