■US ECONOMY
‘Gradual’ improvements
The US economy is “gradually” improving after the financial crisis, US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said in an interview on NBC News’ Meet the Press program, to have been broadcast yesterday. “I talked to businesses across the country, and I would say that is the general view, an economy that’s gradually getting better,” Geithner said in excerpts of the interview released in advance of its broadcast. Geithner also downplayed the prospects of a “double-dip” recession, in which the economy sinks again after a short period of growth. He said that given the specific drivers of the recent recession, including the US housing bubble, “what you would expect is a more moderate paced recovery ... and that’s what we’re seeing.”
■AUTOMAKERS
Profits slip at India’s Maruti
India’s biggest carmaker, Maruti Suzuki, reported on Saturday quarterly net profit fell by a surprise 20 percent as the company was pummeled by a surge in raw material costs. Maruti, majority-owned by Japan’s Suzuki Motor Corp, said net profit during the fiscal first quarter slid to 4.65 billion rupees (US$99 million) from Rs5.84 billion a year earlier, despite a 27 percent leap in sales. “The drop in net profit is due to higher commodity prices” along with other factors, such as a fall in earnings from European exports due to a weaker euro, the company said in a statement. Maruti’s net sales jumped to Rs80.51 billion from Rs63.40 billion while unit sales grew by 25 percent to 283,324.
■PETROLEUM
Ecuador to tighten control
Ecuador will enact a law today aimed at increasing state control over the country’s oil sector, and that could set the stage for nationalization of noncomplying companies, Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa said. The law will govern new contracts the government is preparing, aimed at increasing state oil revenues. Thursday last week, Ecuador ended French oil company Perenco’s contract for two petroleum blocks and one field, and said state-run Petroamazonas would take over operating the areas.
■PHARMACEUTICALS
Aricept dose to increase
Drug makers Eisai Inc and Pfizer Inc said on Saturday that US government regulators have given them permission to make a larger dose of its Alzheimer’s disease drug Aricept for patients who have already been taking the smaller dose. Aricept is the version of the drug donepezil, and is co-marketed by Eisai, of Japan, and Pfizer. Last year its revenue for Pfizer was US$432 million, with another US$3.3 billion for Eisai, making it the largest seller out of four drugs that can temporarily reduce Alzheimer’s symptoms. The companies said the higher dose improved scores on a patient test that measures cognition. There was no difference on a different test that measures global function.
■BANKING
US drops new UBS probe
The US, which targeted Swiss bank giant UBS in a damaging tax fraud probe last year, is not planning to carry out new tax investigations against Swiss banks, the US Ambassador to Switzerland Donald Beyer said.
Asked whether he envisaged new probes after the Swiss parliament ratified a Swiss-US deal last month that put an end to the UBS tax saga, Beyer told Swiss newspaper Le Temps on Saturday he was not aware of any new probe. “To my knowledge no such thing is planned,” Beyer, who became the top US diplomat in Berne last year, was quoted as saying by the Swiss paper.
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