■ Oil
Chinese imports soar
China's imports of crude oil in the first seven months rose nearly 40 percent from a year ago as the economy expanded at close to double-digit levels, state press reported yesterday.
In the seven months to
last month crude imports rose an annualized 39.5 percent to 70.63 million tonnes, the official Xinhua news agency reported, citing figures from the General Administration
of Customs. Crude oil imports rose 39.3 percent year-on-year to 61.02
million tonnes in the first six months, it said. The world's second largest oil consumer after the US has seen oil imports soar as flagging domestic produc-tion has failed to keep up with booming economic growth and demand for gasoline in the auto market. Although domestic crude oil output has been rising slowly this year,
with out-put last month
up 4.4 percent year-on-year, oil reserves are dwindling, the report said. China imported 91 million tonnes of crude oil last year, a
31.3 percent increase over 2002.
■ Telecoms
S Korea to cut phone rates
South Korea will lower phone rates to counter a faster-than-expected rise
in consumer prices. Shares of KT Freetel Co and other telecommunications com-panies fell. The government will lower the basic phone calling rate by 7.8 percent, Suh Gab-won, a ruling party lawmaker in charge of telecommunications policy, told reporters at the National Assembly after a meeting between law-makers and the government. Consumer prices rose 0.6 percent last month from June, or double analysts' expectations. SK Telecom Co, the nation's biggest mobile-phone operator, reported a 46 percent decline in second-quarter profit, its first drop in year-on-year net income since 2002. KT Freetel, for the three months ended June 30, reported its eighth consecutive drop in quarterly profit and LG Telecom reported a second straight quarterly loss.
■ Employment
IBM almost doubles hires
IBM said on Thursday it
had nearly doubled hiring plans for this year to
18,800 new workers as
it expands business ser-vices. "We are going to
hire 18,800. We originally forecast 10,000," said IBM spokesman Clint Roswell. So far this year the giant
had already hired more than 10,000 people, he said.
Two-thirds of the hires
were related to the informa-tion services and business consultancy. Much of the growth was based on opera-tions related to the Linux-based operating system software, whose core source code is freely available instead of being guarded as a corporate secret. IBM had 319,280 staff at the end of last year.
■ Real Estate
Tokyo office vacancies rise
Office vacancies in Tokyo rose last month as some tenants gave notice of moves to newer buildings, increasing the space available for rent in older structures, according to Miki Shoji Co, a privately held property-research company. The vacancy rate for office space rose to
7.42 percent last month from 7.22 percent in June
in Tokyo's five main busi-ness districts of Chiyoda, Chuo, Minato, Shinjuku
and Shibuya, Miki Shoji
said in a report released
on its Web site. Economic growth is helping com-panies expand their busi-ness, prompting moves into larger offices, Miki Shoji said.
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
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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