■CHINA
Top executive investigated
The vice chairman and executive director of telecoms giant China Mobile (中國移動), Zhang Chunjiang (張春江), is under investigation for breaching party discipline, state media reported on Saturday. Zhang, who is also secretary of China Mobile’s Chinese Communist Party committee, was “suspected of a serious breach of party discipline,” Xinhua news agency reported, quoting an anonymous member of the party’s disciplinary committee. Xinhua’s report gave no further details, but “serious breaches of party discipline” usually refers to cases of corruption. A spokeswoman for Hong Kong-listed China Mobile was quoted by Dow Jones Newswires as confirming that an investigation was under way regarding Zhang “for alleged breach of contract relating to personal reasons.”
■ECONOMY
Trichet targets EU deficits
European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said budget deficits in the euro region need to be pared back by 2011 at the latest. Some countries may have to do it as early as next year, he said today in a commentary for the German Sunday tabloid Bild am Sonntag. He said that recovery from the financial crisis required concerted effort to offset joblessness. “Banks must perform their central role in the supply of credit to the economy … Handling the consequences of the crisis for the labor market and public finances represents an additional challenge.” “Budget deficits in the euro area must be reduced by 2011 at the latest — in some countries as early as 2010 — in order to maintain confidence in public finances,” he said.
■ENERGY
Baku doubles Russia supply
Azerbaijan will double gas supplies to Russia next year to 1 billion cubic meters, the resource-rich Caucasus republic’s energy firm SOCAR said on Saturday. “In 2010 we will supply one billion cubic meters of gas to Russia,” SOCAR president Rovnag Abdullayev told journalists in Baku. In October SOCAR and Russia’s gas giant Gazprom signed a contract to begin the pumping of 500 million cubic meters of gas annually to Russia as Moscow seeks to extend its grip on potential European energy supplies in the hydrocarbons-rich Caspian Sea. Under the contract, Gazprom’s purchases of Azerbaijani gas will start on Friday. The price for the gas will be agreed quarterly, based on global market rates.
■IRELAND
Lenihan to stay at his job
Finance Minister Brian Lenihan intends to continue working while he receives cancer treatment, the Sunday Times said, without citing anyone. The newspaper also said he may be forced to step down. Lenihan has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, Dublin-based broadcaster TV3 reported on Saturday, without citing anyone. The finance ministry said Lenihan is “well and enjoying Christmas with his family,” a statement said.
■COSMETICS
Yves Rocher dies at 79
Yves Rocher, who founded the beauty products group named after him five decades ago, has died at the age of 79, the Paris hospital authority said on Saturday. Rocher, originally from Brittany, founded the company in 1959 and nurtured it into a firm with annual sales of over 2 billion euros (US$2.9 billion), nearly three times that of L’Oreal’s Body Shop, and a presence in over 80 countries. Aside from his company role, Rocher was also mayor of Gacilly in Brittany and holds the rare distinction of the Legion d’Honneur.
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