■ Credit
LG Card bailout on hold
A rescue package for troubled LG Card, South Korea's biggest card issuer, was on hold yesterday amid wrangling over who should foot the US$4 billion bill, bank officials said. The dispute focused on demands that state-run Korea Development Bank (KDB) shoulder more of the burden in bailing out LG Card, the ailing card unit of South Korea's second largest conglomerate, LG Group. The state institution agreed last week to lead a consortium comprising itself and three other banks to put LG Card under joint management, with KDB holding a 19 percent stake in the company. But Kookmin Bank, the country's largest lender, rejected the offer insisting KDB should hold a much higher stake to effectively nationalize LG Card.
■ Speculation
Japan to tighten rules
Japan plans to tighten laws to regulate mushrooming highly speculative funds which deal in commodities such as the popularity of pinup girls and real estate prices, a newspaper report said yesterday. The Financial Service Agency would soon draft the Investment Service Law to replace the current Securities Exchange Law and expand the legal protection of consumers to a wider range of financial products and commodities futures, the Tokyo Shimbun said. A spokesman at the government watchdog declined to confirm the report. The move is aimed at protecting investors at a time when various types of investment funds are rampant in Japan and have raised consumer complaints they are not receiving adequate warning against big losses from companies selling high-risk funds, the daily said.
■ Chipmakers
Chartered to boost output
Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Ltd, Sing-apore's biggest chipmaker, said it will increase output of chips for smart cards and power-management devices for Shanghai Fudan Micro-electronics Co. The companies will also work on making chips for radio-frequency identification chips, which can be used for inventory management, a joint statement said. Financial details weren't disclosed. Chartered Semiconductor, which has been unprofitable for three years, has been working on gaining new customers and more orders from existing clients to boost output. The company last week said it won an order to make chips for Chinese phone-equipment maker ZTE Corp.
■ Electronics
Gateway cuts sales estimate
Gateway Inc cut its estimate for fourth-quarter revenue, citing tight supplies of certain products and competitive pricing for personal computers. The company also said Monday that its loss, excluding restructuring charges, would be "at the low end" of its October estimate of between US$0.09 and US$0.15 a share. Gateway said it expected revenue of about US$880 million for three months ended Dec. 31, down from its October estimate of between US$925 million and US$975 million. In the same period of 2002, Gateway posted revenue of US$1.06 billion. The fourth quarter is a key test of whether Gateway's gamble to remake itself from a traditional PC maker into a seller of broad array of consumer electronics that competes against the likes of Sony and Panasonic. Last year, it expanded its line of digital televisions to 12 models and introduced digital cameras and digital music players.
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