■ Petroleum
Insurgents attack oil depot
Insurgents attacked pipelines and a petrol storage depot in three different parts of Iraq, setting fires that blazed for hours and lost millions of liters of oil, officials and media reported yesterday as the country confronts a critical fuel shortage. Rebels firing RPG rockets hit storage tanks in southern Baghdad on Saturday, creating fires that burned about 10 million liters of gasoline, said Issam Jihad, a spokesman for the Oil Ministry. He said Iraqi police were investigating the attack. Also Saturday, a pipeline exploded in the al-Mashahda area 25km north of Baghdad, in what Jihad called "an act of sabotage." "The explosion led to the destruction of [part of] the pipeline and to the leakage of vast quantities of oil products," Jihad said. He said he had no immediate information about another reported attack on oil pipelines in northern Iraq.
■ Automobiles
Ssangyong deal endorsed
Creditors of Ssangyong Motors have endorsed a Chinese firm as preferred bidder to take over the South Korean corporation, which specializes in sports utility and recreational vehicles, reports said Sunday. In a vote last week, 90 percent of the creditors confirmed China National Bluestar Group as a favored bidder for Ssangyong, Yonhap news agency said. Chohung Bank, a key creditor, will hold a ceremony Monday to sign a memorandum of understanding allowing Bluestar to launch a three-week due diligence study on Ssangyong, it said. The vote was not affected by news reports that Shanghai Automotive Industry was the only Chinese firm cleared for the deal, Yonhap said. Bluestar has denied it lacks Beijing's approval for the deal.
■ Public Relations
Banks, insurers top hate list
Banks and insurance companies top a consumer hate list for the first time, the Consumers Association of Singapore (CASE) reported yesterday. They were the target of 1,915 complaints between January and last month, edging out timeshare companies, which received 1,228 blasts and motor vehicle shops with 1,027. Renovation companies were the recipients of 963 complaints and 710 were aimed at electrical and electronics shops, according to the list in The Sunday Times. Complaints about banks and insurance companies started mounting about three years ago and peaked this year, said CASE. "Banks are becoming more aggressive," CASE executive director Seah Seng Choon was quoted as saying.
THREATS: Naval facilities have been built in Shanghai and Zhejiang, while airbases have been expanded in Xiamen, Fuzhou and Zhangpu, across the Strait from Taiwan The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is building large-scale military infrastructure at five sites along the eastern coast of China, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said in a recent report. The latest issue of the council’s Mainland China Situation Quarterly said satellite photos showed military infrastructure such as air force and naval bases being constructed along the eastern coast of China. That means the CCP might be preparing for potential conflict in Taiwan, it said, adding that there are five such construction sites from north to south. A naval base has been built in Shanghai’s Pudong New Area, with underground oil storage tanks, railway
MILESTONE: The foreign minister called the signing ‘a major step forward in US-Taiwan relations,’ while the Presidential Office said it was a symbol of the nations’ shared values US President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed into law the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, which requires the US Department of State to regularly review and update guidelines governing official US interactions with Taiwan. The new law is an amendment to the Taiwan Assurance Act of 2020 focused on reviewing guidelines on US interactions with Taiwan. Previously, the state department was required to conduct a one-time review of its guidance governing relations with Taiwan, but under the new bill, the agency must conduct a review “not less than every five years.” It must then submit an updated report based on its findings “not later
GIVE BACK: The president thanked immigrants, recounting heartwarming stories, from a gymnast helping athletes shine internationally to a spouse helping the disadvantaged There is no need to amend the law to exempt Chinese spouses from single allegiance to the Republic of China (ROC), President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, adding that such changes would only increase the public’s doubts toward new residents from China and would not improve social harmony. Taiwan is a democratic, diverse and free country, he said. “No matter which ethnic group you belong to, where you come from or when you arrive, as long as you identify with Taiwan, you are masters of this country,” he said. Taiwan is a democratic nation that follows the rule of law, where immigrants are
A trial run of the north concourse of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport’s new Terminal 3 is to commence today, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday. The eight additional boarding gates would allow for more aircraft parking spaces that are expected to boost the airport’s capacity by 5.8 million passengers annually, Deputy Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Kuo-shian (林國顯) said. The concourse, designed by a team led by British architect Richard Rogers, provides a refreshing space, Lin said, adding that travelers would enjoy the tall and transparent design that allows sunshine to stream into the concourse through glass curtain walls. The
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