■Clothing
Gap's profits triple
Gap Inc, the largest US clothing chain, said second-quarter profit more than tripled, led by a rebound in sales at the retailer's Old Navy and Gap stores. Net income surged to US$209.3 million, or US$0.22 a share, from US$56.8 million a year earlier, the San Francisco-based company said in a statement. Revenue in the three months ended Aug. 2 rose 13 percent to US$3.69 billion. Gap is selling more clothes at full price since its return to basic styles, such as jeans and casual button-down shirts, after fashion misfires. Old Navy, which featured actress Morgan Fairchild in television commercials with a "Love Boat" theme, lead the company's rebound with an 11 percent increase in same-store sales. During the last week of the quarter the Gap brand began running commercials featuring singers Madonna and Missy Elliot wearing corduroy jeans.
■ Brokerage firms
Salomon fined US$1 million
Citigroup Inc's Salomon Smith Barney brokerage unit was fined US$1 million by the New York Stock Exchange and one of its managers censured over supervisory issues concerning WorldCom Inc, the Wall Street Journal reported, without saying where it obtained the information. The penalties, which haven't been formally announced, were imposed for poor supervision of brokers advising WorldCom employees, who often borrowed large sums of money to cover taxes on their stock holdings, now almost worthless, the paper said. In the 1990s, Salomon Smith Barney and other brokerage firms targeted employees of big companies who had the chance to buy stock, the Journal said.
■ Finance
Asia learning to outsource
Finance and accounting jobs in developed countries could face increased pressure as more companies get ready to outsource these functions, with the Asia-Pacific region fast catching on to the trend, a study said yesterday. Seventy percent of respondents to an Accenture and Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) poll expect finance outsourcing to become more prevalent in the next three years. Senior executives from 236 companies globally, including 60 in the Asia-Pacific were queried. The results, published in The Business Times, found 30 percent already outsourcing these functions and 85 percent of them are happy with the results. Only 7 percent said outsourcing has not been successful.
■ Macroeconomics
S Korea's GDP grows 1.9%
South Korea's economy grew just 1.9 percent in the second quarter, the lowest level in nearly five years, the central Bank of Korea reported on yesterday. The increase in the country's GDP from April through June was the lowest since late 1998, when South Korea slipped into recession as a result of the Asian financial crisis. The Bank of Korea reported 3.7 percent growth in the first quarter of the year. Bank officials attributed the drop to weak investment in businesses and poor consumption triggered by widespread consumer debt. They also cited sluggish exports related to a downturn in the world economy, as well as problems stemming from the SARS outbreak in Asia. Last April, bank officials revised downward their overall economic growth forecast for this year from 5.7 percent to 4.1 percent, while predicting a light recovery of the whole economy.
Agencies
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