■ENERGY
EDF to replace chair
French Prime Minister Francois Fillon confirmed in an interview to be published yesterday that Pierre Gadonneix will be replaced as chairman of energy giant EDF, but he did not name his successor. “We have deemed it necessary to renew the company’s management, though I must pay homage to Pierre Gadonneix, who accompanied EDF’s smooth and successful transformation,” Fillon told the Journal du Dimanche newspaper. “We have defined the ideal profile” and the choice would not be a political one, he said. French financial daily Les Echos has reported that Veolia Environment president Henri Proglio will take over as EDF chairman. The French state owns 85 percent of EDF, which operates France’s 58 nuclear reactors, the world’s biggest network of atomic power plants.
■FINANCE
Creditors pursue Lehman
Belgian creditors of failed Wall Street investment bank Lehman Brothers have demanded some US$700 million from its administrator, local news media reported on Saturday. The five largest Lehman creditors in Belgium are Dexia bank at US$354.2 million, ING Belgium at US$125.2 million, Fortis at US$99.5 million, KBC at US$81.1 million and Axa Belgium at US$23.3 million, the Echo and De Tijd newspapers said. Others include energy firm Electrabel and financial cooperative Swift, as well as religious congregations and charitable organizations. The deadline for claims set by the US bankruptcy court was Sept. 22, more than a year after the shock failure of Lehman Brothers.
■TELECOMS
S Korea adjusts mobile fees
South Korea’s telecoms watchdog yesterday unveiled new guidelines on mobile phone fees following mounting complaints over high charges. When the guidelines take effect in November, fees for each household are likely to be cut by up to 8 percent, the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) said. Under the new rules, mobile operators will stop billing for ten-second chunks of time, a controversial system under which any extra second is rounded off to 10 seconds, and start charging per second. KCC also told the country’s mobile carriers to lower rates for long-term users and to cut fees for data services for Internet users.
■CHINA
Oil, steel profits fall
Profits at China’s oil producers, steel makers and other major industrial companies fell 10.6 percent in the first eight months of the year from the same period a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said yesterday. Total profits for the biggest Chinese industrial companies — those with annual revenues above 5 million yuan (US$732,000) — were 1.67 trillion yuan (US$245 billion) from January to last month, data showed. Hardest hit were the iron and steel sector, where profits declined by 71.7 percent, and the petroleum and natural gas industries, which suffered a 68.5 percent drop in profits. Profits in the power generation sector, however, increased by 194 percent. The report did not say why.
■EUROPE
ECB supports dollar
European Central Bank (ECB) President Jean-Claude Trichet said a strong US dollar is “very, very important for the stability of the global economy,” Corriere della Sera reported, citing an interview with the executive. The ECB is doing all it can to “ensure the stability of prices in the medium and long term,” Trichet was cited as saying by the daily.
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
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
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
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