■AUTOMOBILES
Toyota defends fixed cars
Embattled Toyota said yesterday it had found no evidence of failure in vehicles it had fixed for accelerator problems after some 60 post-recall complaints were sent to US authorities. US regulators said on Wednesday they were looking into complaints from Toyota drivers who say they experienced sudden spikes in speed in vehicles that had been repaired under the auto giant’s recall. However, Toyota said it took the reports “extremely seriously,” but had found no evidence that the problem was persisting. The company said it “moved quickly to evaluate the vehicles and interview the owners,” adding that the reports “involve a tiny fraction of the more than 1 million vehicles dealers have repaired to date.” With US authorities “now reviewing the results of our evaluations, it is inappropriate for Toyota to provide specific information about the company’s conclusions,” a statement by Toyota Motor Sales USA said.
■ENERGY
Oil market oversupplied
The global oil market is oversupplied and OPEC will not change production quotas when its members next meet in Vienna on March 17, the head of Libya’s National Oil Company said yesterday. “There is an excess of supply in the market,” Shukri Ghanem said. “We do not foresee a change in OPEC [production] quotas.” Ghanem said that “before considering an increase or a cut in production, [existing] quotas should be respected.” At its last meeting in Angola on Dec. 22, OPEC left its total production unchanged at 24.84 million barrels a day. Earlier yesterday, in Asian trade, oil prices bounced back on bargain buying, recovering from earlier falls ahead of a key US government jobs report, analysts said.
■INTERNET
Skype hires new CFO
Skype Technologies SA, the Internet-telephone service, hired Agilent Technologies Inc executive Adrian Dillon as its chief financial officer (CFO), bolstering the newly independent company’s management ranks. Dillon, 56, will leave his current post on April 1, Santa Clara, California-based Agilent said yesterday in a statement. Luxembourg-based Skype expects him to begin work there in early April. Skype was reborn as a stand-alone company in November, when eBay Inc sold it for about US$2 billion to an investor group led by Silver Lake. Skype allows users to place calls and videoconferences over the Internet, often for free. Dillon, who was at Agilent for more than nine years, will replace Laura Shesgreen as Skype’s head of finance and administration.
■FINANCE
Head turns to microfinance
Morgan Stanley’s former country head for India, Narayan Ramachandran, was named a director at Janalakshmi Financial Services, a microfinance company that aims to extend financial services to the nation’s urban poor. Ramachandran will also buy a minority stake in the microfinance company in its next round of fund-raising, Janalakshmi said in a statement yesterday. He remains a senior adviser to Morgan Stanley’s Indian operations after deciding to step down as managing director in January. The former banker plans to work with non-governmental organizations in the South Asian nation and seek to influence public policy to ensure financial services are made available to more people, he said in January. Only 30,000 of the 600,000 towns and villages in the country have access to banking services, the central bank has 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