■ Tourism
Nomura wins resort bid
Nomura Holdings Inc's investment unit has won a bid to help rescue failed Huis Ten Bosch Co, the operator of a 17th century Dutch-style theme park in southwestern Japan, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported. Nomura Principal Finance Co beat Ripplewood Holdings LLC with an offer of about ¥30 billion (US$257 million), the paper said, without saying where it obtained the information. Nomura Principal will sign a contract with Huis Ten Bosch's business administrator as early as tomorrow. Nomura Principal plans to cut costs by reducing salaries of employees at the resort located in Sasebo, Nagasaki Prefecture, and to achieve profit by targeting about 1.5 million visitors, the paper said. Huis Ten Bosch had about 2.79 million visitors in the year ended March 31. There is no plan to cut jobs.
■ Privatization
China to tweak sale rules
China will create a framework with which to regulate sales of state assets to improve transparency, the South China Morning Post said, citing government officials. Officials at the State Assets Management Commission, which was set up to oversee state enterprises, were alarmed by some local governments which sold off state assets below market value, the newspaper said. Research was being done to determine rules for the national market, Zhang Delin, head of the commission's regulation bureau, was quoted as saying. Zhang didn't comment on the nature of the rules and when they will be implemented.
■ Counterfeiting
China copies hotel
The talents of Chinese counterfeiters are renowned but even their latest effort has stunned their Hong Kong neighbors -- an exact replica of the venerated Peninsula hotel. Owned by the Chinese state power firm behind the Three Gorges Dam project, the four-star Peninsular hotel in Hubei Province, bears a striking resemblance to the real Peninsula hotel, with the same beige coloring, British colonial-style elegance and circular crest. The only notable difference from the outside between the 154-room fake luxury hotel and the original is the name -- "Peninsular Hotel," instead of "The Peninsula," the Sunday Morning Post reported. Hong Kong-based Peninsula Group has threatened legal action to put a stop to what the group's company lawyer Christobelle Liao described as "a blatant infringement" of the hotel chain's trademark rights.
■ Shipping
Firm buys port stake
Singapore's Ports and Services Authority has agreed to sell a stake in one of its terminals to a Chinese shipping company, a newspaper reported yesterday. The deal between the Ports and Services Authority, or PSA, and Cosco Pacific was signed in Hainan island on Saturday, The Straits Times reported. Under the agreement, Cosco would control two berths -- which can handle up to 2 million containers a year -- at PSA's Pasir Panjang terminal by 2008. Cosco would then take a 49-percent stake in Pasir Panjang. Cosco Pacific is the investment arm of China's largest shipping operator -- China Ocean Shipping Group Co. Singapore's status as Southeast Asia's premier port operator has been coming under threat since Malaysia opened its Tanjung Pelepas facility in 2000. Two of Singapore's biggest customers -- Danish company Maersk Sealand and Taiwan's Evergreen (長榮) now use Tanjung Pelepas.
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